Fred Moten lives in New York with his comrade, Laura Harris, and their children, Lorenzo and Julian. He works in the Departments of Performance Studies and Comparative Literature at New York University.
Ken Taylor is the author of three books of poetry, two chapbooks, three plays, and a collaborative work with twelve artists. found poem(s), with Ed Roberson, is forthcoming from Corbett vs. Dempsey—Ken’s photographs and Ed's poems.
1 – When did selva oscura 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?
We want to publish books that we love by writers whom we love. We are especially glad to publish first books and to imagine that these will be platforms that can propel their authors onto a trajectory in which their work will continue to be seen and heard. We also love recovering and making available older texts that have fallen out of print and off the map. And we are committed to seeking out and finding and publishing the work of black authors, authors of color, and queer and trans authors. We have been primarily focused on poetry, but we have been branching out into fiction and non-fiction prose and have some plays forthcoming, as well. We are especially committed to making sure that the authors love the way their books look and so we are especially happy to work with authors who know how they want their books to look.
2 – What first brought you to publishing?
In the Research Triangle of North Carolina, we were part of a great community of writers which included Shirlette Ammons, Joseph Donahue, Nathaniel Mackey, Pete Moore, Kate Pringle, Ken Rumble and Magdalena Zurawski (among many others), all of whom had made it their business to serve the community by providing venues for people to read and publish. We wanted to follow their example. Three Count Pour and selva oscura emerged from that desire.
3 – What do you consider the role and responsibilities, if any, of small publishing?
Get the word and the work out.
4 – What do you see your press doing that no one else is?
There are so many presses serving poetry in so many ways. Not sure we’re a step above or beyond. We lean into collaboration. Listen. Are renewed with new enthusiasms that come our way with new and established work.
5 – What do you see as the most effective way to get new books out into the world?
Lately it’s been Asterism Books. They have been a godsend since SPD shuttered.
6 – How involved an editor are either of you? Do you dig deep into line edits, or do you prefer more of a light touch?
Our touch is very light. We don’t do line edits. We find books and writers that we like and trust them to get it how they want it. We try to help them find that if they want or need us to.
7 – How do your books get distributed? What are your usual print runs?
Runs depend on the author. 200-400. Asterism Books is our new distributor. They do a good job at stuff we’re not much good at. We don’t have a lot of resources for promotions but try and help with at least one launch reading for each author.
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?
We keep it pretty close. Our copyeditor (Miles Champion) and our designer (Margaret Tedesco) do the lion share of the work in terms of grind and production. The benefits are that they are both badassed. No drawbacks yet.
9 – How has being an editor/publisher changed the way you think about your own writing?
We both get to keep our heads in the game. If we’re excited about something to publish, it usually inspires us to write.
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?
We’re not against it. We are principally focused on the work of others. We’ve talked about various projects we’ve done that might work for selva oscura or Three Count Pour, and also discussed supporting that work financially through other presses.
11 – How do you see selva oscura press evolving?
One thing we want to do is get back to doing chapbooks, through our subprint/imprint Three Count Pour. Maybe that’s a little bit more like revolving than evolving. We’d like to do them in small bundles, like the Durham Suite that we published years ago, combining well-known and less well-known writers in one package. And we’d like the chapbooks to be art books. We want the book actually to be necessary, something held in the hand as that which couldn’t have been any other way. This means that the writers will work in co-accompaniment with the book designer as well as with visual artists.
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?
I don’t think there have been any big frustrations. I think we both hope and intend to do a better and better job of promoting the books and supporting them after publication. The idea is not only to have a palpable and beautiful document of the work the authors do but also to get the books in the hands of sensitive, generous, and enthusiastic readers.
13 – Who were your early publishing models when starting out?
Initially it was chapbooks, and then an art/poetry collaboration, with the aim to add beautiful objects to the history of folks doing this. We’ve haven’t tried to emulate any model specifically.
14 – How does selva oscura press work to engage with your immediate literary community, and community at large? What journals or presses do you see selva oscura press in dialogue with? How important do you see those dialogues, those conversations?
We just want to be working in concert with, and be part of the complementary variety of, the community that is given to the general field of poetry, which we tend to think of, by way of Juliana Spahr, as “this connection of everyone with lungs.” We’re not picky and we’re here militantly to mess with anyone who is so that the conversation can stay infinite and real.
15 – Do you hold regular or occasional readings or launches? How important do you see public readings and other events?
We have had launches and readings for almost all of the books and will do so for all the authors who desire that. The Pandemic but a temporary hold on that but we are now trying to catch up, and we will. It’s important to get the sound of this writing into the world.
16 – How do you utilize the internet, if at all, to further your goals?
We have a web site, and social media handles, send out invites, but not working the internet much beyond that. That’s largely dictated by the time we have available.
17 – Do you take submissions? If so, what aren’t you looking for?
We don’t take unsolicited submissions.
18 – Tell me about three of your most recent titles, and why they’re special.
To Regard a Wave, by Sora Han, weaves physics and translation, translation and weaving, in a beautiful meditation on love and revolution; Arvo Villars’s Violently Dancing Portraits can’t sit still, teaches how to withstand immersion in (im)migrant energy, kinda like Creole’s – aka Kreyól’s – blues as it pulses under Sonny’s (for all you beautiful Baldwin fans); and, in Shekhinah Speaks, Joy Ladin offers a prophetic trans theology that’s radical as every day.
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