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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 March 1, 2002 (Volume 2, Number 4)

• Former Prairie Schooner Staff Member Gives Back in Spades
• Neshui Publishing Releases Post Cold-War Hungarian Poetry Anthology
• Four Way Books follows Fence Books to New England Distributor
• In Brief
• Announcements

FORMER PRAIRIE SCHOONER  STAFF MEMBER GIVES BACK IN SPADES

It came as a surprise: at the opening reception for Prairie Schooner's 75th anniversary, former staff member Glenna Luschei announced she was bestowing a $500,000 gift. "I've known [Luschei's] work as a poet for a long time and as a distinguished editor and am so delighted by this gift," says Hilda Raz, Professor of English at the University of Nebraska and Editor-in-Chief of Prairie Schooner. The gift, donated to the University of Nebraska Foundation, is earmarked to create the Glenna Luschei Endowed Editorship in perpetuity for the journal as well as the Glenna Luschei Fund for Excellence at Prairie Schooner.

Luschei decided to donate the money primarily because she felt indebted to former Editor of Prairie Schooner, Bernice Slote, for telling her that one day she would be heard. With the award Luschei also pays tribute to University of Nebraska, where she earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as to Prairie Schooner for imbuing her with the vision she says would later help her author 19 books of poetry and start Solo press. "I feel the time is ripe for poets and writers to give back to the publications that first saw them into print," says Luschei.

Prairie Schooner, the longest running journal west of the Mississippi, was founded in 1927 by University of Nebraska English professor Lowry C. Wimberly. While the journal was originally regional in scope, the success of original staffers Jim Thompson, Mari Sandoz, Edward R. Murrow, and Edward Stanley brought it national attention. Raz has also broadened the journal. "I brought my interest in international literature to Prairie Schooner with special issues that feature work from Czechoslovakia, Australia, Japan and China," says Raz. In addition, the publication has published special issues featuring Jewish American Writers, Canadian Women Writers, Writing from Alaska and others.

This year at the Associated Writing Programs convention, the publication will officially announce the launch of its new annual prizes for short fiction and poetry. Winners will receive an as yet undecided--but, according to Raz, substantial--financial award as well as publication by the University of Nebraska Press. To view back issues of the magazine or find out more about its history, log on at http://www.unl.edu/schooner/psmain.htm.

After 12 years of work, Neshui Publishing is finally releasing Swimming the Ground, an anthology of Hungarian poetry that spans some of that country's most turbulent times for writers. "Nothing like this has ever been translated and published by any American press before," says Neshui Publishing President Bradley Hodge of the anthology, supported mainly by a grant from the Hungarian Translation fund. To celebrate Swimming the Ground, the Hungarian government is sponsoring several kickoff readings in Budapest this month. Neshui Publishing is also supporting readings at various venues in the United States, including Washington D.C. and the press's hometown of St. Louis.

Hodge says the translators, American Michael Castro and Hungarian Gabor G. Gyukics, worked hard to include poets that were influenced by both the communist and post-communist worlds of Hungary. The contributors are, according to the translators, part of a new wave of Hungarian writers who were silenced under communism, witnessed the toppling of their government, and now record--with an uneasy skepticism--the emergence of democracy and newfound personal freedoms. All but three poets--Gyorgi Petri, Sandor Rakos, and Balaza Simon--are still alive. And the translators passed over many well-known Hungarian writers whose work did not fit the concept of introducing new Hungarian poetic voices to an American audience.

Hodge started Neshui Publishing in 1995 when he realized there were few literary publishers in the St. Louis area but many local writers. "I wanted to pattern Neshui after New Directions and City Lights," he says. He keeps his costs down with simple cloth-bound books, two-color covers and little in the way of art. "Our books cost around 25 cents a piece to make," says Hodge, adding that the press can whittle the costs down to 10 cents a piece if they use simple brown paper covers. Instead of fancy design, the press focuses on the work itself. Hodge says, "We have always wanted to produce things that will be different and of high literary quality." The world has noticed: several of the press's titles have been reviewed in The New York Review of Books, Publishers Weekly, and Newsday, and Swimming the Ground is the first Neshui Publishing book to be in The New York Times Book Review.

FOUR WAY BOOKS FOLLOWS FENCE BOOKS TO NEW ENGLAND DISTRIBUTOR

First, Rebecca Wolff announced late last year that Fence Books, the imprint of the experimental New York literary journal Fence (http://www.fencemag.com), would be distributed by University Press of New England (UPNE). Now, fellow New York literary publisher Martha Rhodes is following suit with news that Four Way Books--which has never worked with a full-scale distributor before--will now also be distributed by UPNE. "UPNE has a compatible sensibility with us," says Rhodes. "They're the perfect size and have a seasoned sales force."

Disappointed with the efforts of wholesalers Small Press Distribution and Baker and Taylor, Rhodes began discussions with UPNE in 2000. For the last two years UPNE and Four Way have gone through what Rhodes calls a "productive" period of getting to know each other. The result, says Rhodes, "is that UPNE knows our books well and will know what kind of job to do to support them." In the fall of 2002, UPNE will begin handling all the bookstore sales and institutional sales for Four Way Books (http://www.fourwaybooks.com) as well as represent the press at trade shows and conferences.

Established in 1970, University Press of New England (http://www.upne.com) is a consortium of university presses that includes Brandeis, Tufts, Dartmouth, and Middlebury College. "The importance of the consortium is that it allows for the sharing of expenses with our international and domestic sales reps," says Sarah Welsch, Director of Sales and Marketing for UPNE. Though UPNE has distributed art books by museum presses and regional books on travel and New England, taking on Fence and Four Way books represents a growing trend in UPNE to expand its subject areas to poetry. It also represents a decision to distribute non-university poetry presses (others include Sheep Meadow Press and the National Poetry Foundation). "Including small poetry presses allows us to have more books to sell without having to hire our own editorial staff," says Welsch. "We need to expand to survive and in order to grow we need to have a greater base of titles."

New York Times Book Review Publishes Original Poems

For those of you who haven't yet heard about it or seen it, The New York Times Book Review has begun publishing original poetry in its hallowed pages. According to the Times, poetry won't appear in every issue, but those poems that do show up will all be previously unpublished works. While many other stand-alone book reviews--like The Los Angeles Times Book Review--publish poetry, this marks the first time that The New York Times Book Review will make original poems a consistent, if not irregular, feature of its review. The first poem to appear is "Harm's Woods" by New York City poet Nathaniel Bellows.

Time's Man of the Year to Open BEA

It seems like Rudy Giuliani is everywhere these days, so why not the BEA in May too? Coinciding with the upcoming publication of his new book, "Leadership" (Talk Miramax, June 2002), he will be launching this year's BEA welcome reception in New York City on May 2. Also of note: this year marks the first time in 11 years that BEA will be in New York City, and organizers are projecting a banner turnout, in spite of the events of September 11 and the economic downtown that has hit the publishing industry hard.

Small Presses in the News

"Of all the types of publications facing tight times and the threat of extinction at the beginning of the 21st century, perhaps the most dramatically endangered is the literary journal, the long-standing bastion of free expression and creative endeavor in prose and poetry…." So writes Phoebe Kate Foster, Associate Book Editor for the online culture magazine Pop Matters. Check out her interviews with editors from Alaska Quarterly Review, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and others, at http://www.popmatters.com/books/reviews/litjournals/020219.html.

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 http://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.