All Japanese Girl Rolls

Cooper Dillon had a great time at AWP DC, though we wish the people form Chicago and other could places could have made it sooner/at all. Maybe they'll start considering that winter cities in winter months don't always work so good.

Meanwhile, the good people at Rose Metal Press came by, and they talked to me about my previously posted thoughts on the NEA, public money, etc. We have some differences of opinion, but I think we agreed that we both love Gary L. McDowell, so that was a place of peace.

It got me thinking--I can't really fault the really small operations who are getting $5K, or something like that. Nobody's drawing a salary from that, and the project truly is about making a contribution to the audience, and the money they're getting is just a little something to help out.

However, the big places who claim to be "small," and are taking in 25K from contest fees alone, not to mention book sales that are huge...well, you know my thoughts on that.

Cooper Dillon Books happens to be a member of CLMP. As a result, I got an email from Steph Opitz, the Membership Director, and there are some great recordings of panels form AWP. I'm listening particular to this one, which is The Art of Nonprofit Publishing with publishers from Bellevue, Coffee House, Graywolf, Four Way, and others. It's educational. I'm fascinated by the fact that once an organization becomes a nonprofit, it's owned by the public, and held, "in trust for the public good," as Allan Kornblum says. Apparently a board can dismiss an editor/publisher, even if they've established the press and nurtured it from the start.

I thought you'd might be interested in these talks, if you don't get the email with the links. If you want, email me, and I can forward the message to you.