Episode 17: Ryan Skrabalak - “Networks of Pleasure”

Strap in as we spelunk some of “indie” publishing’s murkiest and most nutrient-rich depths. Zach talks with Ryan Skrabalak: poet, teacher, cheesemonger, Deadhead, cool punk, and founder of the lively and exciting Spiral Editions. Spiral is a publisher of (chap)books, cassettes, a newsletter, and other pleasure-inducing printed objects and ephemera. As such, we had natural occasion to apply our focus to literature’s corporeal commitments, interrogating the imports, joys, and challenges of creating insistently-palpable pulpable culture in an increasingly disposable digital age. We meditate on editing, curation, book production and book-as-object, tracing grooves across music and lit overlaps to elaborate on forever-ideas about DIY, self-publishing, ISBNs, professionalism, adjunctification, the non-profit-to-no-profit pipeline, fun, trust, difficulty, and other social, political, and aesthetic commitments of the press. This conversation centers the historical traditions and psycho-material realities of making books and culture as an autonomous enterprise. Just don’t say micro-press.

A lot of names come up in this hour-plus because (he’ll never cop to it but we’ll assert) Ryan’s a bit of a historian. So, in the spirit of this as well as that of the fast-and-loose editorial hand, we’ll leave you with a litany: Eileen Myles, Bernadette Mayer; The Poetry Project; Tuumba Press, Lyn Hejinian, “The Rejection of Closure”; Burning Deck, Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop; Angel Hair; Mimeo, Letterpress, Stitches, Papers, Printers, Toner, Rubber bands; Artbooks; Phoebe Glick’s The Afters; The Aliens; Cedar Sigo, Carlos Lara, Cody-Rose Clevidence, Mohammed Zenia; Tori Kudo, Crazy Spirit; 1080 Press; Coffee Cup News.