women of the web wide poetry world

Dr. Kristin Dykstra

2008-07-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

What projects are you currently on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web).

We publish one issue of Mandorla a year. Right now Mandorla 11 is with the printer. Our final preparations of that file are done, but there are related details to finish up this summer and fall, things related to distribution, website updates, database versions, and so forth. We’re beginning work on Mandorla 12 (2009) at the same time.

What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

Carrying out a magazine that defies institutional and market categories. It sounds like a cliché, but there you have our very real challenge.

When Roberto Tejada founded the magazine in the early ‘90s in Mexico, he set up border-crossing moves that remain unusual – they set up a field rather than conforming to one. This is motivational. Yet it’s not convenient.
Here’s a sketch of what I mean. We run work from many countries and in multiple languages. Even though each issue will be dominated by English and Spanish, distributors and stores and libraries aren’t sure where to locate it (foreign language? poetry journal? American literature? Latin American literature? literature in translation? etc.). We run multiple genres and are willing to let some visual artists and scholarly voices into the mix. We run originals, translations, and texts that authors don’t want to be easily classifiable as either Original or Translated. We have Latin American and US Latino contributors of many backgrounds but also plenty of people in every issue who don’t fit either of those descriptions, no matter how flexible their application (I’m always surprised when Mandorla is described as “a Hispanic magazine”). Our strong emphases in poetry and translation correspond to two areas of the literary marketplace that are commonly associated with losses rather than profits. Each of these aspects of the magazine can be linked to important creative and intellectual traditions of the past and present, and yet each defies some common expectation in publishing and circulation that magazines will politely conform to the current State of Divided Affairs.

Who needs a literal fence when literary industries are already shaped by all these same old fences, influencing audiences to think that the status quo reflects the Natural Order of Things?

My role in dealing with these conceptual/practical parts of Mandorla began when Roberto invited me to guest-edit issue 7, which was the “return from hiatus” issue. Returning also involved restructuring the entire magazine’s production, moving that component of the magazine to the US, specifically Illinois. So each issue has meant negotiating institutional expectations (ISU, libraries, booksellers, database companies, etc.) while avoiding compromise on the border-crossing features I mentioned above.

It has also meant collaborating with editors in Mexico City and California in a consistent way. Gabriel Bernal Granados, who is in Mexico, plays an important role in every issue of Mandorla, despite the distance and a variety of related practical challenges that crop up.

Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

No. As logical as our project seems to us, we regularly hear that “there’s nothing else like it out there.” Maybe it’s the particular combination of risks structured into our format, making every issue a bit of a miracle and a ton of work to pull off. But as a side effect of the effort it takes, I don’t have time left for regrets.

Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

I would have liked to run the Lev Rubinstein pieces that appear in Fascicle (I think issue #1 – www.fascicle.com), translated by Philip Metres and Tatiana Tulchinsky. There’s an example of something we lose due to our focus on work “from the Americas.” Rubinstein is associated with Russian avant-garde and underground movements.

Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

We were lucky to be offered a spot with Litline, which created part of our site’s current format (www.litline.org). Mandorla’s update and design responsibility have shifted since then, with various people at ISU dedicating a little spare time here and a little there. The most time ever devoted to our site came with a redesign phase, when my department and a technology office called LILT helped to fix accumulated code problems a couple of years ago. Because that support was temporary and the university doesn’t have specialized staff assigned to web publishing or maintenance, we can only do minimal updates with the occasional help of a very busy staff person.

Currently we work with our strength: the excellent job done by the English Department’s Publications Unit in preparing material for print publication.

What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

One thing that writers and readers may not always be aware of is the importance of grant awards. I write yearly peer-reviewed project grants for the Illinois Arts Council, and the reviewers look at the quality of our past issues when making their decisions each year. We do well on the grants, which makes it worth the amount of time they require. The awards are modest, but those partial contributions toward covering our print costs are essential. So I’d like to take this space to point out the importance of this practical “recognition” and offer thanks to all those people who put time into making grants available to journals. They help to keep publishing diversified in this country, which I see as a basis of its strength.

What are some of your other interests?

Parrots. Hockey. Getting outdoors. Art exhibitions.

What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

Today it’s not a poem proper but a collaborative essay on poetry composed by two poet-translators. Kent Johnson and Forrest Gander’s “Ni pena ni miedo: A Sentimental Education in Chile” is online at Jacket #30 (www.jacketmagazine.com). It’s a beautiful piece and to my mind, “beautiful” here means that it evokes not only the stunning landscape and poetry of Chile, but the history and trauma and messed-up outsiderness that are part and parcel of the very construction of myth that Gander and Johnson are so good at. Their introductions to the poetry of Bolivian writer Jaime Saenz have this marked quality of literary mythmaking that I’m talking about. Having recently read some prose by Roberto Bolaño, I’m interested in seeing how these double moves, mythmaking/deconstructing, get worked out by different writers.
http://jacketmagazine.com/30/chile.html

Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

Bob and Susan Arnold at Longhouse produce a variety of wondrous poetry objects. They post a lot to their website and create publications in PDF files, so they offer free and low-cost access. But the real pleasure is to open a package from Longhouse with one of their little handmade booklets inside. http://www.longhousepoetry.com/index.html

What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

The slow release of seeing a piece you love show up and start moving through each stage of becoming a publication. Then finally seeing how the whole issue looks when it’s back from the printer, and sending it off to the contributors.

Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

Other respondents beat me to playing around with the idea of recipes, so I’ll give a straightforward reply in my editorial hat. I prefer to be surprised, with the idea that erring in that direction helps to keep our issues from getting stale.

Carmen Gimenez Smith

2007-12-01T12:10:00.000-08:00

Carmen Gimenez Smith was born in New York City to parents who came to the States from South America. She grew up in California and studied English at San Jose State University and creative writing at the University of Iowa. She teaches creative writing at New Mexico State University and is the publisher of Noemi Press which publishes poetry and fiction chapbooks. She live in Las Cruces, New Mexico with her husband Evan Lavender-Smith and their two children.

Web site:
www.noemipress.org

1) What projects are you currently on?

Noemi Press is publishing a whole mess o'books:
HOPE AND ANCHOR by Joshua Corey
CLOSED HISTORIES by Sara Veglahn
A MAN OF IDEAS AND OTHER STORIES by David Galef
THE EVENING PAPERS by Matthew Kirby
CAMERA OBSCURA by Rebecca Bednarz

We'll be publishing full-length books in the future.

2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

Each book we do is a lesson in what not to do the next time. There are so many variables to each project, problems to solve. I think the most important thing I've learned is to try and anticipate as much as possible and to not be surprised when things go wrong.

Distribution is also an issue. At the same time, the poets and writers we publish do a good job of promoting their work so we're blessed that way.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

Again I wish I could do more to promote the work of the writers we publish. Overall though I am thrilled to have worked with each of the writers we've had the chance to work with.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

I am pretty crazy about Sina Queyras, Larissa Szporluk. I would love to do something with Mallarme's UN COUP DE DES but I don't know what.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

My husband designs the website and he's a great designer. We work with lots of different people on the covers but the text design is all done by a really fabulous designer named Peggy Chapman. We like to make beautiful objects so we're pretty fussy about what we put in the world, design wise.

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

We were just featured in POETS AND WRITERS and one of our titles got reviewed in RAIN TAXI. I like that the writers we publish are happy with the books we make and that recognition is the most important.

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

We'd like to be publishing more full-length books and also more collaborative books a la Granary Books. We would also like to publish more fiction.

8) What are some of your other interests?

If only.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

That's a tough question. I love so many poems for vastly different reasons. DESCENT OF ALETTE keeps coming to me as an answer. That book-length project is thrilling right out of the gate. It's cinematic and urgent. I love it.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

LEMON HOUND by Sina Queyras PIONNERS OF LIGHT AND MOTION by Susan Briante. I like the way she's distilled the lyric impulse, the way she's telling a story in fragments.

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

Making a manuscript into a book and introducing the work of really thrilling writers to the world.

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

Risks are good.

Shanna Compton

2007-11-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

Shanna Compton's books include of For Girls (& Others), Down Spooky, and GAMERS, as well as several chapbooks. She is the founding editor of the DIY Poetry Publishing Cooperative, the former editor of LIT at the New School, and recently ended a long stint as Associate Publisher/Editor/Director of Publicity at Soft Skull Press in Brooklyn, out of which she has spun the new poetry-only imprint, Bloof Books. She was born in Texas, was educated at the Unversity of Texas and the New School. After a dozen years in Brooklyn, she and her husband moved to a small town in Central New Jersey last January.

Publication Questions:

1) What projects are you currently on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web).

Bloof has just released Jennifer L. Knox's second book Drunk by Noon, reissued her first book (after Soft Skull sold out of the first printing) A Gringo Like Me, and published my own second book of poems, For Girls (& Others). So I'm sending out review copies, querying potential reviewers, alerting the bookstores, stuff like that, as well as promoting (and performing in sometimes) the readings related to the book launches.

This week I'm planning to sit down and type up my editorial comments for Danielle Pafunda, for her forthcoming Bloof book My Zorba, which we'll release in the spring. Then we'll work together on the cover design. I'm also booking a tour of the Midwest for the Jen, Danielle & myself.

Lessee, what else? I've been sort of neglecting the DIY blog, but am planning to publish some new reviews there soon, and figure out a way to set up an automated form for press announcements--I just can't handle them all, even with Sandra Simonds and Jess Rowan on board as coeditors. (The abundance is wonderful; I'm not complaining.) I'm also helping (designing, offering editorial suggestions, maybe doing some illustrations) Danielle with a feature for the group blog Delirious Hem, for which she's interviewed Arielle Greenberg on the concept of the gurlesque. Oh, and I have a freelance job to go to three days a week as well, at which I write and publish scintillating copy about fall's poshest handbags & shoes. Luckily, that job pays.

2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

Time. I get really excited about new projects and (as you can see from the list above) things can pile up on me if I'm not careful. But I really wouldn't have it any other way. I love making books--whether by writing them, editing them, publishing them, or hand sewing them. I find it all very fulfilling.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

I started out working at Random House. Didn't enjoy that, but I don't regret it. I learned a lot, and what I found repellent about "the industry" has informed all my current theories and obsessions about small-scale publishing, and how smaller is better w/r/t poetry.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

I really wanted to publish Anne Boyer at Bloof. Luckily, she already has a publisher (Coffee House) and they're working on her book (The Romance of Happy Workers) right now. I would have liked to have published Alice Notley or Bernadette Meyer in LIT, but never got around to asking them.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

I build all the websites myself, because I like messing around with html and Dreamweaver. But my web-design skill set is very much acquired on a need-to-know basis, and I get plenty of help from online tutorials and Dreamweaver for Dummies.

Charlie Orr (my best friend and awesome graphic designer) did the covers for Jennifer L. Knox's two books, as well as several for Soft Skull. (He also works for presses like Penguin and Top Shelf comics, etc.) He's a painter, and works in advertising, and is indulgent about our small-to-nonexisting budgets. We enjoy working together. Sometimes I take the photographs for some of his other design projects.

I do some of the cover designs myself, too. I did the design for For Girls (& Others), several Soft Skull books, and I do the interior design for all the Bloof books and most of the Soft Skull books I edited as well. When a staff is small, each person on the team tends to wear several hats. I also did the cover for Bruce Covey's Elaspsing Speedway Organism for No Tell Books. It's just something I really enjoy doing--the typesetting and design--and of course it saves money not having to pay someone else. I learned Quark and basic layout stuff working on fashion catalogs, actually. It's come in very handy.

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

Jane, a poetry memoir by Maggie Nelson I edited for Soft Skull, won a Pen Award, and that was pretty cool, but the recognition really belongs to her.

Jennifer gave me a customized bowling trophy last week at her book launch party, plus some free hot wings. That's about as much as I could ask for. It's great when the books sell too, of course. Please feel free to "recognize" my efforts by buying them!
More seriously, being asked to do interviews like this one is gratifying, and I'm sometimes invited to teach or talk about small press publishing or write essays about it--I really like doing all of those things and it's always nice to be asked.

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

Bloof has just started, but I'm planning to keep it small and focused. Four books a year, max. I want to be able to concentrate on the books in the way each deserves--that's the most important difference between industrial and small-scale publishing.

8) What are some of your other interests?

Photography, cooking, film (watching them, though I'd love to make one too). Since I've gotten out of the city, I'm getting into more outdoor stuff like hiking and kayaking. Reading, obviously. I like to travel, especially road trips.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

Oh, this is too hard. I don’t have a favorite color, food, or type of music. When it comes to poetry, I tend to read a lot of different kinds of things. I guess my tastes learn mostly toward the “experimental/innovative/post-avant,” but I also seek out other kinds of work. I think reading ruts can be just as damaging as certain ingrained habits of writing, so its important to remain open, to listen and look around.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

Alma, or the Dead Women by Alice Notley. It just knocked me for a loop.

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

To know the books are being read. Getting to hear/read a reader’s response in a review, on a blog, or after a performance is a bonus.

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

Forget about the recipe. Enjoy the process.

Elizabeth Treadwell

2007-11-09T08:27:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Treadwell was born in Oakland, California (although her maternal line is Oklahoman), and lives there now with her husband and their children. She is a graduate of Berkeley High School, UC Berkeley, and San Francisco State, where she got MFA'd. Her essay on studying with Paula Gunn Allen at Berkeley will appear in Women Poets on Mentorships: Efforts & Affections (Iowa UP, 2008).

Treadwell is the author of seven books including the recent Birds & Fancies (Shearsman Books) and the forthcoming Wardolly (Chax Press). She is also the author of six chapbooks including The Graces (Dusie, 2006). She is currently working on a long poem of North American history centered round the figure of Pocahontas and titled Virginia or the mud-flap girl.

While living in Venice, California in 1993, Treadwell started a zine called Stilts which morphed later into Outlet magazine and Double Lucy Books, which she edited and published from 1997-2002, with the help of Sarah Anne Cox, Grace Lovelace, and Carol Treadwell. In 2000 she began working as director of Small Press Traffic in San Francisco and in that capacity in 2005 founded the journal Traffic, which is an extension and expansion of the organization's long-running newsletter. Her latest editorial project, thimble, is due to begin sometime in 2008.

She has a semi-retired blog and a working website.

Publication Questions:

1) What projects are you currently on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web).

I've left the completion -- the 4 -- of Traffic #3/4 in the fabulous hands of Dana Teen Lomax, who is the interim director of Small Press Traffic (SPT) while I'm on leave; it includes a paper by Joel Nickels on Laura Riding's critique of modernism and her utopian suggestions. I look foward to doing more Traffics when I'm back at work.

It might be a bit early yet to talk about my new project, but -- it's called thimble, and it will engage with writing by women as folk traditional, in the sense of cultural survival(s).

2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

Social awkwardness.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

No, not really.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

I'm sorry to have missed the chance to blog it out with our Miz Gertrude Stein.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

I clunked around in the early days to build a site for Outlet/DLB, and I did all the print design for those and Stilts, with artist and photographer friends (and relations) contributing imagery--and some 'found' imagery, mostly from the old Urban Ore in Berkeley (when it was across the street from SPD). Nowadays Traffic is professionally done -- and I choose the cover art. For the first issue I wandered the studios of the California College of the Arts (where SPT is housed) and found some work, left a note, and the maker of said work agreed. For the second issue the image was by poet/artist Yedda Morrison, whom I also interviewed for the issue.

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

For me the very best thing has been being told by several younger poet/publishers that Outlet/DLB was an inspiration.
& I sure liked what Sina Queyras said about Traffic.

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

I'm not sure but I can't help myself so no doubt it'll be something. Maybe a micropress.

8) What are some of your other interests?

Hanging out with my husband and our dear kids; the neighborhood trees and creatures; our local relatives and friends. I'm thankful.
And walking and drawing are grand; the internet both a doggle and a boon.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

Stein's "Patriarchal Poetry" is often timely, and very witty.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

I like Hanksville, Native American Storytellers Online, and would also recommend Ella Cara Deloria's book Waterlily, which my sister the novelist Carol Treadwell wrote about in the context of Stein and Cather, in Traffic #2. (She was also a contemporary -- and colleague -- of Zora Neale Hurston.) In a bossy mood, I'd also say "ev'ry American" ought to read Paula Gunn Allen's biography of Pocahontas in order to realize a deeper sense of "what's happening."

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

First, community. For example, when I started Stilts I had an opportunity to write to Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, whose poems and essays had been (& remain) important to me; her warmth was encouraging and her work ran in several issues, of Stilts and Outlet. She also sent me homemade paper dolls. Second, finding work that truly astounds me, work that brimfully inhabits its idiosyncratic sensibility and information. "Oh hey, I didn't quite know that, yknow" -- that's the feeling I want from poetry. News some call it. It's a treat and a gift. Of course having said that, there are about a thousand other things I crave from poetry as well, like the limitless echoing comfort of a true folk song.

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

Whatever's in the fridge.

Arielle Greenberg

2007-11-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

Arielle Greenberg was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1972 and raised in upstate New York. She attended SUNY Purchase where she received a BA in drama studies and Syracuse University for her MFA in poetry and a certificate of advanced studies in women's studies. She is the author of two collections of poetry (Given and My Kafka Century) and a cultural studies/composition reader (Youth Subcultures) and several forthcoming anthologies on women and poetry: Women Poets on Mentorship, co-edited with Rachel Zucker (Iowa, 2008); Gurlesqe, co-edited with Lara Glenum (Saturnalia, 2010); and an anthology of contemporary poetry for teenage girls co-edited with Becca Klaver.

In the early 90s, she was the editor of the pop culture/riot grrl zine William Wants A Doll; she is currently one of the co-editors of the poetry journal Court Green and the poetry editor of the literary magazine Black Clock and is a former editorial board member at How2: an online journal of innovative women's poetics. She lives in Evanston, IL with her husband and their homebirthed daughter and is expecting a son in early 2008.

Visit her web site for more information.

She is the owner and moderator of the private poet-moms listserv and has a forthcoming blog on personal style.

Publication Questions:

1) What projects are you currently on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web).

A book, co-edited with Rachel Zucker, Women Poets on Mentorships: Efforts & Affections, is in its final production stages and is forthcoming from Iowa in 2008. Rachel and I are also in the midst of writing a book-length lyric essay on homebirth. I have two other co-edited anthologies in the works--see my bio above. And I'm editor at two literary magazines (again, see bio) and at work on two collections of my own poetry. I'm also the founder and moderator of the poet-moms listserv.

2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

Probably just time management. It's hard to balance all these projects with my full-time academic job and my family and my own writing, but like to keep busy. Sadly, my own writing often comes last, so I do feel like the editing projects take over some of the time I could devote to my own writing.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

Not really. Publishing the textbook was a huge amount of effort for what has thus far been little reward in some ways--the book was restructured several times over several years in the editorial process--but I'm still proud of it and glad it's out.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

Actually, my problem is keeping up with new poets so I can keep asking new poets for work! Most of the poets I've loved and asked for work have been responsive and generous.

I have yet to get in contact with Russell Atkins, a harder-to-reach Ohio poet. Since he takes a little extra effort, I've yet to reach him. I hope to. I love his work.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

A student at a school where I used to teach designed my website, and he did a lovely job, but I have no idea how to update it, and as such, it's been woefully neglected for years. This is one thing that's really fallen by the wayside, and I'm embarrassed about it. It's something on my to-do list I never quite get to.

I have frequently collaborated with my sister, D'vora Greenberg, who is a visual artist, on my book covers.

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

Poems from Court Green have been chosen for Best American Poetry, for which we are very proud. My listserv spawned a print anthology, Not for Mothers Only, edited by Catherine Wagner and Rebecca Wolff, and I'm proud of that, too.

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

I hope to still be working on feminist-driven poetry projects and editing at literary magazines as well.

8) What are some of your other interests?

Film, the vegetarian and organic food movements, homebirth activism, style and design.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

I can never answer this. I like far too many poems.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

Jean Valentine's selected, Door in the Mountain. She is a visionary, and this recent book (which won the National Book Award) shows how she's stuck with her vision for her long career. She is also a wonderful human being, and proof that a poet can be a nice, good person.

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being poetry publisher/editor?

Discovering new talent. I am always looking for the hereto-unknown poet who will knock my socks off. I also love getting feedback about individual poems I publish, which happens rarely!

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

Season to taste.

Deborah Ager

2007-10-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

A Maryland native, Deborah Ager started 32 Poems in 2003. Her goal was to: create a magazine that offered 100% poetry 100% of the time, manage a financially self-sustaining artistic enterprise, and offer a magazine small enough to fit into a satchel, purse or, if you are good with origami, a pocket. 32 Poems, as you may guess, publishes 64 poems per year.

Her poetry collection, Midnight Voices, is forthcoming from WordTech. Poems from the collection have appeared in Best New Poets 2006, Tigertail: A South Florida Anthology, The Georgia Review, New Letters, New England Review, and the Writing Poems textbook.

She received the Tennessee Williams Scholarship in Poetry from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and received fellowships and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Casa Libre en la Solana, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her education includes an M.F.A. from the University of Florida and a B.A. from the University of Maryland. Stop by her web site for more information.

Publication Questions:

1) What projects are you currently working on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web).

I’m promoting a reading series called Once in Awhile. I’m also preparing for a Washington Independent Writer’s panel that will take place in November. I’m also in the early stages of planning for a panel for the fiction writer grad students at American University. The fall issue of 32 Poems (vol. 5 no. 2)is also in the works.

In between, I’m writing new poems and finalizing the manuscript of Midnight Voices (WordTech, 2009). I’ve also organized a strange and probably great event – a cross-promotional reading and musical performance, so to speak, with 32 Poems and the D.C. band The Caribbean. We liked their music and we thought it would be a great idea, doing something that burst the usual idea of what a poetry event might be. It’s at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD.

One project I’d like to promote more is the “Memorize a Poem” Month I started this year.

2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

Always the next issue.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

Nope. I’ve been happy with how our plans worked out.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

Elizabeth Bishop. Our people are in conversation with her people.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

We have total control over the design elements of the 32 Poems website and magazine. David Elfving allowed us to use a template he created. I knew his design is what I wanted in terms of clarity and simplicity. That said, our website design is now very 2003. We’ll have to update soon.

The cover art is provided by Dirk Fowler, who designs rock posters for Jeff Tweedy/Wilco, Loretta Lynn, Modest Mouse, and others. The inside of 32 Poems is laid out and designed by Rikki Campbell. Scott at Main Street Rag Press helped 32 Poems improve its look with perfect binding while still keeping the cost reasonable.

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

Poems from 32 Poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets 2005, and Best New Poets 2006. We’ve also had poems appear on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. We also won the Nobel Prize, but we try to keep that under wraps.

We’re in libraries at Yale, Brown, Wisconsin, The New York Public Library, a few others. It’s exciting.

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

More libraries, more readers. More volunteers organizing readings in other distant cities. More poems.

8) What are some of your other interests?

I own a company, Click Wisdom, that helps organizations find potential customers, or vice versa, through search engine optimization and marketing (http://www.clickwisdom.com). I’ve worked in Internet marketing, and it’s challenging, creative, ever changing; I really like it. I enjoy pilates, yoga, meditation, walking, and cooking with whole foods.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

Today, my favorite poem is “Bayonet” by Anne Sexton. The first stanza has an energetic force that pulls me in to read more.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

The No Tell Motel magazine comes to mind first. I’ve spent a bit of time there reading through the archives. They have catholic taste, and I admire that. It’s something we try to achieve at 32 Poems.

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

Most editors say it’s discovering new work by new writers. Well, I agree. Meeting new people is exciting, too. I enjoy connecting with the writers I’ve met at AWP and when they come through town for readings.

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

The ingredients don’t matter much. It’s all about your choice of pan, and precisely when you take it out of the oven.

Daniela Gioseffi

2007-10-19T07:03:00.001-07:00

Daniela Gioseffi is an American Book Award winning author of fourteen books of poetry and prose from major and university presses. Her first book of poems, Eggs in the Lake, contained poems which won her a New York State Council for the Arts grant in poetry, and was published by BOA Editions: Rochester, NY. Her second and third collections, Word Wounds and Water Flowers, and Going On were published by VIA Folios@ Purdue U, and her next, 2002, was an e-book from Rattappallax Press: NY, titled Symbiosis.

Daniela is editor/publisher of www.PoetsUSA.com --an archive of contemporary poetry and graphics. Her renowned anthology, WOMEN ON WAR: INTERNATIONAL WRITINGS, prose and poetry, (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster) was reissued in a new edition by The Feminist Press, at the City University of NY, 2003. She has given hundreds of readings and talks throughout the United States and Europe and been heard on NPR and the BBC among many radio and television stations. Her first novel, a feminist satire, The Great American Belly (Doubleday/Dell:NY & New English Library: London, 1979) was optioned for a screenplay by Michael Christofer, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, for Warner Bros. She has taught Creative Writing and World Literature at various institutions around the Metropolitan area, Gioseffi. She published ON PREJUDICE: A Global Perspective (Anchor/Doubleday, 1993) with a fifty page introduction by the author and annotations on selections from world literature of poetry and prose. She won the Pen Syndicated Fiction Award in 1990, for her short story, “Daffodil Dollars,” aired on the Sound of Words, NPR. The story is included in her prize winning collection of short stories: In Bed with the Exotic Enemy, Avisson Books, Greensboro NC 1995. Her fiction appears in Kaleidoscope: Stories of the American Experience, Oxford University Press, and in many anthologies from other major presses, i.e. Viking, Harper Collins, Faber & Faber, Penguin. Professor Gioseffi has won a LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD from The Association of Italian American Educators. Her verse has been etched in marble on a wall of PENN Station, near that of Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, and William Carlos Williams. In 2006, she appeared on THE POET AND THE POEM, a nationally syndicated radio show produced by The Library of Congress and The National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C. Her latest book, 2006, is BLOOD AUTUMN, published at The Calandra Institute at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York. She is a retired professor who lives and writes in Brooklyn Heights. She is the editor/publisher and webmaster for www.PoetsUSA.com which incorporates www.ItalianAmericanWriters.com/, Wise Womens’Web, and www.NJPoets.com/, as well as her own website www.Gioseffi.com/

Publication Questions:

1) What projects are you currently on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web).

A major yearly project of mine is the overseeing the publication of a bilingual book of poetry. I am the founder of The Bordighera Annual Poetry Prize for $2,000 and bilingual book publication of poetry in English by an American of Italian decent. The book is translated into Italian by a native Italian writer, and published each year with a celebration, reception and reading in New York City, usually at Poets House. So far we’ve published 10 books in the series, The latest two are Water Under the Sun by Grace Cavalieri, 2006, translated by Maria Enrico and The Alchemy of Grief by Emily Ferrara, 2007, translated by Sabine Pascarelli of Florence. I administrate the prize. Judging which book should win is very difficult each year, because there were at least 20 manuscripts out of the many that come in that could qualify for publication, but only one can be chosen, and it is all done very anonymously and fairly.

As for myself, I’ve just finished a new novel titled WILD NIGHTS, The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson based on new research about the poet. Also, I’m always writing new poems, and refurbishing my websites. I edit five websites incorporated under one URL title, www.PoetsUSA.com. Then, too, I am always reviewing books and have reviewed at least seven new books this year.

2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

The biggest challenge I’ve faced as a publisher and editor is narrowing down to the work that I have the time to publish and edit. I am also webmaster for my websites and maintaing and building the sites is very time consuming, but I’ve helped to minimize the work by using templates.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

I only regret that I do not have more time to publish more, but I need time to write myself. Sometimes, I feel it would be easier just to concentrate on my own writing than to work at publishing others.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

I’ve been lucky enough to have the poets I admire most appear on my website, Galway Kinnell, C.K. Williams, Gerald Stern, Meena Alexander, David Yezzi, Grace Paley most of all. I can’t think of anyone else I’d like to have appear on my website. Perhaps, Robert Hass would be really good to have. Also, I am planning to put up some poems by Sapphire and an interview with her that I’ve been transcribing.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

Thea, at TK Multimedia has helped with my web design and maintenance She a good designer and can be found on the internet at www.TKMultimedia.com. We designed the site together, and she taught me how to maintain it. Thea has also designed the book covers for my two latest books of poems and collection of stories. I feel she does a wonderful job and I’ve recommended her to friends like Rochelle Ratner and Stephen Masimilla, Also, Juanita Torrence Thompson all of whom have sites on the net that they are happy with. In future, I will be adding audio as soon as I have time. I do not care for flash graphics on a literary site. The attention should stay on the words. Or, at least, that is my feeling, but audio files are good for poetry.

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

When I began the publication of Wise Women’s Web, the initial division of my website, now a part of www.PoetsUSA.com, I designed and built it myself with a grant from The Thanks Be To Grandmother Winifred Foundation. The first issue was financed by that $1,800 grant award. I did it completely by myself with no help from TK Multimedia. : It has since been
redesigned by TKMultimedia and incorporated into www.PoetsUSA.com, but initially it won BEST OF THE WEB 1998 Award and was featured as one of the best literary sites in an article in Poets & Writers Magazine. That was rewarding, indeed, as it was such hard work for me to learn to build and design a website. As editor of two major anthologies, WOMEN ON WAR; INTERNATIONAL WRITINGS, and ON PREJUDICE A GLOBAL
PERSPECTIVE, I won an American Book Award, 1990 and a grant award from The Ploughshares Fund, a World Peace Organization. Also, this year www.PoetsUSA.com was chosen as a favorite literary website, 2007, by PEN's Membership Forum. Both books were presented in programs at the United Nations. Also, this year, for my new and selected poems titled BLOOD AUTUMN, I won the 2007 John Ciardi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry.

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

I’m 66 years old and in five years, I’ll be 71 years old. I hope to be doing the same things I’m doing today and to continue with editing my websites. I plan to complete editing an new anthology of poems about the Brooklyn Bridge this year as well. I live near the bridge and it has fascinated me as the 8th wonder of the world. The drama with which it was built is fascinating and it is a beautiful piece of architecture, old world granite and new world steel. “Harp and altar of the fury fused…” as Hart Crane said. I created the First Brooklyn Bridge Poetrty Walk with a grant from The New York State Council for the Arts in 1972, with David Amram as Pied Piper. Poets House took up doing a walk every year, but has not credited me with the idea, even though I am credited with it in many sources, including Richard Haw’s book, A Cultural History of the Brooklyn Bridge which talks about my event in 1972 and quotes my poem about The Bridge. I won a grant in multimedia poetry that allowed me to create it.

8) What are some of your other interests?

I started my career as an intern television journalist on WSLA-TV in Selma Alabama during the Freedom Rides. I was menaced and abused by the KKK for my work as a Civil Rights activist. I’ve been an anti-nuclear activist and peace activist for many years. My second career was as a classical actress with The National Players, acting in Shakespearean plays and other classic dramas. I played with Anne Revere in Brecht’s “Mother Courage” and Helen Hayes in “Good Morning Miss Dove.” I was a professional Equity Card carrying actress for some years. I’ve been a dancer and a professional jazz-singer. I toured the country with my multimedia poetry and dance celebration titled The Birth Dance of Earth for which I composed the music on five tracks with a grant from the ABZ Foundation. I also enjoy painting and drawing portraits of friends and family. I’ve specialized in painting wild flowers for awhile. I’ve worked in pastels, oils and acrylics, and some of my paintings have been in gallery shows. I performed The Birth Dance of Earth; A Celebration of Women and the Earth for the Brooklyn Museum Show which included the famous work of Judy Chicago, “The Dinner Party.” We were all part of a feminist arts show in about 1978 or so at the famous Brooklyn Museum of Art.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

My favorite poem, I’d have a great deal of trouble naming. There are so many I like. “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman is still a favorite of mine. It was an epiphany when I was 18 years old. I wept copiously when I first read it through. I loved Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Renaissance,” and won a oral interpretation contest in college reciting it by heart. It is so full of youthful realization, but these are still favorites, today. I still think Millay is a great poet who needs to be revived. I love many poems by Emily Dickinson, including “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, Hope Is a Thing with Feathers that Perches on the Soul,”and several others. I love the work of C.K Williams. His poem “Tar” is a favorite of mine. These poems reach me on an emotional level and that’s why I like them.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

There are many good blogs and websites out there, but I haven’t got much time to participate in blogs. I find the Poets & Writers, Inc. website very useful for authors for keeping up with deadlines and contests in particular at www.pw.org. The National Book Critics Circle of which I’m a member has just started a very good blog on favorite books of professional book reviewers that I enjoy. I enjoy listening to the poetry interviews and readings on
Grace Cavalieri's POET and the POEM RADIO SHOW at the Library of Congress website.

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

The most exciting thing about being an editor is reading through work to find a poem that knocks your socks off. It doesn’t happen often, but it is great when it does. It is thrilling to come upon that poem that “makes you feel like the top of your head has been taken off,” as Emily Dickinson explained. What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

For me a great poem has to include a feeling, an emotional experience that the reader can participate in. It has to say something in an original way, a way that uses language stunningly. I do not care for dry poetry. Poetry has to be intensely interesting, even if delicate and subtle. It has to share a human experience or realization or irony in a new and engaging way. Marie Howe’s poem “The Good Thief” is one that knocked by socks off and has these ingredients. It makes us dwell on the experience of death, something we all contemplate at times and have great wonder about. I believe that a poem should not only be, but mean, despite Archibald McLeich’s famous statemen that “a poem should not mean but be. “

C.M. Mayo

2007-10-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

C.M. Mayo is founding editor of Tameme, a bilingual (Spanish / English) nonprofit chapbook publisher that promotes the art of literary translation and new writing from North America--- Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. She is the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions), and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press), a collection of short stories that won the Flannery O'Connor Award. She is also editor of Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Whereabouts Press), an anthology of fiction and literary prose by 24 Mexican writers. A long-time resident of Mexico City, she divides her time between Mexico City and Washington DC. Her website is www.cmmayo.com.

Publication Questions:

1) What projects are you currently on?

For Tameme, the big project right now is our second bilingual chapbook, "Ghosts of the Palace of Blue Tiles," a collection of poems by Mexican Jorge Fernandez Granados, beautifully translated by John Oliver Simon. Pub date is January 2008, so we'll have copies at the AWP bookfair in New York City. We will also have T-shirts! If you're in NYC, come on by!

2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

For literary work, and literary translation especially, supply and demand, though both are ample, do not always come together in a market solution. Why is this? I sometimes think selling literary work to the general market is akin to trying to sell couture at Wal-Mart. Or, say, foie gras at Burger King. But then, look at what Oprah did, taking literary novels, some of them several years old and mid-list obscure, and, abracadabra, mega-best-sellers! So, who knows how a work will find its readers? It's a fascinating question. At least, fortunately, I remain fascinated. I might add: over the past few years I have developed a healthy respect for publicists.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

I wish I'd launched Tameme's chapbook series earlier. Tameme began as a literary journal--- a 225 page anthology really--- it was so much work, so expensive, and I found that, well, my experience in this regard was in no way unusual. So, I had closed the journal, and was about to close down the foundation as well, but then--- voila--- I got the idea to do the chapbooks. The Tameme chapbooks are the same format as the journal was--- English/ Spanish side-by-side--- but instead of featuring, say, 25 writers and another 25 translators, each chapbook has but one writer and one translator. So they are infinitely easier to edit and produce, far less expensive, and more appealing for readers as well.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

C.M. Mayo, c'est moi. It's terribly tempting to publish one's own work, but so far, whether out of wisdom or some other concatenation of reasonings, I have resisted the urge. I have included my translations of Mexican poets Marianne Toussaint and Tedi Lopez Mills, and of Mexican writers Agustin Cadena and Juan Villoro, however.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

I designed and manage the website with the help, occasionally, of my dad (who, bless his heart, put together the first version back in 1999) and an assistant. As for the covers of Tameme (the journal) and the chapbooks, from the beginning, we've used a professional graphic designer. This is expensive, but well worth the money. Kathleen Fetner did the first one and she's doing another book that's in the pipeline; most of our titles, including the first chapbook, have been done by Ines Hilde. The four-color covers of Tameme the journal and the chapbooks all feature original artwork. These have included works by Francisco Miranda, DeLoss McGraw, Derek Bucker and Edgar Soberon. The cover of the new chapbook will feature--- I hope the permission will come through soon (one must always get permission!)--- a work by Mexican artist Elena Climent. How much input do I have in the design? Well, I am the customer, so I have final say, but I try to stand back and respect the work the designer can do that I can't--- because if I could, then I would be a designer!

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

One of the nicest was the recent review poet Rigoberto Gonzalez wrote about the new chapbooks series for the El Paso Times. We've also gotten reviews for the chapbook in The Bloomsbury Review, mentions in Inside Mexico, and blogs galore, including The Quarterly Conversation, Chez Robert Giron, Daniel Olivas's widely read column in La Bloga, and Leslie Pietrzyk's Work-in-Progress. The blogs--- this is rich territory for any publisher, and especially for a chapbook series.

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

I'd like to have an array of beautiful chapbooks, all messages towards convincing more people that literary translation is an art; that there is a Magic Mountain of untranslated literature out there--- especially in Mexico (its literature has been grossly under-translated); that there are these many writers and poets well worth reading. (For more about Mexican literature, click here.)

8) What are some of your other interests?

My own writing and my own translating. My forthcoming novel is The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire and my latest translations appear in the anthology I edited, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. As a poet, I have a collection titled "Meteor" that's making the rounds. And I teach creative and travel writing via Dancing Chiva in Mexico City and at the Writers Center outside of Washington DC. I blog as Madam Mayo. I read a lot about neuroscience. Right now I'm especially interested in learning more about Iceland.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

Charles Simic's "Fork." It's so visciously vivid.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

Beltway--- it not only publishes a cornucopia of excellent new work, but its resources pages are a treasure.

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

To play a part in creating and sharing beauty--- this is always exciting. And it's been a joy to meet many of the writers, poets and translators--- and fellow editors and publishers.

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

Keep your pen on the paper. When you are finished, lift your pen. If you are not finished, remember: keep your pen on the paper.

Amanda Johnston

2007-10-12T05:40:00.000-07:00

Born in East St. Louis, IL, Amanda Johnston is the founding editor of Torch: poetry, prose and short stories by African American Women, a journal established to promote contemporary work by Black women. From 2003 to 2005, Amanda served on the editorial board for the Heartland Review, a literary arts journal published through the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. She has served on the board of directors for the Kentucky Women Writers Conference, the National Women's Alliance and the African American Arts Technical Resource Center of Austin. Amanda is a member of the Affrilachian Poets, Cave Canem Poets and is an ensemble member of The Austin Project. She currently works for and attends St. Edward's University in Austin, TX.

Amanda's Blog: amandajohnston.blogspot.com

1)What projects are you currently on?

I'm currently finalizing the Fall 07 and Spring 08 issues Torch. The site is also being prepared for a redesign next summer. Currently, Torch offers work by artists and an interview with the Flame, an established artist featured on the site. The redesign will incorporate more community based platforms for allies as well as reviews and a calendar of events.

2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

Since Torch is specifically for Black women I connect with each submission personally. I know it is about so much more than a publication opportunity even if the author doesn't know that yet. It's about the power of the word and the documentation of our history, our stories, through this creative work. Because of this it is very difficult to make selections. In the end, the care toward craft and the overlying voice of each issue decides which pieces should be included.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

No. Every moment has led me to this point and this is just the beginning. Creating a space to promote others has its challenges, but it also keeps you in tune with the needs of the contributors as a whole. As interests shift, the path shifts, but we are all walking it together.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

Nikky Finney. She embodies all that it is to be present and daring in life and that is reflected in her work. She is courageous with her truth and honesty that is infectious. I have yet to meet one person who has witnessed her and not been changed because of it. Featuring Nikky Finney as a Flame in Torch would further spread the magic that lives in her words.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

I am a freelance web designer so I created and maintain my site. In the future the maintenance might be turned over to someone else if time becomes an issue, but I would work with that person to assure the style and content of the site stays in line with the mission and vision we've established.

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

Torch is still young, only a year old, but I've recently been interviewed by Poet's Market on poetry and blogging as Torch is an online journal and I've recently been interviewed by Callaloo. We're just getting started, but things are really moving!

7) Where do you see your publication/ editing in 5 years?

In five years Torch will be celebrating its twelfth issue. Torch will also have expanded into more community driven areas for the purposes of cultivating safe spaces for the creation of literature and art by Black women. In five years when people say Torch they will think of a multifaceted collective offering an online bi-annual publication, a cycling anthology as well as workshops and readings.

8) What are some of your other interests?

Lately, my personal work has been branching out into more collaborative community based art projects. As an ensemble member of The Austin Project and a member of its production company, TAPPco, I recently had the opportunity to contribute to a group piece titled "America: love out of con/text" that incorporates poetry, movement, and song using the jazz aesthetic as taught by Omi Oshun Olomo and TAP's anchor artist, Sharon Bridgforth.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

A poem in the upcoming issue of Torch, "Genderbend: Sankofa" by Bettina Judd. It's an unapologetic telling of Black women's journey and resilience haunts me with its craft and truth.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

All that is happening in contemporary Black poetry is found or linked to www.cavecanempoets.org. To me it is the pulse of and temperature simmering under the surface. All of the writers found there are speaking a truth you can only stand in awe of. With all of the isms and all of the politics trying to silence us daily, the voices found here sing true and it is beautiful. Visit the featured poems section for a sampling, the links section to locate more information on fellows and the calendar to find out where you need to be.

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

Knowing that the hard work you put in does more than just format a site and select some poems. It builds a bridge into another perspective and gives a voice to those who need to be heard and a sound to attract others and in this middle the art connects us all.

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

Listen to the poem. All that is vulnerable and risks itself in the work is beautiful and necessary. Prune it or build it up as long as that essence is what's left on the page.

Jean Emerson

2007-10-06T08:51:00.001-07:00

Jean Emerson of Jacaranda Press, San Jose, CA has worked hard for the promotion of writing in the Bay Area for years, serving on the board of Center for Poetry and Literature (now Poetry San Jose) and hosting poetry open readings at Willow Glen Books in San Jose and hosting and conducting writing workshops. Although her main focus is on creative non fiction writing, her poems have been widely published and she has had three books of poetry and one how to book on organizing writing groups published. Her books are: Not Alone (Bell Bird Press), Cycles of the Moon Vine (The Bunny And The Crocodile), Lessons from a Castle ( Edwin Mellon Press) and A Little Help From Your Friends (The Bunny And The Crocodile)

Ten years or so ago, Emerson was part of a group of women poets who organized Jacaranda Press. The mission they envisioned for the press was the making available to the public the work of poets they admired that they felt were unlikely to find a place in the publishing world. The plan was to publish one book at a time and sell enough of that run of books to make enough money to pay for the succeeding book. Of course, that was a naive notion that reflected a total lack of promotional experience. It seldom works out that a book sells enough to pay for itself, let alone the next book.. But they persevered and have put out a book or two ever year or so and learned a lot from each succeeding publication. Some of the books provided lessons that were unexpectedly unpleasant, others more than made up for that by repaying them for thier work by providing them with an amazing sense of gratification and sheer joy at having put together a beautiful gift to the world. You can order our titles from the titles at http://www.jacarandapress.org.

Our books titles are:
Ø Mister Today (Jacaranda Press) by Iztok Osojnik
Ø A Little Help From Your Friends (The Bunny and the Crocodile Press)by Jean Emerson
Ø Waiting for the Train (Jacaranda Press) by Ethel Seele
Ø What I Would Do for Love (Jacaranda Press)by Grace Cavalieri
Ø The Fringes of Hollywood (Jacaranda Press) by Mary Lou Taylor
Ø Blush of Winter Moon (Jacaranda Press) by Patricia J Machmiller
Ø A Blessing, An Old Nun Said (Jacaranda Press)by Joan Irene Edwards
Ø Reading Berryman to the Dog (Jacaranda Press) by Wendy Taylor Carlisle
Ø Children of the Mafiosi (Jacaranda Press) by Dona Luongo Stein
Ø Not Alone (Bell Bird Press) by Jean Emerson
Ø Heavenly Bodies (Jacaranda Press) by Dona Luongo Stein
Ø Cycles of the Moon Vine (The Bunny and the Crocodile Press)by Jean Emerson
Ø Green Temples (Jacaranda Press)by Linda Henreid Carney
Ø Flame from the Rock (Jacaranda Press) by Frances Roberts
Ø Criminal Sonnets (Jacaranda Press) by Phyllis Koestenbaum
Ø Lessons from a Castle (Edwin Mellon Press) by Jean Emerson
Ø Choice Lamb (Jacaranda Press)by Joan Irene Edwards

You can order our titles from the titles at http://www.jacarandapress.org/

Publication Questions:

1) What projects are you currently on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web). chapbooks,

Jacaranda Press is on the verge of publishing a line of fiction and creative non fiction. Our first book in the new line will be an allegorical story about entitled A Chicken Who Learned to Fly. We are excited about Wendy Carlisle's stunning new manuscript, Chula, which won the Bernice Blackgrove Award of Excellence. Chula will be published in the Spring of 2008 We have been granted permission from Edwin Mellon Press to reissue Jean Emerson's book, Lessons from a Castle, in soft back.

2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

Our biggest challenge in poetry publication has been learning our limitations—we have yet to learn how to be effective in promoting our books and how to deal with the occasional poet who equates Creativity with unbusinesslike behavior.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

Not really unless you count regretting not knowing how to come up with the funds to do all the deserving work that comes our way.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

Naomi Shahib Nye. I love her poetry and I love her as a person. But, being such a small press, we could never give her work the promotion that it deserves.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

My grandson is my web master. I pretty much have total content say so. He is in charge of the design elements; although I do have final say on what goes up on line.

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

We have not received any official commendations, but, of course, that may be because that isn't a priority, so we haven't worked on that.

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

I imagine it going along pretty much as it is. I have plans to learn web design so that I can update the poetry and memoir exercises that are on our web site on a regular basis and add a poetry discussion section.

8) What are some of your other interests?

Traveling and Plants. I like to work with poetry groups. I am especially interested in encouraging people to write their memoirs. I believe that memoir writing reconnects one to their core being and that in so doing helps them regain not only a sense of who they are, but also helps by serving as a mental exercise. (Use it or lose it.) My husband and I have a hobby--keeping ourselves on the American Airline miles Gold list--which requires a lot of traveling on our part.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

Still by, A.R. Ammos is my favorite poem today. Why? Because I was sorting through some stuff and came across it and it has stayed with me all day.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

Currently I am enjoying the Wide World of Words.

I find this site amusing and informative because I happen to be endlessly entertained by words their use, misuse, and points of origin.

I would recommend the book Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins to anyone just coming alive to poetry, because it doesn't take itself too seriously. A person, who is thinking about writing a poem and hasn't given themselves permission to try it, is likely to notice how intriguing yet accessible poetry can be and come to the notion that they, too, could write a poem.

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

Putting a published volume into the hands of a poet who honors the poems in the book is one of the most rewarding aspects of publishing poetry. That, and seeing the presentations the poets make in celebration of their publication. Once we published a book of poems for a woman had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She wrote the book for her daughter. She got a good extra two years of life working on the book. When it was published she was so thrilled and reached down and brought up the energy to do a bang up promotion of her book. And, then she died, seemingly having gone out on a high.

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

Stanley Kunitz once said that poetry happens where the past meets the present. The best recipe for poetry I know of is:take one pen and one piece of paper. Find a pretty place to sit, and look around.

See what your remember let the words have their way.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan

2007-10-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

Maria Mazziotti Gillan born in Paterson, New Jersey and was educated in the public schools of Paterson. She graduated from Seton Hall University with a BA in English and from New York University with an MA In Literature. She completed all the coursework for a PhD at Drew University. She is married to Dennis Gillan and they have two children, John and Jennifer, and two grandchildren, Caroline and Jackson.

The web site is www.pccc.edu/poetry.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is the Founder and the Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, NJ. She is also the Director of the Creative Writing Program and a Professor of Poetry at Binghamton University-State University of New York. She has published eight books of poetry, including The Weather of Old Seasons (Cross-Cultural Communications), and Where I Come From, Things My Mother Told Me, and Italian Women in Black Dresses (Guernica Editions). She is co-editor with her daughter Jennifer of four anthologies: Unsettling America, Identity Lessons, and Growing Up Ethnic in America (Penguin/Putnam) and Italian-American Writers on New Jersey (Rutgers). She is the editor of the Paterson Literary Review.

Maria has won the May Sarton Award, the Fearing Houghton Award, New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowships in Poetry, and the American Literary Translators Association Award through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her newest book is All That Lies Between Us (Guernica Editions, 2007).

Publication Questions:

1) What projects are you currently on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web).

Presently, I am working on PLR (Paterson Literary Review) issue # 36 which will be out by the end this year. I am also collecting material for issue # 37 which is close to being complete and will be out late next year. I also am working on an anthology of poems on north jersey. I expect that to be completed and published by May 2008. At the same time I am working on an anthology of essays on William Carlos Williams and his influence on American poetry. I don't know how long this project will take.
2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

My two biggest challenges as an editor/publisher is getting distribution and getting people published in the magazine to understand that the magazine needs contributors to help by purchasing copies and distributing them to others.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

I am very satisfied with the path I've followed as an editor and publisher. In reference to the PLR I've been able to promote work that I love and that has been very exciting. In reference to the anthologies I've edited, I'm very happy with the response to the large anthologies (Unsettling American, Identity Lessons. Growing Up Ethnic in America, and Italian American Writers on New Jersey which are being used in universities and colleges throughout the country. I have edited numerous other small anthologies, and I know I'm an optimistic soul, but the response has been really gratifying.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

Sharon Olds. I would love to have been able to include one of her poems in my journal because I think she is a very original voice in American poetry.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

The designer of my web site is employed by the college (Passaic County Community College) and he is following along on the original design from 20 years ago. I'm planning to have him re-design the entire page. Right now, it has all the information on it about the magazine, the readings the, awards, etc. I would like to expand it and change the overall look of it. The covers for the anthologies since they come from big presses, I have very; little input on them The three biggest anthologies are from Penguin/Putnam. The anthology from Rutgers, I had input on the cover art. The anthologies that we publish at the Poetry center, I chose the covers.

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

As a publisher/editor, I have received the following awards: Editor's Choice, Publisher's Weekly, Starred review, Booklist, Outstanding Book fro the Lifelong Learner and students fro American Library association, Leo Award from the NY public Library, Author award for New Jersey Studies from New Jersey Studies alliance, Editor's Choice from Small Press Review, Public Radio's award for Literary Excellence for PLR, Named by Library Journal as one of 10 best journals in the Country. Also we have had work chosen for inclusion in Best in American Poetry and Pushcart Anthologies.

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

I always have new projects and t thoughts about where to move my publications and editing projects. I see myself as continuing to have ideas and to produce journals and anthologies.

8) What are some of your other interests?

I also am interested in more outreach into the public schools, particularly in Paterson, to encourage reading and love of books. I am committed to my own writing and teaching. Finally I love to travel, particularly when it involves reading my poems to audiences throughout the world.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

Ode to Elizabeth by Joe. Weil. It is my favorite poem because it so much an American poet--full of telling details and music and a combination of plain language and lyrical language. I just love it. It truly is unforgettable.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

Laura Boss's Arms. She is very original--both funny and sad. It appeals to a wide audience yet is very intelligent, honest, moving.

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

The most exciting part of being a poetry editor is being able to promote the energetic, original, and exciting work being produced today.

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

For me, poetry ahs to capable of moving me to tears or laughter or of making the hair on my arms stand up. Poetry needs to communicate. It needs to be clear and direct and it needs to make me feel something. I think it's rooted in the body and that means it has to be received in the body with a smile or a laugh or tears.

Danielle Pafunda

2007-10-05T05:43:00.001-07:00

Danielle Pafunda was born in Albany, NY. She is the author of two poetry collections: My Zorba forthcoming from Bloof Books in 2008 and Pretty Young Thing (Soft Skull Press), and the forthcoming chapbook A Primer for Cyborgs: The Corpse (Whole Coconut). Her third manuscript Iatrogenic: Their Testimonies was a recent finalist for the Ahsahta Press Sawtooth Poetry Prize. She has been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2004, 2006, and 2007 editions, as well as in Not For Mothers Only: Contemporary Poets on Child-getting and Child-rearing (Fence Books, 2007) and Efforts and Affections a book of essays on women poets and mentorship forthcoming from University of Iowa press.

Danielle received a BA from Bard College, MFA in Poetry from New School University, and is currently a doctoral candidate in the University of Georgia Creative Writing Program. She is co-editor of the longstanding online literary journal La Petite Zine, former assistant to the editors at The Georgia Review, and a contributing curator at the new and soon to officially launch Delirious Hem. She will be the spring 2008 Poet-in-Residence at Columbia College Chicago. Updates and information can be found at her Iron Caisson blog. She lives with her partner, anthropologist Adam Henne, and daughter Hazel. In houses with yards, she also lives with cat Ursula and dog Clea.

Publication Questions:

1) What projects are you currently on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web).

Currently, we're catching up with the wonderful deluge at La Petite Zine. Co-editor Jeff Salane and I of late suffer some absurd scheduling both professional and personal--new baby, new book, international and cross-country moves, PhD exams and dissertation chaos, new jobs, toddler gymnastics, fire ant attacks, etc. Sincere apologies to everyone who waited longer than usual for us to give your work a careful read. Issue #21 barnstorms on the horizon, and we're already plotting #22. If you haven't seen the journal lately, please check out our new InteReview section. We're really excited about these combination book review interview conversations between author and friend, author and admirer, author and colleague, author and clone, author and self, author and rotten meat slab, author and extraterrestrial trinket, etc.

My other current folle de joie enterprise: Delirious Hem! Things are yet a bit inchoate over there as we suss out the curatorial duties, the range and scope of this blog-cum-poetics journal-cum-platform for maximum gaga. Last year, the Delirious Hem concept sprung out of a conversation among experimental women poets. Why weren't more of us writing poetics statements, publishing experimental articles, etc? Well, myriad obvious answers to that ol' chestnut, but the result was a format that would allow busy poets to duck in, curate a posting on a topic dear-to-heart, and duck back to their other projects. A drop-by forum, a one-time deal, or a biennial hoopla. A teaser: we plan to launch with a fantastic conversation, Arielle Greenberg on the Gurlesque. Arielle coined this aesthetic some years back, and I get to travel with her down its many provocative new tangents.

2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

Banal, but accurate, finding the time. Because we set our own deadlines, because our schedules don't neatly complement, because we're each conducting not just one, but often two full-time careers in addition to editing, it's not always easy to prioritize the journal. Someday, there will be a managing editor, or an intern. There will be money for that super new software, or the degree will be done, or it will turn out I only need five hours of sleep a night. Until that day, we do our best, and then we do a little more.

Secondarily, it was initially difficult to get women to submit, but in the past three years, we've seen a real turnaround. We're seeing about the same number of submissions from men and women. We'd like to do a better job representing across race and class lines. We'd like to do a better job bringing in translation, international writers, and critical writing, and in time, we will.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

No, I wouldn't say regrets. Just plans yet to manifest.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

Oh, loads. In fact, you there! You reading this right now--hey you, send us some work! Not just poems, but essays, fictions, hybrids, drawings, you got it we want it. Check out the submission guidelines and our editorial bent at La Petite Zine.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

I believe Mike Neff originally designed La Petite Zine via Web Del Sol. We have a little input, elements that change each issue, but the design hasn't really been altered from the original. Because LPZ's been around so long, we're kind of pleased with this consistency.

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

"Real Toads" by Heidi Lynn Staples (formerly Heidi Peppermint) from La Petite Zine #13 was chosen for Best American Poetry 2004.

We were also selected as “Featured Editors” for Center for Literary Magazine Production’s Literary Press and Magazine Directory 2007/2008 and for the LOCKSS New York Public Library online publications archiving project.

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

The same, but more and better and endlessly delicious.

8) What are some of your other interests?

I'd love love love to start a micro-press, and keep inching toward then away. When I lived in New York, I worked for a boutiquey little design firm, and so enjoyed the search for just the right textile, that perfect linen weave, the most pleasing font. Gluestick happy collage freak, too, so handbound art books would be ideal. There's such an abundance of thrilling work out there; I'd be honored to give some its due in bulk. When there's some money in the bucket. The money bucket, argh, for better or worse even my financial metaphors refuse upward mobility.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

Today, my favorite poem is anything from Ronald Palmer's Logicalogics. My Advanced Creative Writing class will discuss it Wednesday, and I can't wait to hear what they think of, as Mark Bibbins puts it, "what finally resembles an effort to make at least some small part of a fucked-up world habitable again." Swoon. The book's admirably unapologetic in its most sinister and its tenderest moments. Later today, my favorite poem will be A Hole is to Dig, which my daughter will ask me to read six thousand times, though she can basically recite it from memory herself. Tomorrow, I plan to read Tina Celona's Snip Snip! so maybe something in there will become a favorite. And of course there are always my permafavorites in Plath and Loy, in Dickinson and Berryman. I've just heard some of my cohort here at UGA read, and can't say enough about Sabrina Orah Mark's new "Oldest Animal" poems, or Lara Glenum's knocked-up pirate grotesquery. Oni Buchanan's poem about the guinea pig and the green balloon always makes me cry. Fascinated by the "I am inside someone who hates me..." from earlier LeRoi Jones. Anything that shakes the existential borders, that deconstructs the subject by race, biology, culture and ontology. The eviscerated I, the physical body reintegrated into the poetic field, grotesque as opposed to classical, that is with labyrinthine and live interior. That's all speaking very personally. Editorially, my stomach's nearly as big as my eyes. I'm agog re: the poems in our upcoming La Petite Zine, and drooling over a shelf full of grandly dissimilar books from last spring's AWP I've yet to read. This past spring, I gorged on 20th century works for my PhD exams, which was a fab way to recalibrate my thinking on influence, favorite, good, bad, ugmo, jettison-worthy, and reanimation-ready.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

Action Yes chronicles a welcome shift in some major poetics paradigms, and has got the poetry to back 'em up.

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

Being one of the first to read an exhilarating new piece, particularly when such is by an as yet little published creature.

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

Take one finished poem, run over with car in gravel drive, or bury in yard for one week, or slice up and freeze in ice cubes, or bleach selectively, or coat in eyeshadow from 99 color palette, or cut into strips bundle strips around teeth drop into cola wait twenty-four hours remove, or give to bird-stamp wielding toddler, or float in tub after long hard day, or read aloud amid mechanical growls record and playback, or stitch into lining of skivvies, or lace into beloved pooch's collar, or or or. See what remains.