The speakers discuss the financial constraints faced by small presses and the impact it has on bringing authors to readings. They emphasize the need for ethical funding and a public discussion on the issue.
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In our first episode, we talk to Matvei Yankelevich, poet, translator, critic, editor, and publisher. You may know him as a founding member of the editorial collective Ugly Duckling Presse, current publisher of Winter Editions, and editor at World Poetry Books. His recent work includes the chapbook Dead Winter from Fonograf Editions and the co-translation, with Eugene Ostashevsky, of Alexander Vvedensky’s An Invitation for Me to Think, from NYRB Books.
Our discussion explores Matvei’s four-part essay series, first published on Harriet in 2020: here’s part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4. Along the way we discuss professionalization in the writing world, money and how small presses do and don’t get it, the struggles and beauties of collectivization, the autonomy of the small press vs. the compromises of capital, amateurism, middle age, antagonism in the market, moving forward with obsolescence.
