When
Queer Collection 2007,
Gregory Kompes’ contribution to the world of GLBT anthologies, was released in June of this year, I emailed him and offered to help him promote the book. In part, I did this because I have a book coming out next spring and I thought that I could use
Queer Collection as a tool to build some new relationships and get a warm up for the promotion of my own book. It didn’t hurt that Gregory selected two poems of mine,
First Kiss and
Black Dress, for the collection and I was thrilled to see them in print. All to say, my promotion wasn’t selfless. In spite of that it was motivated by my belief in the importance of independent publishing for GLBT writers.
Two anthologies that I treasure are
Amazon Poetry and
Lesbian Poetry. These books are two iterations of similar material and were edited by Elly Bulkin and are critical anthologies in the development of a lesbian voice in poetry during the second wave of feminism in the 1970s and early 1980s. I treasure them both and am consequently always looking out for anthologies that will capture, most likely retrospectively, our historical moment now. That’s the reason when the call for submissions for
Queer Collection 2007 came into my email box, I submitted. I don’t know what will be the collection of queer poetry that signifies a renaissance in queer writing, but I do know that I want to be in it.
So I support the project that Kompes has undertaken and am pleased to be a part of it. I also was thrilled with Gregory sent me ten copies of
Queer Collection 2007 to use as promotional copies. I began contacting reviewers and gay and lesbian publications to encourage them to consider writing about the book.
Kate Evans at
Being and Writing wrote a lovely entry about the book for her weekly installment,
Poetry Monday. Kate’s book,
Like All We Love, was recently published and has gotten good reviews.
Ann White who blogs at
Red Hibiscus also wrote
a lovely - and trenchant - review.
I emailed with Ann a bit this week about her review and I want to include some of my responses here on my blog. This isn’t in any way to refute what Ann has written because I am enormously grateful for the time and attention that she gave to the Queer Collection 2007. I know myself from writing reviews that its and extraordinary amount of work and to write a review that addresses books in a critically constructive way, which Ann has, requires even more work. So I write this to extend her analysis somewhat and to be in dialogue with someone I regard as having a sharp mind.
I wrote to Ann:
Hi, Ann,
I see your comments about the editorial treatment in a political context - as I am want to do. There is a corporatized publishing industry which waxes and wanes in it's treatment of queer writers. Right now, I think we are in a waning phase. There is less interest in queer writers and queer writers aren't selling as well.
The Washington Blade just did a story about how Mary Cheney's book underperformed. When in the mainstream houses, queer writers are not doing well, the less mainstream houses suffer - Alyson, Carroll & Graf, etc. Moreover, we've lost some of the important publishers of lesbian writers. I still mourn every day that Firebrand is gone. And Spinsters Ink seems to be rising again, but I haven't seen what they have published lately. In short, I think we're [GLBT writers] underrepresented in the publishing industry and not getting time and attention from them.
This creates a need for independent projects. There are great ones happening - I love what the fellows at
Suspect Thoughts are doing, for instance, and the great lesbian romance house in NY - criminey, I can't recall the name -
BOLD STROKES Books. I don't consider these corporatized at all. Then there are these independent operations like Kompes. The things is in producing a truly independent book, without any press infrastructure like proofreading, design, distribution, marketing, etc, doing a book like
Queer Collection is a humongous undertaking. I salute Kompes for doing it because it isn't profitable - for anyone. If it was, more corporatized publishers (again, I'd include Alyson in that and even in a stretch Spinsters Ink) would be publishing book like this. Now perhaps it could just be said, they don't make money. Well, most literary novels don't make money and no books of poetry are profitable. None. Ok, maybe Jewel and the woman at Blue Mountain Arts - Susan Polis. So in that context, what Kompes has done is to me important and admirable. Is the quality that of a NY publishing house? No. You ask, does the archive of lesbigay writing merit as diligent an editorial treatment as those that have come before? Certainly, but I think that there are some disanalogies in what you set up. Faderman's book, for instance, is out of a big NY house and Faderman did it as a tenured professor. A different beast than assembling something as an independent writer as Kompes is. Moreover, I think it is not only editorial treatment, but design, marketing, distribution, etc. I want lesbigay writers to have the highest quality of everything in the publishing world, but if I waited for that, I'd be living in complete silence and I'd be writing for no one.
That's my political rant. I'm actually going to write a bit more about it on my blog because I think you raise important questions about the anthology though I have other ones as well. Mostly, I just appreciate that in the silence, Kompes added his voice - not a perfect one, but a voice. A sound. We need that.
Have a great day!
Julie
In the days since that email and in my further mullings of things, I still feel strongly inspired by what Gregory has done with Queer Collection 2007. Certainly, Ann raises good points, but as I’ve been working for a publisher this summer i am becoming more and more aware of the challenges that publishers, even large publishers, have to getting books into the hands of readers. Yet, I know and believe in books powerfully. Books have changed my life and they have changed my understanding of the world. We must have them. We - especially us queers - must find ways of getting them out into the world. Even if that means our projects have shortcomings. Even if that means we make mistakes. Even if that means we have a flawed archive. To have no archive at all would be much worse.
In the interim from this communication, another small press, A Midsummer Night’s Press, has announced two new annual anthologies. I’m pleased and thinking about what I’ll send them in November. Their full call for poems is below.
Meanwhile, though, I’d love to hear from others their thoughts about publishing, independent and otherwise, the queer archive, anthologies, or any of the other issues raised here.
A Midsummer Night's Press announces two new annual anthologies:
BEST GAY POETRY edited by Lawrence Schimel
and
BEST LESBIAN POETRY edited by Linda Alvarez
For the 2008 editions of this exciting new series celebrating the best
in gay/lesbian poetry, A Midsummer Night's Press invites submissions
of poems published during 2007.
Poems can have appeared in print or online magazines, journals, or
anthologies; we are also willing to consider poems from books or
chapbooks first published in 2007, even if the poem was originally
published previously in periodicals, so long as the poet has the right
to reprint the poem.
We are open to all styles of poetry, from formal to free verse; we are
likewise open-minded in terms of content, so long as it somehow fits
(even if pushing the boundaries of) what might be considered "gay
poetry" or "lesbian poetry".
We are willing to consider slam poetry, so long as it has been
published in text form, not merely performed; the poem must also work
on the page, for these anthologies.
We are open to English-language poetry from all over the world, and
actively look to include non-North American voices.
Submissions from individual poets or queries should be sent by email
in .doc format to one of the following addresses, as appropriate:
BestGayPoetry@gmail.com or
BestLesbianPoetry@gmail.com Please title documents with the poet's surname.
Please include contact information (both street and email address),
bio, and previous publication history WITHIN the document, as
documents will be read separately from the emails.
Deadline is December 1, 2007.
(We will consider submissions of work that is scheduled to appear in
the latter half of the year, but which has not yet been published.)
In each volume, A Midsummer Night's Press also plans to include a
round-up of all books/journals/anthologies of gay/lesbian poetry
published the previous year. (We also welcome recommendations or
suggestions of appropriate poems from editors of journals or
anthologies.)
Books and journals for review can be sent to the attention of the
appropriate editor at:
A Midsummer Night's Press
16 West 36th Street
2nd Floor
New York NY 10018
About the Editors
Linda Alvarez is the editor of the anthologies BEST DATE EVER: TRUE
STORIES THAT CELEBRATE LESBIAN RELATIONSHIPS (Alyson) and DYKE THE
HALLS: EROTIC LESBIAN CHRISTMAS TALES (Circlet) and lives in New York
City.
Lawrence Schimel is an award-winning author and anthologist who has
published over 80 books, including FIRST PERSON QUEER (Arsenal Pulp),
TWO BOYS IN LOVE (Seventh Window), THE FUTURE IS QUEER (Arsenal Pulp),
PoMoSEXUALS (Cleis), and TWO HEARTS DESIRE (St. Martin's Press). He
also edited the first (and so far only) anthology of gay love poetry
to appear in Catalan, ELLS S'ESTIMEN (Llibres de l'Index). His poems
have appeared in a diverse array of periodicals, from THE CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE MONITOR to PHYSICS TODAY to THE LYRIC, and have been widely
anthologized in GAY LOVE POETRY, THE PRACTICE OF PEACE, CHICKEN SOUP
FOR THE HORSE-LOVER'S SOUL 2, and THE RANDOM HOUSE TREASURY OF LIGHT
VERSE, among others. He lives in Madrid, Spain with his husband,
Ismael Attrache.
About the Publisher:
A Midsummer Night's Press (www.amidsummernightspress.com) is an
independent publisher devoted primarily to poetry, publishing under
three imprints: Fabula Rasa for work inspired by fairy tales or
mythology, Funny Bones for light verse and humor, and Body Language
for works exploring sexuality and queer subjects. The press' first
titles include THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED IN OUR OTHER LIFE by Achy Obejas,
THE GOOD-NEIGHBOR POLICY: A DOUBLE-CROSS IN DOUBLE DACTYLS by Charles
Ardai, and FAIRY TALES FOR WRITERS by Lawrence Schimel. A Midsummer
Night's Press is distributed by SPD (www.spdbooks.org).
