Index for Continuance

Here we go with comics artists, educators, and publishers Daryl Seitchik and Dan Nott, founders and operators of Parsifal Press, a comic and graphic text imprint based in White River Junction, Vermont. Our discussion centers on independent comics publishing, where we examine its prevailing attitudes, aesthetics, and practicalities with curiosity about whether they differ from their counterparts in the world of text-based small press literary publication (spoiler: they do!). Dan and Daryl help us survey the scene of contemporary alternative comics/x alongside the rise of Big Five and mainstream interest in the so-called graphic novel. We interrogate ideas about literariness, self-publishing, and professionalization coupled to organizational breads and business butters like printing and distribution. This comparative approach proves highly illuminating, and enables us to think together about what writing is, what makes literature literary, and lessons we can all take from the time-honored traditions of transgression, foolishness, profit aversion, and DIY culture-making across genres and forms.Some alphabet at the outset: artists’ books, The Center for Cartoon Studies, Dan’s Hidden Systems (Random House Graphic), Daryl’s Now and Other Dreams (Fieldmouse Press), Diamond Comics Distribution, Fantagraphics, Hilma Af Klimt, Kit Anderson’s Ignatz Award-nominated Weeds (Parsifal Press), Lynda Barry, Renee Gladman, zines.

We gotta say, this episode is really useful for anyone who wants to learn about publicity and marketing outside the Big Five (or even inside the Big Five, for that matter). We talk to Jeremy Wang-Iverson of Vesto PR and Samara Rafert of the Ohio State University Press, who shed light on both the grunt work and the big uplifting moments of book publicity and marketing. We go pretty hard on metadata and keywords and we honor the extraordinary patience that publicity work demands. So much effort goes into any book ever getting “discovered,” and in this ep we’re glimpsing behind that curtain. Learn about “earned media,” blurbs, comps, the shrinking of book review venues that has changed everything, emailing (as always), the long burn of good writing, and how to publicize aesthetically, politically, formally, intellectually challenging work. This conversation includes lots of technical and industry insight, which means it’s also super relevant to the political work of publishing and how it makes culture and slips urgent ideas and art into big media settings. Some things that get mentioned: Deesha Philyaw’s The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Jerald Walker’s How to Make a Slave, Hilary’s and Lucy Biederman’s thoughts on Elizabeth Koch (in Fence here and here), and articles on some problems with blurb culture in Esquire and The Atlantic.

In this episode we talk with Janaka Stucky and Carrie Olivia Adams: poets, editors, and founders of Black Ocean, an independent publisher based in Boston and Chicago. We inquire about the press’s early success and how they manage to keep such lasting power under the tenuous conditions of the indie book market, sustaining multi-title relationships with authors and making moves that include a recent merger with fellow small press Not A Cult to form the publishing collaborative Chapter House. Janaka and Carrie help with language to articulate the values of their entrepreneurial, mission-driven organization as we gloss the nonprofit-industrial complex, distro headaches, and good old indie hustle. If you ever wondered how to start a small press and then keep it running for 18 good years, this one’s for you. Deadlines and a spiritual practice can help, but be warned: you have to blow up your life.Some Black Ocean writers who come up in our conversation include Joe Hall, Hussain Ahmed, Anaïs Duplan, Zachary Schomburg, Elisa Gabbert, and you should probably just check out the whole catalog along with Janaka and Carrie’s own books published by Third Man and Tolsun most recently.

Join Joyelle McSweeney and Johannes Göransson, founders of Action Books, as they discuss the avant-garde, transgressive lit, translation as collaboration, and being publishers in red states. They explore the political aspect of envisioning the future and the impact of living in red and blue states. The podcast also covers the concept of necropastoral, the influence of environment on aesthetics, and the complexities of small presses and collaborations.

Time to chat with Joseph Earl Thomas, a writer from Frankford. Joseph is the author of the memoir Sink, the Director of Programs at Blue Stoop, an associate faculty member at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, and the current Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in Writing & Publishing here at the Poetry Center (among other things). Our conversation centers those other things as we find ourselves dancing once again with the specter of professionalism, considering the mechanics of balancing professional, personal, and creative life, and questioning their divisions. We also talk about publishing with a Big Five imprint, the similarities between small press and “nerd” cultures, and spend some time thinking about regionalism, specificity, and literary economics.It’s jobs, other jobs, other other jobs, homesteading, role modeling, video games, subculture, juggalos (Zach’s fault), MFAs, PhDs, and childcare. Not sponsored by the Atlanta Bread Company, Home Depot, or GameStop. More birds and cars in the background but what are we supposed to do, edit the world?

We spend this episode with the inimitable Suzanne DeGaetano of Mac’s Backs Books on Coventry, the beloved indie bookstore in Cleveland Heights (and popping up all over the city) that just celebrated its 40th anniversary. Suzanne shares invaluable insights into the workings of an independent bookstore; welcoming people and sustaining community; paying the bills; changes in the industry over the past 40 years; the role of events, social media, wholesalers like Ingram, and neon signs; the longstanding relationship between food service and literary work; and more. This is a Cleveland-forward episode so get ready.You’ll hear us mention some other great indies in Northeast Ohio, like: Loganberry Books, Visible Voice, and Elizabeth’s. And we’ll talk a bit about changes at Small Press Distribution (SPD), the stubborn persistence of print books, Bookshop.org, and our feelings about the phrase “slim volume.” Oh, and Espresso Book Machines do exist, despite Hilary’s choice of verb tenses.It’s summer, so in this month’s eps you’ll also literally hear Cleveland—birds, wind, traffic, whatever—because it was hot and the windows were open. This podcast is an immersive experience.

Join us for a fast-paced conversation with writer and cultural worker Sarah Rose Etter as we explore the world of hosting a reading series. We discuss the beloved series TireFire in Philadelphia as a case study, giving advice and tips for starting a series, and what makes for a great reading. We touch on volunteerism, contemporary literary readings, building an audience, and the importance of promoting your own work. Tune in to learn more about hosting a successful reading series!

Join Rebecca Wolff, founder of Fence the journal, as we talk about the '90s, indie structures, 'weird' and 'cool.' We discuss professionalization, idiosyncrasy, collaboration, and not being a brand. We also touch on Rebecca’s time in local government. Excitement for the next stage of Fence. Get Rebecca’s new book at Wave.

In this episode, we talk to Peter Dimock, Eugene Lim, and Ian Dreiblatt, discussing the future of books, the political potency of experimental writing, and the value of reading beyond commodification. We explore surveillance capitalism, the durability of books, the changing perception of reading, and the coherence of novels versus the skimming of the internet. We also delve into imagining justice and kindness, exploring the concept of 'experimental' literature, and the practices of hope and collaboration.

In this episode, we talk to writers, teachers, and organizers Matt Weinkam (Executive Director) and Michelle Smith (Programming Associate) of Literary Cleveland, a (you guessed it) literary arts nonprofit here in (yep) Cleveland. We really get in there on jobs, work, what counts as “being a writer,” the necessity of cultivating multifarious skills as an artist, the erosion of the middle in arts labor economies, and paths outside the academy; email, 990s, nonprofit nuts and bolts; activist principles and good old “boring awful capitalist economics.” We also touch on the idea that New York is not the world and explore ways to think about region in the work of fostering local literary community and creating opportunities in Cleveland, a city with a troubled racial and economic history in the Rust Belt, or the Midwest, or both, depending who you talk to. Some things you should probably look into that come up in our conversation: Literary Cleveland’s course offerings, residencies, and opportunities for writers; Quartez Harris’s We Made it to School Alive; Stephanie Ginese’s Unto Dogs; Kevin Latimer and Grieveland; Belt Publishing; Gordon Square Review; the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, the Great Lakes African American Writers Conference, and Literary Cleveland’s Inkubator Conference.