The sudden collapse of Small Press Distribution has caused a major crisis in the world of the small press, especially poetry presses. In this panel, a distributor, three publishers, and a bookseller will discuss short-term models of survival and long-term models of evolution for presses who have lost their distribution method.
A conversation, in the wake of the demise of Small Press Distribution, on the future of small press book distribution, hosted by Laura Paul of Asterism Books.
Department of Lost-and-Found: a discussion by poets, translators, and publishers Janaka Stucky, Jake Levine, Sue Hyon Bae, Ha Jaeyoun, and Hwang Yuwon on translation. As a character in the Jim Jarmusch film Patterson says, reading poetry in translation is like taking a shower with a raincoat on. Likewise Robert Frost said, "Poetry is what gets lost in translation." So translation is often framed in the narrow terms of what is lost.
Five poets discussing and reading from the works of five poets with significant New Orleans roots who have left us for greener pastures (ie, the oblivion our memories will keep them from).
Beginning with the roots of postmodernism, with Olson in the 1950s, this panel will retrace major movements, including some of the most important manifestos of avant-garde poetry of the postwar era and how these have shaped the current wave of the avant-garde.
Translation, as a poetic practice, is inherently grounded in transnational and transcultural exchange—an outlook that informs the crux of our conversation. Participants of this roundtable will discuss current translation projects--works from the Norwegian, Spanish, Galician, Polish, and German--and what these texts might bring to American poetry.
In spite of contributions from such wits, satirists, and comediennes as Dorothy Parker, Carolyn Kizer, Sylvia Plath, Lucille Clifton, Nikki Giovanni, Wanda Coleman, Sommer Browning, and Morgan Parker, women remain underrepresented in the scant literature on humor in contemporary American poetry. Why? What makes a poem funny, and who says so? Is there a risk to joking—and as a lady!—in such an earnest art form? An eclectic group of women will discuss how they use humor as a strategy in their narrative, formal, hybrid, and performance poetry.
The editors of Ghost Proposal, Tilted House, and mercury firs will discuss the operations, challenges, and miracles of small-team, DIY collaboration. How does a team bring abundance? How can it fall short? Where do values intersect and where do they veer apart? What about funds? What about hydration? Other topics could include press aesthetics, publication methods, and existence outside of the institution.
Poetry communities exist everywhere--in community centers, coffee shops, bars, libraries, prisons, hospitals, on digital platforms, and in the open air. The four panelists discuss their work in building, maintaining, and documenting the lives of various American poetry communities. Jennifer Browne, poet and director of the Frostburg Center for Literary Arts, will discuss recent public poetry installations in an Appalachian county, to illustrate how, even with lean budgets, individuals and organizations can bring poetry into public spaces in their communities.
While trauma can stem from many causes, it can especially be shaped by the physical spaces where it originated. When such places involve our homes or people we trust, the impact can be further magnified and difficult to reconcile with the fuller pictures of our lives. In this roundtable, four authors of new and recent Belle Point Press collections will discuss trauma’s influences on their writing and how they have used creative work to address its lingering effects.