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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 May 15, 2002 (Volume 2, Number 9)

• Special Feature: Editors as Writers
• Poetry Northwest Ends Publication
• In Brief
• Announcements
• Events

SPECIAL FEATURE: EDITORS AS WRITERS

Don Lee believes that when he first began sending out drafts of his short story collection, editors probably felt sorry for him. "I'm sure they thought it was pathetic," says the editor of Ploughshares (http://www.pshares.org) and recent winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction for his book Yellow (Norton, 2000). "Most people didn't know I had any publishing history, so they probably dreaded having to make a courtesy call to reject me."

Lee is one of many editors of small presses and magazines who is also a writer. Donning both hats is both rewarding and--at times--a source of conflict and difficulty for Lee and his colleagues. Nevertheless, they share the belief that one can both edit and write without compromising either enterprise. "We all realize on some level that many literary magazines are started by frustrated writers," says Lee. "That's why I figured editors would just assume that my stuff had to be bad."

Lee was able to secure a contract for his short story collection almost as soon as his agent began sending the manuscript out--a remarkable feat, considering the book was twelve years in the making. "When I took on the job at Ploughshares, it took over my life," says Lee. "I became an editor first and a writer on the side." For this reason, Lee didn't finish a short story until two years into the job. Eventually, he completed the manuscript, slugging it out with his exhaustion and the depletion of energy that comes after 8 hours of work a day.

But the editing did not come without benefits for Lee. "Writing has been helpful throughout my career as an editor," says Lee. "I started being able to look at the work that came in with a more attentive and clinical eye. But I also think you really need to separate writing and editing in terms of your own personal aesthetics." He says he never tailors the standards of publishing work for Ploughshares to what he writes or personally identifies with in fiction. He keeps his personal tastes out of the mix.

This is true for Gina Frangello, short story author and Editor at Other Voices, (http://www.othervoicesmagazine.org). But for her, it's not just about keeping an open mind as she approaches the reading season at the magazine. The difficulty for Frangello, as she tries to write her own work, is getting caught in what she calls the "tunnel of voices" of other writers. "I read up to 25 stories a week, and there are so many voices and characters and styles in my head that it's easy to lose your own voice and sense of characters," she says.

For this reason, Frangello (whose short stories have been widely published) makes a point of not writing during the reading period at Other Voices--October through April. Instead, she devotes that time solely to editing. "I know that's heresy to a lot of writers, not writing every day, but I just can't fragment when I'm working on a novel," she says. In this way, Frangello can create a consistent, daily approach to her work as writer, and at the same time make herself fully available as an editor. The result is that her writing ends up benefitting. "Though I don't think you can ever be as good a self-editor as you can be for others, you do learn why a story almost gets there or what small thing might make it fail," says Frangello. "This has been enormously successful for my own work."

Frangello also says the contact with writers has been a boon to her morale. "Working with writers, and watching how they go through the process of working on their own manuscripts for publication, has been helpful because I feel like I'm part of a community," she says. More than that, though, she manages to avoid feeling discouraged by rejections because she has seen other writers succeed, sometimes after long stretches of rejection themselves. "One of the winners of our contest, Kate Small, told us that the winning short story had been rejected five times and was hated by her workshop," says Frangello. "Not only that, she went on to win three other contests that same year. This brings me hope."

In a similar vein, Ausable Press Founding Editor Chase Twichell says "I think that writing has obliquely helped me as an editor," says Twichell, adding, "just as a writer evolves, so too does an editor." When she's reading for Ausable (http://www.ausablepress.com), she says she's sharply aware of what she's looking for and that asking herself why a manuscript doesn't quite work has served her well in terms of developing her own work.

She also finds the workhorse element of being a small publisher compatible to writing. She does everything herself, including typesetting, web-mastering, marketing and copyediting. The dogged tedium alone, she says, requires less energy than her other job, teaching, and somehow manages to energize her when it comes time to work on her own poetry. At the same time, she keeps her editing and writing worlds separate. "I can't write until I take care of the business at Ausable," says Twichell. "I might spend 4 or 5 hours as an editor, and then when I'm done I can say the rest of the time is mine for my writing."

Both careers are a labor of love for Twichell, though she admits they often rub up against each other. For instance, as she reads submissions for her press she finds herself looking for spare, lean, focused work, something she is currently attempting herself. "I have zero tolerance for decorative stuff, because that's how I feel about my own stuff," says Twichell. "But that's not to say in a few years I won't think decorative writing is the way to go." So while Twichell does admit that she is influenced in her selection process by her personal tastes, she finds less conflict than one would expect.

This is true for Hilda Raz, poet, essayist and Editor-in-Chief at Prairie Schooner (http://www.unl.edu/schooner/psmain.htm).While she says she can't be a good judge on whether her writing influences her editing or vice-versa, she does believe that doing both ultimately benefits both. "Being in contact with such a wide spectrum of genres keeps me alive to differences in the work of others and my own work," says Raz. "At the same time, it helps me bring a hungry, open mind to the consumption of new literature."

While other writer/editors might think of themselves as writers first and editors second, Raz says that question changes for her every day. Generally, she says she embraces all of her various endeavors with equal fervor. This is nowhere more exemplified than in a recent award she won at the university for outstanding research and creative activity. "They recognized all of my work as a teacher, a writer, and an editor," says Raz. "They measured my work holistically." As a result, Raz was awarded a six-month leave during which time she will spend working on nothing other than her own writing. "It might be better to have just one career," says Raz, "but I chose more than one thing. I am a creative person refreshed by my encounters with the work of other writers." 

POETRY NORTHWEST ENDS PUBLICATION

After 43 years of publication, Poetry Northwest is shutting down due to lack of financial support. The official notice of closure cites an inability to raise the necessary funds to become self-sustaining by July 1, 2002. "Two years ago, the University of Washington told us it could no longer support us financially and that we would have to become self-sustaining….Poetry Northwest and its Board of Advisors have been unable to meet the deadline," reads the notice in the last issue of the publication.

It's with mixed feelings that long-time Editor David Wagoner bids farewell to the publication, the oldest in the nation to publish only poetry. "I have felt a strong sense of proprietorship, perhaps unfairly," says Wagoner. "But magazines grow up and eventually die." Wagoner says he is to blame for the closure. "My passion was always for the poetry. So I didn't hustle soon enough. I'm just not cut out for that business side of things," he says.

The publication's money woes began back in 2000, when the university decided it could no longer sustain the $15,000-20,000 in losses it had incurred over two years due to the cost of printing the journal and paying a part-time staffer. However, two creative writing graduate students organized a successful email plea for money and challenged the university to take stock of its priorities, especially since the threatened closure arrived at the same time that Robert Pinsky, then-U.S. Poet Laureate, was slated to speak at the 2000 commencement festivities.

The result was a two-year funding reprieve, during which time Wagoner was given the chance to raise the money necessary to keep Poetry Northwest running. "I didn't handle it right," says Wagoner. "I've never been good at business." However, he did manage to run a journal known for publishing the work of such important poets as John Berryman, William Stafford, and Mark Strand.

IN BRIEF

FC2 Founding Editor Wins Prestigious Award

Ronald Sukenick, one of the five founding editors of FC2, has received the prestigious Morton Dauwen Zabel prize, sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The prize, worth $10,000, was established in 1966 and is given to a poet, fiction writer, or critic whose writing is progressive and experimental in nature.

Sukenick is the recipient of many awards, including the American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. He's written 11 works of fiction and criticism, including 98.6 and Mosaic Man. He is also the founder and publisher of the American Book Review. But most people know him as one of the founding members of Fiction Collective, which he started with Jonathan Baumbach, Peter Spielberg, Mark Mirsky, and Steve Katz in 1973.

Sukenick joins a roster of well-known writers who have been past recipients of the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award, incluidng Donald Barthelme, Harold Bloom, Jamaica Kinkaid, and Paul Auster. Sukenick was honored in New York City on May 15th.

Book Sales Projected to Increase

The Book Industry Study Group has looked into its crystal ball and come up with these estimates for 2002 book sales: industry sales should increase overall 2.8% in the coming year to $24.41 billion. Adult trade books are expected to improve, but only slightly. Hardcover sales should see an increase of just under 1% to $2.65 billion, and trade paperbacks are forecast to increase in sales by 2.9% to 1.98 billion.

Another Layoff at Ingram

According to industry reports, Ingram has laid off more than 50 employees, cutting from the Management Information Systems department. At the same time, Ingram plans to open a 650,000 square foot warehouse in Chambersburg, PA, making this its largest distribution center. As you may remember, Ingram closed two warehouses last year and laid off 315 employees.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Our wonderful Newswire Reporter, Leslie Schwartz, gave birth to a baby girl (also wonderful!) on May 5th at 11:30 AM. Little Charlotte Harvey Littlewood (also called "Shashi") was born weighing seven pounds, four ounces. Congratulations to Leslie and her husband Greg!

EVENTS

"Contents Under Pressure" Panel Discussion

Please join CLMP for a compelling discussion at the New York Public Library: "Editor as Other: The Aesthetics of Multiculturalism"

May 29, 6:30-8PM,

New York Public Library (Trustees Rm.-2rd Floor) 5th Ave at 42nd St.

Free admission

Panelists include:

*Jacqueline Bishop (Calabash: A Journal of Caribbean Arts and Letters) * Steve Cannon (A Gathering of the Tribes) *Josh Cohen, (Boston Review)

*Danny Shot (Long Shot)

* Alexandra van der Kamp, (Terra Incognita) * Moderated by Jeffrey Lependorf, CLMP's Executive Director

The Literary Review Reading

Wednesday, May 22 6:30-8:30

Where: Moran's, 103 Washington St. in New York City

The Literary Review celebrates new issue with readings by Geoffrey O'Brien, Robert Polito, Lynn Tillman, and Sara Nelson.

For more info. call (973) 443-8564. Co-sponsored by The Literary Review and the MFA Program at Farleigh Dickinson University.

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