Barbara Guest, Quill, Solitary APPARITION

As a contributor to the current issue of The New Quarterly (my short story, "Opening"), I was asked to submit a little write-up for their blog on "Who's Reading What." I did a short write-up on Barbara Guest's Quill, Solitary APPARITION (The Post-Apollo Press, 1986). You can read my little write-up (as well as posts by a variety of other contributors to the same issue) here.

Cole Swensen, Stele

shadow call                                          when shadow fell

one walks so that                        the shadow always falls

ahead one is walking in order      and the grass is greener

toward the forest, it catches                          the last light

in the throat on a match                dismantles the pasture

the pieces alight and asunder                        the smallest

pieces tucked under the tongue      march off, the fonder

In the poem-sequence Stele (Sausalito CA: The Post-Apollo Press, 2012), American poet Cole Swensen has composed a book far different than many of her poetry collections of the past few years. For the record, her poetry collections to date include: It’s Alive She Says (Floating Island Press, 1984), New Math (William Morrow & Co., 1988), Park (Floating Island Press, 1991), Numen (Burning Deck Press, 1995), Noon (Sun & Moon Press, 1997), Try (University of Iowa Press, 1999), Oh (Apogee Press, 2000), Such Rich Hour (University of Iowa Press, 2001), Goest (Alice James Books, 2004), The Book of a Hundred Hands (University of Iowa Press, 2005), The Glass Age (Alice James Books, 2007), Ours: poems on the gardens of Andre Le Notre (University of California Press, 2008), greensward (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010) and Gravesend (University of California Press, 2012). [I've reviewed a number of these over the years. Click on Cole Swensen's name underneath to see previous posts] At least her past half dozen poetry titles have each been composed across the canvas of a particular idea or theme, with individual poems existing as fragments of a larger whole, articulating a poem-as-essay. Instead, Stele composes an ongoing sentence, a lyric binary of small repetitions in a suite of three. A suite of three, with nine pieces in the first section, ten in the second, and eleven in the third, and final, section. As the back cover quote by Norma Cole writes, “two eerily different musical scores.” Not that this is her first suite; the musical tone of Stele is reminiscent of her opera-laden Oh. Much like Oh, this is a far shorter suite than many of her book-length titles. With but forty pages of text, the first poem of this graceful and enviable little book sets the tone of the collection as a whole, a particular kind of doubling effect, in which one can read the poem as broken lines, or two poems in parallel. The effect is breathtaking.

from a distance                                         seems to be walking

and so becomes a man                                     and so the man

in his silence                                  therefore these hills and hills

in their ceaseless every surface              of the eye in its folding

and disappears an evening                               of folded hands

as if the folded hands                                     of the statue had

too many fingers                                making them look oddly

feathered and thus                                               so much less

contained or able                                             to be contained

12 or 20 (small press) questions: Simone Fattal on The Post-Apollo Press

As Publisher Simone Fattal says on their website, "The Post-Apollo Press’ name came from the Apollo program that took man and women to the moon. This unreachable destination — the symbol of the sky — for it is the companion of the night, was made possible by the Apollo program. I thought at the time, the same way I think today, that for mankind to leave gravity and head for the universe, was the beginning of a new era. Therefore, we could count the years with the Post-Apollo, the way we did with BC and AD.

2012 is the thirtieth anniversary of the press."

1 - When did The Post-Apollo Press first start? How have your original goals as a publisher shifted since you started, if at all? And what have you learned through the process?
The Post-Apollo started in 1982. By pure chance. I started by doing a chapbook: From A To Z, as a gift to my partner Etel Adnan who had back trouble and was in bed. It was a poem I liked very much and it seemed to me that no one would be publishing this one poem any time soon. From A to Z had been written during the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, in 1981. We were in New York, and a photographer friend of Etel had been so shocked that he wanted to go to Three Mile Island , make photographs and asked Etel wether she would accompany him to conduct interviews with the people there about their reactions, their feelings ,experience and how they were living under the conditions, the threat, and so on. Etel decided against going, and  wrote a poem instead: From A To Z. Bobbie Del Tredicci, went and did the reportage and made a book. And this launched his career as an anti nuclear activist, going on to making books and pictures and interviews of the main protagonists of the nuclear bomb development. Etel wrote From A To Z. SO in order to make a book I had to already establish a Press, a name, a business licence, An ISBN, and learn how to make a book, most of all.I had no idea that I would be going on with this endeavour, and no goal, as such

2 – What first brought you to publishing?
I just said it in the first paragraph. But very soon after I learned how to make a book, a friend proposed to translate Sitt Marie-Rose also by Etel Adnan, from the French, a novel on the Civil War in Lebanon that had been published in France by the Editions des Femmes. And I heard myself say well if you translate it I will publish it. And so within 2 months I had already a novel and a chapbook, and so I had a publishing house! SO there I started having a goal which was to give these two titles, companions of the same quality ,only then would they be able to live and have importance. And so I proceeded to do just that.

3 – What do you consider the role and responsibilities, if any, of small publishing?
The same as the big publishing. My responsibility was immediately to proceed to getting distribution, and to continue producing books for only in the continuity I could insure the life of the books published.

4 – What do you see your press doing that no one else is?

I provided a place for some books that would have not existed without me. First the first two, and then quite a number of my titles had been refused by other Presses. And then I started the Small Contemporary Poetry Series, a format that gave full exposure to one singular poem .I think that move had been a real contribution to publishing.(see the article in Rain Taxi.)

5 – What do you see as the most effective way to get new books out into the world?

Just producing them, and giving them the same importance as to the bigger volumes. The look of my small series contributed to giving them this importance, the care and beauty that we put in every single one.

6 – How involved an editor are you? Do you dig deep into line edits, or do you prefer more of a light touch?
Very involved, I read very carefully and give advice, while always giving  precedence to respecting the author .

7 – How do your books get distributed? What are your usual print runs?
Print runs go from 500 for the smaller to a thousand  for poetry. My first run for Sitt Marie-Rose was 4000. The printer was shocked, he said it is a lot of books!! Actually I put what I thought were my last pennies into this printing, as my money came from Lebanon and Lebanon was under the Israeli invasion of 1982, (we were in the summer of 1982) and I thought that the situation there was hopeless. We reprinted 8 times, and reprinted a few poetry titles as well.

8 – How many other people are involved with editing or production? Do you work with other editors, and if so, how effective do you find it? What are the benefits, drawbacks?
I work mostly alone.

9 – How has being an editor/publisher changed the way you think about your own writing?
I am not a writer.


10 – How do you approach the idea of publishing your own writing? Some, such as Gary Geddes when he still ran Cormorant, refused such, yet various Coach House Press’ editors had titles during their tenures as editors for the press, including Victor Coleman and bp Nichol. What do you think of the arguments for or against, or do you see the whole question as irrelevant?
I published my translation from the French of Rumi And Sufism by Eva de Vitray Meyerovitch.I see no problem in publishing one's own work.

11 – How do you see The Post-Apollo Press evolving?
I would like to keep the same quality, and keep finding exciting work.


12– What, as a publisher, are you most proud of accomplishing?
What do you think people have overlooked about your publications? What is your biggest frustration?

People have been very supportive and have admired my press, ( which always come as a surprise and a big joy. The frustration comes when a bookstore refuses to take my book. I started going from bookstore to bookstore. They were usually very nice, but not always. I am very proud to have heard Barbara Guest read an homage to my publishing during the first reading of Quill, Solitary, Apparition. And also Lyn Hejinian say I was a great editor, and others.

13– Who were your early publishing models when starting out?

I had none, as I knew nothing about publishing, nor about America for that matter. I had arrived here in 1981!!I was new and just started without too much thinking.I had just met a young woman in NewYork who had a small Press, it had made me wonder…

14– How does The Post-Apollo Press work to engage with your immediate literary community, and community at large? What journals or presses do you see The Post-Apollo Press in dialogue with? How important do you see those dialogues, those conversations?
I go to readings, and organize readings for my authors, and book launches. I think readings and also institutions like Small Press Traffic, in San Francisco, and The Poetry Project in New York City, and all the Poetry Centers around the country helped create a poetry community which is very strong and a space where the authors and publishers alike can meet and talk. This is of the utmost importance.

15– Do you hold regular or occasional readings or launches? How important do you see public readings and other events?
Yes I do , and they are very important for people really buy books during readings.

16– How do you utilize the internet, if at all, to further your goals?
At the beginning not too much. The internet was something I could not understand... Now  of course I use it a lot, and I have an assistant who does not know there are other ways of looking for an information than the Internet. The Internet is something with which took me a while to get familiar with, i.e. my first instinct is to look for a reference, in a book , but it is coming slowly……..


17– Do you take submissions? If so, what aren’t you looking for?
Yes I did take submissions, I look for quality in writing, integrity, a voice who is a new and unique one, and not another text which would sound exactly as the previous one, and is the product od creative writing departments….

18– Tell me about three of your most recent titles, and why they’re special.
Well The Dihedrons Gazelle-Dihedrals Zoom by Leslie Scalapino. You have to open the first page to know how special it is, I had wished to publish a great prose work, and that was the one.

Seasons is a great poem, the first of a trilogy .But the other two have been published by Nightboat Books. And their title is Sea And Fog.

12 or 20 (small press) questions;

ongoing notes: late August, 2007

I've been monster busy lately, so not as much of this as I'd like to be getting to; late, late, late. Did you see this nice note Toronto writer/editor Alex Boyd wrote about coming to Ottawa for the Rob Winger book launch? Why isn’t everyone on facebook yet? Did you see what Amanda Earl and Marcus McCann (good to see him returning to his blog) had to say about the reading he, Nicholas Lea (with the photo Charles Earl took of him here) and I did at the Carleton Tavern at the end of July? Or what Pearl Pirie wrote about the Sharon Harris/Ian Roy Factory reading? What Amanda Earl thought of Monty Reid's TREE Reading (with Charles' photo here)? What McCann thought of my recent interview with Michael Holmes in filling Station (and what Amanda Earl thought about that)? The review that Gary Barwin did of the David W. McFadden selected poems [see my review here]? Will you be going to the above/ground press special at the last Factory of the summer, or my final going away party at the Carleton Tavern two days later? Did you see that Sina Queyras, writer-in-residence at the University of Calgary this fall, is already blogging from there?

Did you see this Alberta conversation between myself and Winnipeg poet K.I. Press, as a response to my original piece on "anticipating Alberta" in The Danforth Review, or the piece I recently posted on Myrna Kostash? Watch for more pieces there over the coming months… and my lovely daughter thinks the Flight of the Conchords are brilliant; who am I to argue? Apparently the University of Ottawa is running a symposium next May (organized by Rob Stacey) called "re: reading the postmodern," with various folk like Robert Kroetsch, Dennis Cooley and Christian Bök coming in to give papers; does this mean I actually have to fly back to go?

And this isn't me, by the by.

Ottawa ON: Toronto poet/fiction writer/publisher/editor Stuart Ross was here recently, doing a reading at the Ottawa Folk Festival and a couple versions of his Poetry Boot Camp (see Amanda Earl's comments on such here, and Stuart's own notes on his week, here and here), when I got to spend an evening in his company. Here's the poem he handed out during his week in Ottawa.

DON'T TOUCH PEOPLE'S HEADS

He touched her head
but people said,
Don't touch people's heads,
but it was just a head
on the lady's shoulders.

The president described himself
as "vigilant" and "bosomy"
and the media fell into step.
They helped him sort stuff out
for his big garage sale.

The monkey turned out to be
a furry fire alarm,
waking every American citizen
and chasing him out the door."Voluptuous!" said the headlines.

Ann Arbor MI: Lately I've been going through Ann Arbor, Michigan poet Aaron McCollough's third poetry collection Little Ease (Boise ID: Ahsahta Press, 2006), following on the heels of his Welkin (Ahsahta Press, 2002) and Double Venus (Salt, 2003). In the first paragraph of his "Author's Statements" (a feature of the press that I have to admit I look forward to as much as I do their books), he writes:

I like that the title Little Ease is hopelessly ambiguous, so I guess that is the place to start when describing the project. It's the name of a prison that promises no comfort (there is "little ease" available here, etc.), but it sounds in contemporary English parlance like a pretty decent state of affairs (a "little ease" would be welcome in my hectic day, etc.). The book—all my work, I guess—is very much about volatile subjectivity. It's not meant as a postmodern gesture, though, really. I'm imagining something more like a classical rending of self, a real power struggle between good and bad impulses and good impulses which are bad on top of bad impulses which are good. I have no gripe with postmodernist theories of the subject; I just don’t see them as "new" phenomena. Division of the subject strikes me as a fundamental feature of the creation of the subject, and many have been inclined to agree for centuries. With that in mind as a constant problem, my poems tend to be attempts at doing something in spite of or in collusion with the fractures and contrarieties that always seem to be threatening to reduce me to oblivion.

In six sections, McCollough's poems seem informed as much by classical relation, but knows how to break apart the lyric song and lyric gesture so he can then carve it together into what comes next; writing prologues, reformations, sonnets, Jan Vandermeer, restorations and penalties, through deceptive ease. This is a magnificent little book.

THE FIFTH POEM OF JAN VANDERMEER

Outside the town on fire

My pension of her grief

As she's turning

All of the moments of grief

On the moment of grief ―

The woman draped in the featherbed

Her passion of the dead sea

In the monument

Bride for wither you go

I try

My porcelain of her grief

This residue of air

We mistook

the remnant

Or mistake of sediment

Orono MA: After meeting the Orono, Maine poet Jennifer Moxley during a reading I was doing down there in 2001 (thanks to Ken Norris and Steve Evans), I've been keeping an eye out for her books to appear, from her Imagination Verses (Tender Buttons; Salt, 2003) and The Sense Record and other poems (Edge, 2002; Salt, 2003) to the more recent Often Capital (Flood Editions, 2005). Recently she came out with another book, the small collection The Line (Sausalito CA: The Post-Apollo Press, 2007). Working a series of prose poems, Moxley works her sense in a form that reads almost deceptively simple, but deft turns. How prose is prose when the prose-line doesn’t feel like poetry but it somehow does?

The Line

True faith does not need the state to enforce it. It makes neither hope, nor a shroud. You will walk out of the visible and learn to accept the darkness. You will find the line. It extends backwards eternally into the past and forward into the future. The utterance cup, the gentle metric, old words new mind lost time and loves. You sensed it all along, but gaining the knowledge was hopelessly muddled by the inherent drive to author new life. Now cut the spittle line spun into reason and enter the grave alone.

In other words, write. Find time for words. Replace yourself cell by letter, let being be the alphabetic equation, immortality stay the name.