CONSORTIUM TAKES ON TWO MORE INDIE PRESSES

In a move that signals a continued effort to add to its literary press roster, Consortium has added New England publishers Alice James Books and Tupelo Press to a list that includes Sarabande Books, Coffee House Press, Copper Canyon, and BOA Editions. And contrary to published reports, there's no effort afoot to trim consortium's client base. "It's not a business strategy to get rid of presses," says Marketing Manager Susan Doerr. "In fact, we want to bring on publishers, both literary and non-literary, that fit with our current list."

To that end, Doerr says that both Alice James Books ( http://www.umf.main.edu/~ajb) and Tupelo Press (http://www.tupelopress.org) match the profile the distributor is searching for to build its poetry publishers. "Poetry is an odd duck. You aren't going to get 30 books a year out of a poetry publisher," says Doerr. "So we look for presses of outstanding reputation and quality." Doerr also stresses marketing as part of a press's appeal to the distributor. "A lot of small presses know how to publish quality books, but not necessarily how to market them," says Doerr. "We're looking for presses who can do both."

April Ossman, Managing Editor of Alice James Books, agrees that their efforts toward marketing paid off when they first began discussions with Consortium last year. "It doesn't do much good to publish great poetry if no one can read it," says Ossman. She hopes that working with Consortium will help Alice James reach its goal of doubling sales figures by next year. "That shouldn't be too hard, now that we're working with Consortium," she says.

Margaret Donovan, Managing Editor of Tupelo Press, echoes Ossman. "You can print beautiful books in your basement, but if the books don't sell there's not much point to it," she says. She also credits the quality of the press's books as a determining factor. "What we've tried to do is create the best books we can, not only in the quality of the writing but in the way the books look and feel," says Donovan. "I think that impressed Consortium." Like Ossman, Donovan is looking forward to increased sales and distribution with the distributor.

NEW ON-LINE LIT MAG PICKS UP WHERE PRINT PREDECESSOR LEFT OFF

Blackbird: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts is the latest e-zine publication to feature high-quality poetry and prose on the net. But unlike other on-line magazines, Blackbird got its start as The New Virginia Review--a print publication--back in the 1980s.

The magazine, which was published by the nonprofit Richmond, Virginia literary arts organization, New Virginia Review, Inc., ceased operations in the mid 1990s. "It was just too hard to do The New Virginia Review all by myself," says Mary Flinn, the review's former Editor and now one of three editors at Blackbird. Two-and-a-half years ago, Flinn met with Jeff Lodge, coordinator of the Creative Writing program at Virginia Commonwealth University, to discuss the possibility an on-line publication. "I realized at The New Virginia Review that there were limitations in terms of money and audience," says Flinn. "We saw this as an opportunity to take the best values of a print publication and put it out to a much larger audience without having to worry about money."

The objective from the start, says Lodge, was to make creative use of the Internet as well as follow the best traditions of print journals by striving for high literary quality, paying contributors, and archiving the journal on-line and in libraries. Lodge also believed it was essential to scale back the bells and whistles typical of other literary websites. "We wanted to privilege the work instead of drowning it out with extravagant backgrounds and fonts," he says. The result was a first issue that included writers like Phillip Levine, Mark Jarman, and George Garrett. "Because of the great lineup of writers, we got a very strong response from the readers," says Lodge.

That is not to say that Blackbird doesn't take advantage of the medium. The magazine, which is edited by Flinn along with William Tester and Gregory Donovan, offers audio and video selections featuring its contributors. And in a move to establish readership loyalty, the editors plan to publish bi-weekly features on a wide range of literary issues. Also, Blackbird features visual arts. In the first issue, for instance, Richard Carlyon, an artist well known in Virginia art circles, opened the "Gallery" section of the journal with a video called "Flight Song." Visitors also tuned in to listen to a media play for four voices by New York playwright Romulus Linney.

The first issue was sent to an email list of students and others associated with the Creative Writing program at Virginia Commonwealth University. The site was also advertised on Poetry Daily and Web del Sol. Costs associated with the start-up were defrayed by in-kind contributions, and the College of Humanities at the University agreed to provide the office space and equipment necessary to get started. The site receives 1,000 visitors a week.

"We're flummoxed," says Flinn. "We had no idea how wonderful it would be. It's gone off much better than any of us thought it would and we're thrilled at the reception we've been getting." See Blackbird for yourself at http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu.

A CHANGING OF THE EDITORIAL GUARD AT AGNI

Sven Birkerts, author of several books, including the Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in An Electric Age, took over as Editor of the 30-year-old journal Agni on July 1. He replaces Founding Editor Askold Melnyczuk, who last May announced he would be leaving both the esteemed journal and Boston University (where Agni is published) to head the Creative Writing program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Birkerts, whose work has appeared in Harpers, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times Sunday Book Review, just published a memoir called My Sky Blue Trades (Viking, 2002). He teaches Creative Writing at Mount Holyoke College and the Bennington Graduate Writing Seminars. Of his new boss, Agni Managing Editor Eric Grunwald says, "Sven intends to keep things going pretty much the way they have been, but he's obviously thinking deeply about what we want to do, and eventually he'll put his own stamp on it."

Meanwhile, Melnyczuk will continue to work on the 30th anniversary issue of the magazine, due out in October. It's his last hurrah at a publication he began as an underground newspaper in the attic of his family's home and developed into a literary journal while studying at Antioch College. Three decades later, Agni is considered one of the nation's premier literary journals. In addition to its who's who list of writers published, it has won such awards as PEN's Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing, presented to Melnyczuk last spring.

"I was fortunate to work with Askold," says Grunwald, "and now I'm doubly glad to be working with Sven." Look Agni up at http://www.bu.edu/agni

IN BRIEF

Ingram Book Group Announces Opening of Super Center

The largest facility in Ingram's national distribution network has just opened in Chambersburg, PA, and promises its customers no more than a two-day turnaround on distribution. Officially opened June 27th, the new facility integrates automated book and magazine distribution, expanded freight consolidation, and Ingram's national returns center all under one roof. The 15-acre site has two miles of conveyers monitored by state-of the-art quality controls that, according to Ingram spokesman Keel Hunt, dramatically reduces the chances of error while allowing for quicker and more efficient distribution.

"Publishers who utilize Ingram as their distributor should find the Chambersburg facility and Ingram's overall new network much more efficient in getting product to market," says Hunt. Chambersburg is the fourth and largest of Ingram's newly designed distribution centers which include facilities in La Vergne, Tennessee; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Roseburg, Oregon. Hunt says the opening of these larger facilities represents a strategy on the part of Ingram to streamline its operations. According to Hunt, the new Pennsylvania center allows Ingram to handle thousands of additional titles in a location that best serves its East Coast customers, publishers, and printers.

FYI

Just an idea of how the book business is doing: recent figures show that total sales at the three largest bookstore chains in the country--Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Books A Million--rose 4.8% to $1.71 billion for the first quarter of 2002. Barnes & Noble had the largest gain of 6.6% (861 million), followed by Books A Million at 3.8% (101.2 million), and then Borders at 3% (751.7 million).

EVENTS

CLMP Panel at the Harlem Book Fair: INDEPENDENT VOICES: AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLISHING OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM. July 20, 2002 2:30-3:45 PM at The Countee Cullen Library, 104 W. 136th St. [near Lenox Ave.] Harlem, New York. Panelists include: Marie Brown (Marie Brown Associates); Paul Coates (Black Classic Press); Cornelius Eady (Cave Canem) Ron Kavanaugh (Mosaic Literary Magazine); Crystal Bob-Semple (Brownstone Books). Moderated by Jeffrey Lependorf, Executive Director, CLMP. For more information contact CLMP at (212) 741-9110.

PINK PONY WEST POETRY READING SERIES, hosted by Jackie Sheeler at The Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street (Bleecker and West 4th). JULY 19: The musical whimsical poetry of Ryn Gargulinski and 2/3Nerve. JULY 26: Amy Greenfield.

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