April 29th, 2009 / 11:36 am
Presses

Spoils of the Chapbook Fair

Regular readers remember that last week I blogged about the CUNY Chapbook Fair, and how I was going to be there promoting the Agriculture Reader / X-ing Books, and generally seeing what there was to be seen. Well, I saw it, and even brought some of it home.

I think my favorite things of all were two chapbooks that I traded for, both written and made by Elsbeth Pancrazi, who was working at the Small Anchor table because Jen Hyde is still in China.  These weren’t SA books though, they were the work of Elsbeth’s own hand, and she traded me two practically greeting-card-sized pieces of wonder for one of my own poetry chapbooks. (I actually know Elsbeth a little bit, because we work together on the PEN/America editorial board, but I had not idea she was involved in the world of micro-presses, chapbooks, et al.)

The first book, “stars and thumbs,” is two series of prose blocks, printed in white on black. The book reads in both directions. “Stars” is illustrated with images borrowed from a book by the amateur astronomer, Ian Ridpath, and “Thumbs” is illustrated with photopies of the author’s own hands. I found one piece from “Stars and Thumbs” online here, but sadly there’s no illustration. I guess if you’re intrigued you’ll have to buy/find/trade for the real thing. As if that wasn’t enough, Elsbeth also gave me “poem about the city resembling an anthill,” which is smaller than your average postcard, but has a pint-size postcard of Oregon’s Mt. Hood attached to its front cover. The whole thing is a masterful piece of design, and the single poem contained within it isn’t exactly a sharp stick in the eye either. Here’s a link to one of Elsbeth’s other ongoing projects, “The Autobiography of Flapjack Sally,” and here’s another picture of the anthill book unfurled-

For more chapbook goodness, click through-

Ugly Duckling Presse (Brooklyn)- 6 x 6, issue 17 contains poems by James Copeland, Lucy Ives, Megan Kaminski, Mary Millsap, Zachary Schomburg & Mathias Svalina in collaboration, and Kevin Varrone.

Here’s a stray line from Mary Millsap- “Life means submitting to life, but a soldier is less an individual than a fragment of time.”

NewLights Press (Oakland / Baltimore) – “The New Manifesto of the NewLights Press, Now Newly Manifested,” AND “Lucky, Or, The Unstoppable Epic Poem of & In Spectacular Culture (difference & repetition mix).” These guys had some of the baddest-ass-looking books at the whole fair, and since their orientation seems to be heavy critical theory / philosophy, I guess that makes them academic vixens–the kind of girl you want to stay up ALL NIGHT drinking coffee and reading Derrida with. From the Manifesto: “The repetitive structure of the book, of its reading, undermines its own progression, nullifying and occupying time at the same time. The active dismantling of narrativity, the exposure and subversion of its workings, is one of the most effective ways to break open the book.” Of course, that assumes that “breaking open the book” is a goal of yours–or theirs, in this case, which I guess it must be or why would they be talking about how to do it? The other thing, “Lucky,” is a collaboration between NewLights and Britney Spears. DJs Melissa McGurgan and Aaron Cohick of NewLights took Spears’ song “Lucky” and looped it to fill an entire CD. It’s like meditative chanting in the 9th circle of hell, or the soundtrack at Guantanamo. Good work, guys!

Book Thug (Toronto) – These guys were sitting on the side of me that NewLights wasn’t on. They had a whole brigade of student volunteers working at their table–I couldn’t quite figure out they pulled that off–and were selling dozens of books. I found it frustrating that the actual BookThug guy wasn’t there, because the students didn’t feel authorized to barter with me, though one of them said she graduates college next week so I gave her a free Agriculture Reader. Anyway, I parted with ten of my own American dollars for a copy of “Us Them Poems” by Evan Kennedy, because I remembered very much enjoying his work when I encountered it in vehicular a while back. “Us Them Poems” is a collection of prose blocks. “We soothsayers walk the line the line in our minds and arrive in a town where a flood has receded. Our skin as cold as clay our bodies wrapped in linen.” And so on.

play

The Cupboard (Lincoln, Nebraska)The Cupboard is a quarterly pamphlet that publishes one writer per issue. The issues are small enough to be mailed in a greeting card envelope. And they are. The new issue, “Play,” is by Mathias Svalina. It is a collection of directions for children’s games. “Face Leaf (for 6 players): Each child begins his or her life as a tree. While they are still able to move, the children make a circle near the city hall building. The teachers water the children’s feet every day until they root into the dirt…”

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21 Comments

  1. Nathan Tyree

      Those are lovely

  2. Nathan Tyree

      Those are lovely

  3. Andrew Borgstrom

      Thanks to J. A. Tyler’s kindness and my perfect timing, Svalina’s Play arrived at my home this weekend. What a perfect little chap, both in content and construction. Highly recommended.

  4. Andrew Borgstrom

      Thanks to J. A. Tyler’s kindness and my perfect timing, Svalina’s Play arrived at my home this weekend. What a perfect little chap, both in content and construction. Highly recommended.

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  6. Ryan Call

      this looks excellent and fun. fun.

  7. Ryan Call

      this looks excellent and fun. fun.

  8. KC

      the chapbook fair rocked my world which was in need of rocking. i’m hoping CUNY will stage another in the next few years. think x-ing, UDP, BookThug, and NEWLIGHTS were the superstars. i wanted to eat the books. very bad instinct and one which i successfully repressed (at least till i got home).

  9. KC

      the chapbook fair rocked my world which was in need of rocking. i’m hoping CUNY will stage another in the next few years. think x-ing, UDP, BookThug, and NEWLIGHTS were the superstars. i wanted to eat the books. very bad instinct and one which i successfully repressed (at least till i got home).

  10. KC

      o, and cuneiform. also great.

  11. KC

      o, and cuneiform. also great.

  12. Kevin O'Neill

      This looks great. I need to start making use of the things I make and meeting amazing people like these ones you have met.

  13. Kevin O'Neill

      This looks great. I need to start making use of the things I make and meeting amazing people like these ones you have met.

  14. chris

      these all look fantastic
      people are doing really great work

      this weekend i will be heading to London for this
      http://www.londonzinesymposium.org.uk/
      it looks like it will be really interesting and people I have spoken to who have attended in previous years have said it is a lot of fun and there are great things to be found. i think if anyone reads this and is in the UK this weekend and is able of making it to East London, then they should probably attend.

  15. chris

      these all look fantastic
      people are doing really great work

      this weekend i will be heading to London for this
      http://www.londonzinesymposium.org.uk/
      it looks like it will be really interesting and people I have spoken to who have attended in previous years have said it is a lot of fun and there are great things to be found. i think if anyone reads this and is in the UK this weekend and is able of making it to East London, then they should probably attend.

  16. Kevin O'Neill

      I am in North London and will try though I wish I had time to actually make something before then.

  17. Kevin O'Neill

      I am in North London and will try though I wish I had time to actually make something before then.

  18. elsbeth

      Thanks for the kind words, friend!

  19. elsbeth

      Thanks for the kind words, friend!

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