http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/03/hands-on-poetry-self-publishing-book-arts-and-the-dusie-kollektiv/ Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:40:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/03/hands-on-poetry-self-publishing-book-arts-and-the-dusie-kollektiv/#comment-8214 james stotts Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:59:12 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1313#comment-8214 also, thinking of samoderzhavie--самодержавье--these things allow us to be auto-crats of our own poetry. i think that was part of the empowerment bukovsky was talking about. i wonder if a samizdat press isn't a contradiction in terms, though. it's not the same thing as indie-publishing, at least. here in america, it addresses a totally different kind of despair that writers potentially face. also, thinking of samoderzhavie–самодержавье–these things allow us to be auto-crats of our own poetry. i think that was part of the empowerment bukovsky was talking about. i wonder if a samizdat press isn’t a contradiction in terms, though. it’s not the same thing as indie-publishing, at least.
here in america, it addresses a totally different kind of despair that writers potentially face.
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]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/03/hands-on-poetry-self-publishing-book-arts-and-the-dusie-kollektiv/#comment-8213 james stotts Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:51:56 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1313#comment-8213 vivas for the samizdateli! vivas for the samizdateli!
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]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/03/hands-on-poetry-self-publishing-book-arts-and-the-dusie-kollektiv/#comment-8212 mearl Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:37:14 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1313#comment-8212 Annie This is a fascinating account of the Dusie Press project. Everything you describe here: the physicality of the process, collaboration between poets, the idea of empowerment, and the notion that there is and that there can be an alternative to poetry officialdom. Of course calling it Kollektiv, the German for “collective” reminded me of a tradition which faded with the end of the Cold War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall: Samizdat (the anglicized version of the Russian word самиздат. For starters, the article on Wikipedia is excellent. “Etymologically, the word "samizdat" is made out of "sam" (Russian: сам, "self, by oneself") and "izdat" (Russian: издат, shortened издательство, izdatel'stvo, "publishing house"), thus, self published.” As Vadimir Bukovsky defined it: "I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and [may] get imprisoned for it.” The conditions in the United States are of course much different than they were in Soviet Russia, and no one would dare risk analogies between the lives of poets there and our lives, or the Soviet Regime and the American poetry industry as it has evolved, as you say, into “the often-alienating po-biz world of blurbs, book contest entry fees, impersonal editorial responses, and the rest.” But there are many similarities between the Kollectiv’s methodology, spirit and even ambitions, as you describe them. I myself have direct experience with this, as my only collection published to date was published in 1992 with a Samizdat Press in East Berlin, Edition Maldoror. Initially, among East German intellectuals there was some resistance to the unification of the two German States. Misha, a painter friend took it to the extreme. While East Berliners were pouring through the gaps in the wall, he immediately got on the train and headed for Moscow. My editor Maximilian Barck took what had been a necessity before the wall fell, and continued to publish in the same format as a protest against the encroaching materialism of the West. I was the first foreign poet that he worked with and I was astonished at the beauty, the love for the book and his conception of book-making. My friend Pontus, the Swedish Painter, and I started to work with Max around 1990. During the “old times” as they called them, they were permitted to make editions of five hundred books without having to submit them to censorship. It hadn’t always been so easy, but in the latter days of the regime there was some relaxation and in East Berlin there was a thriving cultural scene. Max’s formula was to combine poetry with painting and lithography. Hence, my collaboration with Pontus on the book which is called “Stundenglass” (Hourglass). There are very few copies left as they were quickly bought up by Museums around the world anxious to get their hands on an object from what was already a dying medium. Martin Annie
This is a fascinating account of the Dusie Press project. Everything you describe here: the physicality of the process, collaboration between poets, the idea of empowerment, and the notion that there is and that there can be an alternative to poetry officialdom.
Of course calling it Kollektiv, the German for “collective” reminded me of a tradition which faded with the end of the Cold War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall: Samizdat (the anglicized version of the Russian word самиздат. For starters, the article on Wikipedia is excellent. “Etymologically, the word “samizdat” is made out of “sam” (Russian: сам, “self, by oneself”) and “izdat” (Russian: издат, shortened издательство, izdatel’stvo, “publishing house”), thus, self published.”
As Vadimir Bukovsky defined it: “I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and [may] get imprisoned for it.”
The conditions in the United States are of course much different than they were in Soviet Russia, and no one would dare risk analogies between the lives of poets there and our lives, or the Soviet Regime and the American poetry industry as it has evolved, as you say, into “the often-alienating po-biz world of blurbs, book contest entry fees, impersonal editorial responses, and the rest.”
But there are many similarities between the Kollectiv’s methodology, spirit and even ambitions, as you describe them.
I myself have direct experience with this, as my only collection published to date was published in 1992 with a Samizdat Press in East Berlin, Edition Maldoror. Initially, among East German intellectuals there was some resistance to the unification of the two German States. Misha, a painter friend took it to the extreme. While East Berliners were pouring through the gaps in the wall, he immediately got on the train and headed for Moscow. My editor Maximilian Barck took what had been a necessity before the wall fell, and continued to publish in the same format as a protest against the encroaching materialism of the West. I was the first foreign poet that he worked with and I was astonished at the beauty, the love for the book and his conception of book-making. My friend Pontus, the Swedish Painter, and I started to work with Max around 1990. During the “old times” as they called them, they were permitted to make editions of five hundred books without having to submit them to censorship. It hadn’t always been so easy, but in the latter days of the regime there was some relaxation and in East Berlin there was a thriving cultural scene. Max’s formula was to combine poetry with painting and lithography. Hence, my collaboration with Pontus on the book which is called “Stundenglass” (Hourglass). There are very few copies left as they were quickly bought up by Museums around the world anxious to get their hands on an object from what was already a dying medium.
Martin
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]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/03/hands-on-poetry-self-publishing-book-arts-and-the-dusie-kollektiv/#comment-8211 Brian Salchert Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:19:01 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1313#comment-8211 Only one of my books was originally published in the traditional manner. At the moment--because I cannot find where I hid copies of two books (two chaps that is)--the only way to read my books and books-in-progress is by visiting my blog. Plan to make free downloadable PDF copies once I learn how. I've heard of Dusie, but never investigated it. So this is useful information. Thank you. Only one of my books was originally published in the traditional manner.
At the moment–because I cannot find where I hid copies of two books
(two chaps that is)–the only way to read my books and books-in-progress
is by visiting my blog. Plan to make free downloadable PDF copies once
I learn how. I’ve heard of Dusie, but never investigated it. So this is
useful information. Thank you.
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]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/03/hands-on-poetry-self-publishing-book-arts-and-the-dusie-kollektiv/#comment-8210 Juliet Cook Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:42:22 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1313#comment-8210 Thank you for this article, Annie. Very enjoyable. Viva la DIY publishing! Thank you for this article, Annie. Very enjoyable. Viva la DIY publishing!
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]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/03/hands-on-poetry-self-publishing-book-arts-and-the-dusie-kollektiv/#comment-8209 cara Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:09:19 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1313#comment-8209 Yes! The democratization of poetry through DIY communities. Somewhere Uncle Walt is smiling... Yes! The democratization of poetry through DIY communities. Somewhere Uncle Walt is smiling…
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