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The CLMP Newswire
A Biweekly Email News Dispatch on Independent Literary Publishing
A Project of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (http://www.clmp.org)

Table of Contents for February 15, 2002 (Volume 2, Number 3)

• Poetry Climbs the Peaks with the Help of Rattapallax Press
• Callaloo's 25th Year Culminates with Anthology Publication
• Massachusetts Review To Launch Radio Show, Also Publishes Special Egypt Issue
• In Brief
• Announcements

POETRY CLIMBS THE PEAKS WITH THE HELP OF RATTAPALLAX PRESS

In keeping with its mission to become more international, Rattapallax Press is organizing a series of mountaintop readings in conjunction with The United Nations declaration that 2002 is the "International Year of Mountains." "As we continue to publish international works in the press, it hit upon me to do something unique," says Ram Devineni, Founder and Editor of Rattapallax Press. "I want to bring poetry and world ecology together." According to Devineni, all mountain readings will support the annual "Dialogue Through Poetry" Week and UNESCO's World Poetry Day which takes place the week of March 17, 2002.

Devineni is in the process of setting up poetry readings on 24 mountains around the world, including the highest peaks on each continent. These include Mt. Everest, where Kazi Sherpa will attempt to climb the peak in 16 hours (one hour shy of the record) and read a poem by the Dali Lama. Other climbers include the editors of Suien magazine in Japan who will climb Mt. Fuji and read a poem by Native American poet Joy Harjo; Amir Or, Editor of Israel's Helicon, who will read a poem by Yehuda Amichai on Mt. Moriah; and Five Points Managing Editor Megan Sexton, who will read excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech on Stone Mountain outside of Atlanta.

Devineni has arranged for professional mountain climbers working with Alpine Ascents International and International Mountain Guides to read the works of Pablo Neruda, Walt Whitman, Gary Snyder, Rumi, Wislawa Szymborska, William Blake, Han Shan and many others on mountains throughout the world in the coming year. Rattapallax will also be working with Windybrow Centre for the Arts to program for the UN's Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2002 with a reading on Drakensberg mountain range. Meanwhile, the press is currently piecing together an ebook to be edited by William Pitt Root and published by Rattapallax Press that will contain all the poems read on the mountaintops, and making the free PDF file available from the website http://www.dialoguepoetry.org.

Last year, the United Nations declared 2001 the "Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations," and Devineni participated in organizing readings throughout the world in commemoration of world dialogue. This year, Devineni is back at work helping to increase international awareness of the global importance of mountain ecosystems through the written word. He says, "The point of these readings is to find a way that poetry can work toward creating a culture of peace and non-violence around the world and also to highlight issues of worldwide ecological importance."

Callaloo's year-long 25th anniversary ended with a bang: the much anticipated publication of its anthology, Making Callaloo: 25 Years of Black Literature (St. Martins, 2002). "This book represents the very best of poetry and fiction published in the journal since we started in 1976," says founder Charles Henry Rowell. The anthology is a veritable who's who of African-American and African Diasporic writing, including work Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker, Yusef Komunyakaa, Terry McMillan, John Edgar Wideman, Lucille Clifton, and Rita Dove, as well as an afterword by Carl Phillips.

The anthology marks the latest achievement for Rowell, who conceived of Callaloo while visiting his father's farm in Auburn, Alabama. Acutely aware that writers in the south were being excluded from publication in both southern and northern literary journals, Rowell set out to right a wrong. Over the years the publication has moved several times--from Southern University in Baton Rouge, where it all began, to the University of Kentucky in 1977, the University of Virginia in 1986, and finally to Texas A&M last year. Throughout, it has developed an outstanding track record publishing literature and literary and cultural studies of the African Diaspora.

The first commitment of the journal, however, is to black writers in the United States. For that reason, it should come as no surprise that in the new anthology, 14 of the 19 fiction writers are native to the United States and 31 of the 36 poets represented are African American. The journal does not focus solely on African-American literature, but also on the works (art included) of writers from other countries in the African Diaspora, including the Caribbean, South American, Europe and North America. "Callaloo exists to expand the presence of writers and artists of people of African descent outside of the African continent," says Rowell.

In spite of his oversight, Rowell is like a proud parent, lauding the caliber of the anthology's writings as well as the cover of the book--a collage of different paintings, all from Rowell's private collection, that one time or another graced the covers of Callaloo. He also talks glowingly of his relationship with his editor at St. Martins, though he does express the concern that there has been, so far, not much effort on the part of the press to promote the book. For this reason, Rowell is starting to plan for his own PR campaign, hoping to bring readings to Atlanta, Washington, New York and several West Coast venues like Los Angeles and Seattle. "It might be me, with my briefcase in hand, going to these areas and calling on my friends for help," says Rowell.

Callaloo is published by Johns Hopkins University Press and it hopes to begin publishing a series of book length poetry and fiction collections. In addition, Rowell plans to expand Callaloo's contributor base by reflecting its new location in Texas and introducing writers from the Mexican border region, the West and the Southwest. You can find Making Callaloo: 25 Years of Black Literature at most bookstores and online. For information about Callaloo, log on at http://callaloo.tamu.edu/.

MASSACHUSETTS REVIEW TO LAUNCH RADIO SHOW, ALSO PUBLISHES SPECIAL EGYPT ISSUE

Claiming it a natural next step, the editors of the Massachusetts Review recently recorded its first episode of a new radio show geared to spotlight writers. "It didn't seem like a very radical idea to us," says Massachusetts Review Managing Editor Corwin Ericson, adding that he sees the program-funded by a $1,000 matching funds grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities-as an adjunct to the journal and not a promotional vehicle. "Our first interview came off really beautifully," says Ericson. "It's still unscheduled, but we do know that the programs will be broadcast over the web as well as on the air."

Though most of the details are yet to be worked out, Ericson says at this point the program will feature four pilot shows with writers who, during their interviews, will also read from their work. The first program explores the work of Dara Wier, whose new book Hat on a Pond is forthcoming from Verse Press. MR's new Editor David Lenson and local DJ Roger Fega conducted the interview at a local studio. Other programs will include Pulitzer Prize-Winner James Tate, who will discuss his forthcoming collection of short stories, Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee, and Hans Teensma, Creative Director of Disney Magazine. The fourth guest has yet to be announced.

In addition to its upcoming debut on the airwaves, the Massachusetts Review has just released its special winter issue on Egypt. Conceived before the September 11 attacks, the new issue is already generating discussion in political circles and cultural hotspots of the world. The issue includes fiction by Nobel winner Naguib Mahfouz and a story by archeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass, about the discovery of a lost pharaoh's tomb. There are also a host of short stories, poems and essays by Raymond Stock, Peter Theroux, Jeffrey Hammond, Ahadaf Soueif, Ali Salem and others.

Already there has been positive critical response to the issue. Edward Walker, one-time American ambassador to Egypt who now heads Washington's Middle East Institute, calls it "a welcome effort to broaden our knowledge and increase our understanding so that we can begin to build a bridge between our two diverse but ultimately compatible cultures." And Stanley K. Sheinbaum, a board member of the International Center for Peace in the Middle East, says that in the wake of the current Muslim backlash, "the kind of cross-cultural exchange epitomized by the Massachusetts Review's special Egypt issue is only a beginning, but it is an essential one."

According to Ericson, readers may preview the issue on the Massachusetts Review's website, http://www.massreview.org.

Utne Reader Alternative Press Award Winners Announced

The Michigan Quarterly Review won the "Writing Excellence Award" for the 13th Annual Utne Reader Alternative Press Awards. The Michigan Quarterly Review has been publishing poetry and fiction for four decades. You can find them at http://www.umich.edu/~mqr/.For more information on the Utne APA Awards and to read about other winners, log on at http://www.utne.com/apa/index.tmpl.

Contents Under Pressure: Debates and Trends in Independent Literary Publishing

CLMP launches a new discussion series at the New York Public Library. The series kicks off with "Invisible Ink: The Secret World of Indie Lit Revealed!" Panelists include Jean Casella (Publisher, Feminist Press), Julie Koo (Editor, Kaya Press), Max Rodriguez (Publisher, Quarterly Black Review), and Dan Simon (Publisher, Seven Stories Press). Place/Time: New York Public Library (Berger Forum), 5th Avenue at 42nd Street, March 20th , 6:30-8:00 PM. $10/$7 (students/seniors/NYPL members) (CLMP member publishers, free). To purchase tickets or for information, visit www.clmp.org or call 212.741.9110 x 20.

Small Press Book Fair

Join other independent publishers from across the nation for the fourteenth annual Small Press Book Fair at the Small Press Center in New York City. The fair takes place on March 23 and 24 and is one of the main events of Small Press Month. This year's fair lends a special focus on literary publishing and features a book fair as well as panels on publishing, readings, book-making demonstrations and the presentation of the 2002 Small Press Author of the Year, Zora Neale Hurston. Attendance is free. For more information, log on at http://www.smallpress.org.

Free Technical Assistance At The Foundation Center

During the month of April, the Foundation Center is sponsoring free, one-on-one technical assistance consulting sessions for under-resourced nonprofits based in and around New York City. Visit their website (http://fdncenter.org/learn/assist.html) to find out more and apply.