Interview at Fringe!

Wow. It's been really quiet around here.

Sorry.  But I get a little busy with stuff--like this new interview up at Fringe Magazine.  Check it out!

Post-AWP bits

Hey hey!

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.

Coming to AWP DC, 2011

Visit Bloof & No Tell at Table D7
or Cooper Dillon at B10
during the AWP Bookfair.

Every book purchased and/or 2$ gets you another ticket!
Random drawing to be held Saturday, February 5.*

*Entries accepted via bookfair tables only, but you need not be present at time of drawing to win.
Prizes will be shipped (to single winning address) after the conference. Stop by for more info
or to gaze upon the goods. We have no idea if this raffle is legal, so don't tell any cops!

*** PRIZES INCLUDE ***

From Cooper Dillon Books:

Wonderfull Yeare by Nate Pritts
Haunts by Laura Cherry
Pretty, Rooster by Clay Matthews
The Devastation by Jill Alexander Essbaum
They Speak of Fruit by Gary L. McDowell

from No Tell Books:

Shy Green Fields by Hugh Behm-Steinberg
Glass Is Really a Liquid by Bruce Covey
Elapsing Speedway Organism by Bruce Covey
Harlot by Jill Alexander Essbaum
Never Cry Woof by Shafer Hall
God Damsel by Reb Livingston
The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel - Second Floor edited by Reb Livingston & Molly Arden
The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel edited by Reb Livingston & Molly Arden
Wanton Textiles by Reb Livingston & Ravi Shankar
Cadaver Dogs by Rebecca Loudon
Navigate, Amelia Earhart's Letters Home by Rebecca Loudon
PERSONATIONSKIN by Karl Parker
The Attention Lesson by PF Potvin
The Myth of the Simple Machines by Laurel Snyder

From Bloof Books:

The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway by Jennifer L. Knox
Poetry! Poetry! Poetry! by Peter Davis
Good Morning Romantics by Shanna Compton
Warsaw Bikini by Sandra Simonds
For Girls (& Others) by Shanna Compton
Drunk by Noon by Jennifer L. Knox
My Zorba by Danielle Pafunda
A Gringo Like Me by Jennifer L. Knox
Down Spooky by Shanna Compton

Plus awesome swag!

More Money for Nothing

I really like Alice James Books. They've published Christina Davis' Fourth a Raven, Brian Turner's collections, as well as B.H. Fairchild's books, and The Far Mosque by Kazim Ali (one of my favorite books!). They have a lot of other notable authors with great titles. You can get them by visiting their website. A number of these books spend time on the Poetry Foundations' Best Seller list. You can buy them, or you could submit your own manuscript to their contest with a $28 reading fee, and if you put an envelope with $2.50 of postage on it, you can get one of these books for yourself--and you should, by all means, be familiar with the books on a press you send your own work to, and support...through buying the books.

Alice James Books is also asking for your donations on a facebook page. I paid for each one of their books I've gotten over the years, and I'm glad I did. I could have asked for a desk copy of Here, Bullet, but I felt like they deserved the money. They won't be getting a donation from me...because I already gave them money, and happily received what they were selling.

I was talking to Dan Hegarty, The Jedi Drummer, about this. He takes donations, too. If you head over to his website, and enjoy the video performance he's put together, you can give him some money. Whether you do or not, you get the entertainment for free.

It seems a number of people in the larger poetry community also listen to NPR, and everyone loves a good week-long fundraiser campaign. Maybe you tough through it, or maybe you turn away for the week, but you can enjoy that service (news, classical, jazz, funny shows, interesting interviews) for free if you want. You can also donate.

The point is this: if a company produces something you want, and you pay for it, that's that. The transaction is over. You have the thing you wanted, and you enjoy it; the business has the money they set as the price, and they continue to make things they hope you'll want. When a poetry press is selling books, then asking for donations, what they're saying is, "Give us money and we'll give you this book, and if you like the book, you can give us more money which we'll then use to make more books which hopefully you'll give us more money for later."

If a press--or any business or organization--has the mission to make a product, and sell that product, but they can't afford to stay in business by making those products and selling them, there is a problem with their business model. There is too much money going out, and not enough coming in. The solution is to either A) charge more money for your product (which customers don't like), or B) find a way to cut costs so you can continue to provide your product at a reasonable price.

Again, if a press has a book you want to read, please purchase it. If you can, do so from the publisher's site, so they don't get a huge cut taken by the distributor. If they are hosting an event, get down there, and pay the cover. Maybe bring a few friends. Order a beverage, and tip your waitress. If you thumb through the journal at the newsstand, get a subscription.

Just don't let them think they deserve something for nothing.

Same goes for you: don't steal. It ain't right.

I'm Confused

So, as you might be aware, I run a small press out of San Diego. We currently have 5 titles, and we do okay for a brand-new endeavor. Our books are in print, available, and our authors seem to like what we're doing with the art they've created. Those who have provided art for covers also seem to really love what we've done with their images.

Cooper Dillon Books is not raking in the big bucks, but we're resolved in our intention to stand behind the poems we feel maintain the values which make poems timeless.

That being said, why is Copper Canyon Press, "the preeminent independent publisher of poetry" asking for donations? Why are they asking for a "gift" of $50 on their facebook page, and telling you that you'll get a copy of Jean Valentine's book in exchange, and also talking about how they "rel[y] on the good will of hundreds of donors to keep [their] books in print"?

Shouldn't the sale of books keep their books in print?

It reminds me of something Gandhi said in Gandhi: An Autobiography. The Story of My Experiments with Truth, on page 198 of the Beacon Press Edition, he writes:

"A public institution means an institution conducted with the approval, and from the funds, of the public. When such an institution ceases to have public support, it forfeits its right to exist. Institutions maintained on permanent funds are often found to ignore public opinion, and are frequently responsible for acts contrary to it...The institution that fails to win public support has no right to exist as such. The subscriptions that an institution annually receives are a test of its popularity and the honesty of its management; and I am of the opinion that every institution should submit to that test."

Translated from the original Gujarati by Mahadev Desai.

If a book publisher is asking for money for something other than a book, what should that mean to us? I've never walked into my barbershop and heard them asking me for money because they give other people good haircuts, without offering to cut my own head. Walking into a bar, the tender never asks me to put money down unless they're pouring a drink that's worth what everyone else is paying for that drink.

Pay for your books. If you like Cooper Dillon's publications, purchase them--but only pay the price that we ask anyone else to pay. We don't need your extra, earned, money to keep our lights on, or to keep food in the fridge. If you want to give us more money--if you share our perception of what great poems are--feel free to order more books. We'll happily pack them up, and put a few things you didn't even know we had into the package for you.

UPDATE:

Copper Canyon has 3 of the 30 books on the Poetry Foundation: Best Sellers list:

The Shadow of Sirius (paperback) by W. S. Merwin

One With Others by C. D. Wright

Migration: New & Selected Poems (paperback) by W. S. Merwin

That means people are buying lots of books from that press. Do they really need donations?

A Quick Mini-Review of Knox' Latest

The book is The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway from Jennifer L. Knox on Bloof.

If you've got this blog in your reader, you know I've raved about Knox for years. She's like Wonder Woman, only with blond hair, and an invisible cocktail glass.

I've been digging into her latest book, and it's unexpected. It's like you've been at a party for hours, and everyone's been drinking and having barbecue, and the keg is kicked, but that's okay because someone brought over a case of two-buck Chuck, so it just kept on going. The kids are doing whip-its in the garage. There's one person there cracking the whole place up, and everyone loves her/him. Then everyone leaves or passes out, and it's just you and this person, and they pour a fresh drink for you.

It's intimate, and s/he starts telling stories from war--every painful trauma you only get when you're alone with a person like that, and there's been so much laughter, that now it's got to be balanced out because that's just how we do things. Some people would be looking to get the hell out of the place, but it's terrifying but safe.

That's a quick review.

If that sounds like something you'd be into, click on the link above, buy it, and check it out.

I have a new poem up!

Hey Everybody!

Sorry I'm a slacker with this space. But I've been busy with Cooper Dillon, and love all of you for your support of us, as well as other small presses.

I have a poem up at The Nepotist.

Peace,

A.

Interview with this goof

Dig us Cooper Dillon peeps at the Bloof/Cooper Dillon/Noemi event at Green Spaces in Denver.

The lovely Carrie Olivia Adams just posted up an interview with me at Constant Conversation. Check it out, and keep going back for more interviews with the small press community.

And check back here--I might have a few things to say about the AWP in Denver, now that my body has returned to a reasonable height above sea level.

Small Press Party in Denver!

Mark your AWP calendar for Thursday night!

7-10 PM
Green Spaces Colorado
1368 26th Street

We're throwing a small press party in Denver, featuring Bloof Books, Cooper Dillon Books & Noemi Press.

Readings by:

Shanna Compton
Peter Davis
Jill Alexander Essbaum
Jennifer L. Knox
Gary L. McDowell
Danielle Pafunda
Nate Pritts
Sandra Simonds

& more TDB

RSVP at the Facebook page here.

Update:

This event will also now include Ada Limón!

Your Philip Graham Fix

I meant to post this up a few weeks ago, but you know how it goes...

There's an interview with Philip Graham, of U of Illinois-fame in The Morning News.

Drink you juice.

from Hunger Moutain

Hunger Mountain, the Vermont College of Fine Arts journal of the arts, is now accepting submissions for the new "Stage and Screen" section of its (relatively) new online journal. I'm writing to pass along the call for submissions, and ask that you consider sending us work. If you know anyone whose work might be a good fit for this section, please let them know about us. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if any of you with related blogs, or who are part of communities of writers/filmmakers/

theaterfolk/puppeteers/animators/video artists/etc., might post our call to help us spread the word. You can find Hunger Mountain here: http://www.hungermtn.org/ and the Stage and Screen section here: http://www.hungermtn.org/stage-and-screen/.

Thank you so much for your time!


The call:

Hunger Mountain is now accepting submissions for the Stage and Screen portion of our journal. Please submit a print submission consisting of a a typed, double-spaced manuscript no more than 10,000 words, or a video submission, consisting of a description of your project and a link to the video (we cannot accept files over 500KB). We welcome an array of examples of and responses to work on “stage” or on “screen”: film, theater, performance art, dance, dance film, animation, television, etc. We’re looking for both traditional and experimental work, including, but not limited to, video art/short film/recorded performances; excerpts from plays/screenplays; interviews of artists working in the field; critical reviews; and lyrical, personal or critical meditations about the genre/s. We like work that demonstrates an engagement with the world beyond its borders, clear stakes, and a beating heart. Please see submission guidelines to learn how to submit using our online submission manager.


Thanks for sending us your work and helping spread the word!

All best,

Megan Savage
Stage and Screen Editor, Hunger Mountain

Stay

I wanted to pass on to you this article by Jennifer Michael Hecht. She posted a variation of it, 1/11/2010 on Best American Poetry, and it's been getting around.

Her poems are fantastic. My personal spiritual beliefs differ from her's, but there's really no denying she's on to something with the whole "Don't kill yourself" thing.

Give it a read, and consider some of the wonders we have.

Here's a poem from her second collection, Funny:

Prosody on Comedy

Tragedy is when all the stage is all good will

and all will wrongly, like too many winter coats

in too few seats on the subway, no one will

give up a thing yet all feel a remote

and stinging sorrow for the standers. Still,

tragedy is the ship sunk, bobbing heads afloat

together in the drink, all happy now to fill

their lungs with air and dream of lifeboats.

No bouts now. All their coveted papers and pills

as wet as once were their eyes, dry as ghost's

now, a low slung. Comedy is why they're still

together, in an ocean wide as wind and sky her host.

As we float, the deepness of the ocean tugs our bones.

In comedy we rush the crowded stage and act alone.

****

The poem originally appeared in Poetry, and Funny was a winner of The Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry from the University of Wisconsin Press.

Bookslut & The Wonderfull Yeare

Nate Pritts is interviewed over at Bookslut. Check out the whole piece where he gets into some nitty-gritty about The Wonderfull Yeare.

Cooper Dillon is taking orders for the book right this minute. They will ship by Feb. 16th, fo' sho'.

As if there wasn't enough to love...

Gary L. McDowell (of They Speak of Fruit fame, now available at Cooper Dillon Books) has won the Orphic Prize for his full-length collection, American Amen!

Full story over at his blog RIGHT HERE.

If you'd like a taste of what's to come from Dream Horse Press, head to Cooper Dillon and get your chap on!

An Essay (& reading if you're in NYC on the 17th)

Ada Limón has a courageous essay of affirmation up at InDigest. It's called Listen. Give it a read.

She's also reading with a whole bunch of wonderful people in NYC on 1/17. The details:

Boog City presents

Launch Party for

The Portable Boog Reader 4

annual poetry anthology

with 72 NYC poets and now D.C. Metro area poets

all new to The Portable Boog Reader

Sun., Jan. 17, 7:00 p.m.

$5

Zinc Bar

82 W. 3rd St. (Sullivan/Thompson sts.)

NYC

WITH READINGS FROM PBR4 CONTRIBUTORS

N.Y.C. poets:

Ivy Johnson * Boni Joi

Steven Karl * Ada Limón

D.C. poets:

Lynne Dreyer * Phyllis Rosenzweig

Curated and hosted by Portable Boog Reader 4 N.Y.C. editors

Sommer Browning, Joanna Fuhrman, David Kirschenbaum, and Urayoán Noel,

and D.C. editors Cathy Eisenhower and Maureen Thorson.

Directions: A/B/C/D/E/F/V to W. 4th St.

For further information:
212-842-BOOG (2664), editor@boogcity.com

PBR4 (BC61) features the work of 48 New York City and 24 D.C. Metro area poets.

The physical issue will be available 12.30.09, and the online pdf that same day at:

http://welcometoboogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc61.pdf

The Devastation by Jill Alexander Essbaum is Now Available

Cooper Dillon Books is happy to bring you Jill Alexander Essbaum's long-poem chapbook, The Devastation.

Head on over to the Cooper Dillon Bookstore and start 2010 off right!

PS - Expect this blog to have a name other than my own soon. Ms. Rachel Dacus was kind enough to plug it and link it up, and it seems goofy that I never named this space. More to come as it comes.

Peace, babies!

Welcome to the New Year

Kick it off by reading Jason Schneiderman over at the Best American Poetry Blog.

My brother asked me the other day what my resolutions were. He got annoyed when I told him I don't make them because I don't think we need to wait for a day-to-come to make our lives better. Why should our resolve be waivering until the new year?

Just saying.

As for this blog, the resolve is the same as it ever was: expect announcements regarding other artists around the entire community whom I'm excited to support. The links to the right bring you to people who are making magical stuff, and I hope you enjoy it.

Jason Schneiderman's Next Book

Jason Schneiderman's won the Snyder Prize from Ashland Poetry Press for Striking Surface. Find all the details here.

You can get his debut title, Sublimation Point, from Four Way Books.

Jason's one of the first people I met when I started writing, and he's always been so supportive of others around him. He's one of the kindest and most hard working guys out there. Keep an eye out for the new one, and pick up his first if you don't already have it.

Another Giveaway from Nate Pritts

Nate Pritts is giving away another one of his previous books on Goodreads. Check it out by clicking right here.

Enter to win a copy or you can order it from Main Street Rag Press via the H_NGM_N site.

This is all in anticipation for the next full-length book of poems by Nate Pritts, The Wonderfull Yeare, coming in January from Cooper Dillon Books.

But before that, Jill Alexander Essbaum's Devastation is heating up the printers as well speak, and should be available any minute now.

Win a book by Nate Pritts

Win a copy of Sensational Spectacular by Nate Pritts by clicking on this link to Goodreads!

Catch The Wonderfull Yeare from Cooper Dillon in January of 2010.