Kylan Rice and Conner Bassett with Dr. Susan Howe, English
In a socially mediated age marked by competing identity politics, fractured and proliferating interests, and streamlined global connectivity, networking and community-building have become invaluable components of any venture /career goal. This is as true for lawyers or politicians as it is for poets and artists. The old adage, “it’s who you know,” is continuously validated and proven in job markets, in graduate schools, and in other sectors of the career-oriented world. To this end, Conner Bassett and I have used the funding provided us by an ORCA grant not only to expand the reach of our small online poetry journal, likewise folio, and publish—as an imprint of the journal—a chapbook of poems by Laura Kasischke (faculty member at the University of Michigan). We have also managed to forge a budding poetry community around this grassroots publishing group. Beyond overseeing each aspect of the publication process (solicitation editing, design, and marketing) and gaining a valuable set of corresponding skills, we have also to sought to build likewise folio and likewise books into a hub around which similarly minded individuals can gather and engage in creative sharing and self-expression. This, we believe, is the purpose of poetry in a (specifically) postmodern age, where poetry no longer functions as an idealized or “transcendent” medium. Art catalyzes the formation of valuable communities which perpetuate dialogues, engage municipalities, and act as fostering, developmental spaces grounded in human expression. The ORCA grant has allowed us to fulfill this three-fold project: publish important literature, network within our field, and offer a digital dialogue, community, and space.
The ORCA grant was written as a means improve the online journal likewise folio, begin the poetry chapbook press likewise books, and has allowed us the means to expand the project to include a podcast entitled likewise audio which has partnered with Inscape, the BYU literary journal on campus. Each of these components contributes to a vital, vibrant and dynamic poetry community and publishing platform. Because we recognized the fertility and burgeoning potential of online publishing, Conner Bassett and I decided to move the folio online in order to expand its reach. Online publications offer broader venues for experimentation and experience and tend to serve dynamic, fluctuating communities. Where traditional print poetry lends itself to a certain degree of aesthetic rigidity, and poetic internment, born digital literature generates a flexible, fast-paced dialogue and offers new tools like video, sound, hyperlinking. Born-digital literature is often highly aware of itself as text and interrogates itself accordingly. The online journal is able to publish faster, reach broader audiences, and enter the streams of conversation initiated in digital spaces.
However, according to scholars like Jessica Pressman (see “The Aesthetic of Bookishness in Twenty-First-Century Literature,” Michigan Quarterly Review), digital publication is not, contrary to popular belief, facilitating the demise of print publication—rather digital publication is expanding book culture, even fetishizing it. In order to broaden the public and expressive range or reach of the online component of the journal, we decided to use grant money to launch a small associated chapbook press called likewise books. We researched chapbooks and chapbook design and compiled a list of poets from whom we were excited to solicit a manuscript for publication. Our first contact, Laura Kasischke, author of many novels and books of poetry, including Space, In Chains, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, eagerly agreed to provide us with a manuscript to publish. By late summer, we had received the manuscript, decided upon cover art (by Alexandra Johnson, art student at BYU), and proceeded to design, format, and edit the chapbook. We worked with the BYU Print and Mail office to publish Kasischke’s book House to House with a run of 100 copies, 20 of which we sent to Kasischke, and another 10 of which we sent to various book reviewers. We have had book reviews published online and have several more in the pipeline, from professionals like Jay Hopler and Susan Howe. House to House has a listing online at the likewise folio website. I also began recording episodes of a podcast featuring new and emerging poets entitled likewise audio in order to drive traffic to the website, and specifically, Kasischke’s book listing. Currently, King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City carries copies of House to House, and we are negotiating with regional interest bookshops in Provo, Iowa City, and Ann Arbor. Finally, Conner Bassett and I have used the remaining ORCA funds to buy airline tickets to and booth space at the AWP Conference 2014, at which we will feature likewise folio and likewise books at one of the largest bookfairs in the country.
Working with Laura Kasischke has led to a valuable mentor relationship. In fact, Kasischke offered to write a letter of recommendation for me as I applied to MFA poetry programs this winter. This relationship could potentially precipitate admission into one of these programs, perhaps even Kasischke’s own program at the University of Michigan. Attending the AWP conference will allow us not only to publicize the likewise organization, but it will also give us the opportunity to network within our field and make meaningful relationships with publishers and similar small presses. This project has also given us invaluable skills and experience in publishing /editing sectors. Finally, the funds and mentorship provided by this grant have allowed us to expand the reach and influence of likewise folio, as we aim to situate it as a fixture in the emerging online-print hybrid literary community.