Small presses have
been at the vanguard of many literary movements, including Modernism, radical
poetries of the 1960s, Black Arts, Asian and Pacific writing. Among the media
used by small presses are the broadside; the chapbook (or a small sewn or
stapled brochure); the mimeograph; the xerox machine; the book; the zine; and
the internet. In this course, students will engage in several activities at
once: 1) they will read about the history of small press publishing; 2) they
will collect materials from a small press of their choice and do an oral report
on the press, extant or not, based also on an interview with the
editor/publisher; 3) they will start their own small presses, either
individually or in small huis; and 4) they will write poems/stories inspired by
Jack Spicer’s “Magazine Verse” and Catherine Wagner’s homage to Spicer in Miss
America.There will be a busy class blog on which students will write about
their findings and interview publishers, editors, writers, and designers. There
will be frequent class visits by experts in the field.
Requirements
include: weekly blog entries; an oral report on a small press; creation of a
small press, to include the production of one journal issue, or chapbook or
book by authors other than the students; a manifesto in support of the press,
as well as an essay on the process of creating the press and making its first
publication.
Texts:
Jerome Rothenberg
& Steven Clay, A Book of the Book,Granary Books:
Catherine Wagner, Miss
America
Hefty xeroxed
reader of essays
Books/e-books by a
small press of the student’s choice.