DAY 5 * SAWAKO NAKAYASU * LILY HOANG *

SAWAKO NAKAYASU has published some books and won some awards. She has two kids, a supportive husband, and an electric bicycle.

Poem by Sawako Nakayasu: “Apple Speed” –read by the author and forthcoming from The Ants (Les Figues Press, 2014)

LILY HOANG has published some books and won some awards. She edits for presses and journals. She teaches in the MFA program at New Mexico State University.

Poem by Lily Hoang: “The Poets”  (read here by Sawako Nakayasu) published in The Evolution Revolution (Les Figues Press, 2010).

DAY FOUR * SOPHIE ROBINSON * DENISE RILEY *

SOPHIE ROBINSON READS POETRY

Sophie Robinson is a contemporary English poet. Her creative and critical work has been published in Pilot, How2, Dusie, and the anthologies Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century and The Reality Street Book of Sonnets.

SOPHIE ROBINSON READS

 WHEREEVER YOU ARE BE SOMEWHERE ELSE 

BY DENISE RILEY

Denise Riley was born in 1948 in Carlisle and lives in London. Formerly Writer-in-Residence at the Tate Gallery, London, she lectures abroad widely as well as in Britain. Besides poetry, she has written books of philosophy and feminist theory, including War in the Nursery (1983), 'Am I That Name?’ (1988) andThe Words of Selves: Identification, Solidarity, Irony (2000), and she edited Poets on Writing (1992).

DAY THREE * PATTIE McCARTHY * ELIZABETH BISHOP *

PATTIE McCARTHY READS THE END OF MARCH by ELIZABETH BISHOP

ELIZABETH BISHOP  (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. Flores Raras, a movie about Bishop's life focusing on her period in Brazil was released in 2013.














PATTIE McCARTHY READS HER OWN POEM,  'The Description & Natural History of the Coasts of North America'

Pattie McCarthy is the author of six books of poems & the mother of three children. The Description & Natural History of the Coasts of North America was written in August 2013, when she was in residency with her husband, Kevin Varrone, & their family, at the Elizabeth Bishop House in Great Village, Nova Scotia.

DAY TWO * KYLE SCHLESINGER * ROBERT CREELEY *

KYLE SCHLESINGER READS WHAT I THINK BY ROBERT CREELEY

ROBERT CREELEY (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. Robert Creeley was born in Arlington, Massachusetts, on May 21, 1926. He attended Harvard University from 1943 to 1946, taking time out from 1944 to 1945 to work for the American Field Service in Burma and India. In 1946 he published his first poem, in the Harvard magazine Wake. In 1949 he began corresponding with William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound. The following year he became acquainted with the poet Charles Olson. In 1954, as rector of Black Mountain College (an experimental arts college in North Carolina), Olson invited Creeley to join the faculty and to edit the Black Mountain Review. In 1960 Creeley received a Master's Degree from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Through the Black Mountain Review and his own critical writings, Creeley helped to define an emerging counter-tradition to the literary establishment—a postwar poetry originating with Pound, Williams, and Zukofsky and expanding through the lives and works of Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, Edward Dorn, and others.

Robert Creeley published more than sixty books of poetry in the United States and abroad, including If I Were Writing This (New Directions, 2003), Just in Time: Poems 1984-1994 (2001), Life & Death (1998), Echoes (1994), Selected Poems 1945-1990 (1991), Memory Gardens (1986), Mirrors (1983), The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley, 1945-1975 (1982), Later (1979), The Finger (1968), and For Love: Poems 1950-1960 (1962).  (from poets.org)

KYLE SCHLESINGER READS HIS OWN POEM, THIS PASSING THOUGH

KYLE SCHLESINGER is a book artist, fine press publisher, and poet.  He has several books of poetry, including  THE PINK, Kenning Editions, 2007,  Hello Helicopter, BlazeVOX, 2007 and  Moonlighting, Cuneiform Press, 2005.

*ONE* MARTHE REED * DAWN LUNDY MARTIN *

MARTHE REED is the author of three books:(em)bodied bliss (Moria Books 2013), Gaze (Black Radish Books 2010) and Tender Box, A Wunderkammer (Lavender Ink 2007). A fourth book, Pleth, a collaboration with j hastain, will appear September 2013 from Unlikely Books; a fifth will be published by Lavender Ink (2014). She has also published four chapbooks as part of the Dusie Kollektiv; a fifth forthcoming from above / ground press. Her poetry has appeared in New American Writing, Golden Handcuffs Review, New Orleans Review, HOW2, MiPOesias, Fairy Tale Review, Exquisite Corpse, BlazeVOX, and The Offending Adam, among others. An essay on Claudia Rankine’s The Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue appears in American Letters and Commentary. She is Co-Publisher of Black Radish Books. 
MARTHE REED READING AWAKENING

MARTHE REED READING FROM DISCIPLINE BY DAWN LUNDY MARTIN

DAWN LUNDY MARTIN earned a B.A. from the University of Connecticut, an M.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Martin's first full-length collection, A Gathering of Matter / A Matter of Gathering (University of Georgia Press, 2007), was selected by Carl Phillips for the 2007 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Her second collection, Discipline, won the 2009 Nightboat Books Poetry Prize, chosen by Fanny Howe (Nightboat Books, 2011). She is also the author of two chapbooks, The Undress (Belladonna Books, 2006) and The Morning Hour (Poetry Society of America, 2003), which was selected by C. D. Wright for the Poetry Society of America's National Chapbook Fellowship.

Women Publishers' Roundtable: Final Installment

Welcome back to the Women Publishers' Roundtable at Delirious Hem!  Here you'll find the most recent interview question that was sent to these small press editors, as well as the conversation that followed.  Enjoy!

Interview Question #8: What's next for your press? What can readers look forward to?

Kristy Bowen (Dancing Girl Press):  We’ve just lined up all of our 2013titles and we have a whole slate of new and returning poets in the upcoming series, including second dgp books by Emilie Lindemann, Sarah Sloat, BrandiHoman, Trina Burke, Leah Browning, Eva Schlesinger, Lisa Cole, Carol Berg, Erika Lutzner, and Erin Bertram.  There a couple of more anthology-like book arts projects in the works, as well as some broadsides, mini-chaps, zines, and other freebies I’ve been pondering. All good and exciting things.

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S. Whitney Holmes (Switchback Books):  For readers, we’ve got a lovely and dynamic new book coming back from the printers this month: Cynthia Arrieu-King’s MANIFEST, a Gatewood Prize winning book that was chosen by Harryette Mullen. Our 2013Gatewood Prize will open on March 1 and we’re thrilled to have the amazing and talented Eileen Myles as this year’s judge. We have a new title from Stefania Heim forthcoming next winter. We’ll be debuting a new website this year, as well, which will include some exciting new content and poetry. Internally, we’re working on a lot of improvements to enhance our book promotions and marketing. It’s a really exciting time for us!

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Gina Abelkop (Birds of Lace Press):  This year Birds of Lace is publishing chapbooks from twelve writers! It is a little overwhelming but also very thrilling, because the chapbooks are stellar and it’s the most ambitious BoL has been to date. Recently released were Carina Finn’s My Life is a Movie, Megan Milks’ Twins and Seth Oelbaum’s macey [triolets]. Coming up we have chapbooks from Maia Elgin, Jeanine Deibel, Carrie Hunter, Jiyoon Lee, Samantha Cohen, JD Scott, Anne Marie Rooney, AndreaQuinlan (also published by dancing girl), and Kari Larsen (another dgp alum!). The awesome zine project It’s Complicated, edited by Judy Berman and Niina Pollari, collaborated with BoL for its first chapbook in a series which is very exciting. Later this year BoL will put out its first call for full-length books to be published perfect-bound. I’d like to plan more readings/events but this may not happen for some time.

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Lisa Marie Basile (Patasola Press):  We’re super excited, after a hiatus in production, to be publishing a few great works by Tiffany M. De Vos, Joseph Quintela, Kiely Sweatt, Mary Lou Buschi and Kristina Marie Darling. Plus we’re starting our Review, which will publish a few poems each week. We’ve also been hosting a Parlor each month, which is kicking back up in March in NYC. The Parlor is mixed-media and very bohemian. We’ll have poetry, burlesque, dance, music, art, and whatever weirdness we see fit. It’s a place for people to talk, meet artists, and share their work with one another. We aim to promote Patasola poets as well as emerging/established poets. We’ve had big success with the past few months, and we’re excited to continue.

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Erin Elizabeth Smith and T.A. Noonan (Sundress Publication):  Oh, man. We have so many projects! Besides our journals, the Best of the NetAnthology, and upcoming e-chapbook contest, Sundress is publishing collections by Donna Vorreyer, David Cazden, and Virginia Smith, e-chaps by Christine Jessica Margaret Reilly, Emilia Phillips, and Emily Janowick, and two anthologies—one of contemporary Quaker poetry, and a multigenre one exploring women and place. Flaming Giblet is putting the finishing touches on The Butterfly Lady, its first novel in five years, and is already looking at three more manuscripts. And, of course, there’s our biggest project: the Sundress Academy of the Arts at Firefly Farms. Whew! It’s all very exciting stuff.

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Kristina Marie Darling (Noctuary Press):  We just released our first title, F IN by Carol Guess, and two more are on the way:  Eva Heisler's Drawing Water and Kristy Bowen's the shared properties of water and stars.  I'm very excited to start sending out review copies and organizing events for these amazing authors.  Soon we'll begin selecting manuscript for the 2014 series.  Stay tuned!

This is the final installment of the feature, but I hope you'll continue to watch these excellent small presses.  Thank you to everyone who participating in the Women Publishers' Roundtable!

Women Publishers' Roundtable: Seventh Installment

Welcome to the Women Publishers' Roundtable at Delirious Hem!  Here you'll find the latest interview question that was sent to these small press editors, as well as the conversation that followed.  Enjoy!

Interview Question 7: What advice do you have for women who are in the process of starting a press, or hope to start one in the future?

Kristy Bowen (Dancing Girl Press):  I think starting small is key. We’ve grown a lot in the past 9 years, but in the beginning, it was important to keep things manageable (both time-wise and financially). Writers and other creative types are often overstretched as it is between day jobs and teaching gigs and being students themselves. Starting small lets you see what works and then you can build from there. I’ve gone from putting out 4 or 5 books / year and investing a couple hours a week to putting out nearly a book a week (sometimes more) and spending about 6 hours per day working on press stuff.) It can be a small thing or a big thing, but you have to get started and build on momentum. It’ll be whatever you make it.

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S. Whitney Holmes (Switchback Books):  Think ahead. Do you see yourself still doing this in five years? In ten years? What is your vision for the eventual outcome of the endeavor? Set the scale of what you’re starting to your level of commitment. No one is entirely altruistic; we all get involved in publishing to serve ourselves in some way. But I think when we’re talking about publishing full-length collections, we have to consider the future of the press, because book publication does affect peoples’ lives. It’s a requirement for tenure, and those who are kind enough to entrust you with their work should be assured that your press isn’t going to collapse a year later when they’re in front of the tenure board. There are lots of other ways not tied to academia in which book publication affects peoples’ lives. If you don’t see yourself doing this for a long time or finding the smart people you’ll need to keep it going for the long haul, I’d say you should do something smaller in scale. If you wanna go big, go big, but make sure you’ve got the infrastructure to support that goal.

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Gina Abelkop (Birds of Lace Press):  Start wherever you can. If you have access to the internet make a literary journal on tumblr or blogspot or wordpress. Talk to your friends and their friends and publish writing you love and are challenged by; a chain of people and events will always lead you to more work you love, especially if you’re conducting communications through the internet. Photocopy poems and staple them together, do research to find out which copyshop in your town is cheapest, or if you can photocopy somewhere for free. Hustle (in the friendly way) your friends and loved ones and fascinating/talented acquaintances. Read lots of literary journals/go to readings and find out whose writing you love; if they are alive get into contact with them and publish them. Read reviews of books and chapbooks and purchase them so you can support a press in action and get a feel for what’s being published/what still needs to be published. Be an unabashed fangirl: Rebecca Brown sent me new work for the third issue of Finery, a handmade zine, and she is a totally legit, serious writer of some of my favorite books ever; I just asked her to contribute after a reading and she totally did. Dancing Girl Press and Switchback (obviously, because I love both presses and have admired/read their books for years) gave great advice. Start small and see what happens. Email people who’ve started presses you love and ask how they did it. Be brave and excited and creative in your definition of publishing.

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Lisa Marie Basile (Patasola Press):  Start small, as Kristy said. Even I got over my head. Know what you want, and if you’re unsure, just read everything you can get your hands on. Get a group of supporters together, even if it’s a poet-friend who can donate an hour of time, when you need it. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Go to literary readings, encourage people, support people, be thankful, be humble. Build a social media presence, take part in it. Don’t give up. Apologize if you’ve made mistakes. Know that you will make mistakes and you will grow. Be unabashedly proud of everything you do. Know that you can only do so much, but what you do is to be done with love and time and attention. Remember your mission. Grow with it, and change it when it needs to change. Remember what inspired you in the first place when you’re tired. Remember it’s all for love and the promotion of something way bigger than yourself. Literature and people’s lives.

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Erin Elizabeth Smith (Sundress Publications):  Be fearless.   Solicit people you love despite how famous or unfamous they are.  Don't stress about image too much.  If you publish good shit, people will come back.  Don't ever be intimidated.  Don't ever let people you don't know make you doubt your decisions. Be respectful but speak your mind.  Have fun with it.

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T.A. Noonan (Sundress Publications): Other thoughts? Well, it’s important to not be afraid to make mistakes along the way, but don’t let them pile up. Deal with them. Work with your authors; maintain an open line of communication. Network. Seriously, if you like what another press, author, artist, etc. is doing, get in touch and make those connections. As you grow, be idealistic but realistic. Dream big, but do what it takes to realize those big dreams. Otherwise, you’ll just disappoint yourself.

By the way, I want to point out that I wish I had had even half of this advice early on.

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Kristina Marie Darling (Noctuary Press):  Start by supporting other people.  Volunteer as an assistant editor or a reader, review books, guest edit magazines.  This will help you learn the publishing landscape before you dive into starting a press of your own.  You'll also learn practical skills that you'll need later on down the road, like copyediting, how to use Wordpress and Blogger, etc.  Perhaps more importantly, supporting others will help you build relationships with people in the literary community.  These more experienced writers and editors can give you advice, support, and resources when it comes time to start your own press. 

Be sure to stop by for the last installment of the Women Publishers' Roundtable, which will include a discussion of future projects from these excellent presses!