Recently, I was interviewed by a university student for a project her school is doing on small press publishing. I was asked ten questions. Here's number ten and my answer:

10. Are there any ideas or trends that you feel will help small presses or magazines in the future?

Yes there are. But I think I’ll let you figure those out for yourselves. After all, it’s what we did at Connotation Press and things have been working out pretty well for us. I’ll leave you with this: there is no correct way to be a publisher and to create and maintain a small press. There is no model or template that will work for everyone. Surround yourself with brilliant people and trust them to do the job they were hired to do. Create a team. DO NOT micromanage, but always be available to your team. Support them. None of us can do this publishing thing very successfully alone. Immerse yourself in every aspect of the process.

Do it for the love of the arts and not for money—as there is none available. Ever. If you’re one of the few that do make money, which statistically you will not be, invest it back into the arts. Expand. Develop. And IGNORE all the people that will tell you it can’t be done. When I launched Connotation Press as a bi-weekly literature magazine nearly every single one of my mentors, friends, and staff said I was crazy. I was not. Although they had my best interests at heart, had I listened to them Connotation Press would not exist today. Do not be afraid to fail big, to take risks, to go in screaming on all cylinders. Like my team and I, you may one day be very glad you did.

I post this now as I did earlier in the month on my Facebook page because I find it difficult to believe anyone would want my opinion about, well, anything. I'm serious about this. I am regularly very surprised anyone even knows I exist. All this editor stuff tends to make me feel in my own head like I'm invisible, I can't really figure out why, but it does. I think it has to do with the fact that my entire job is to get the artistic work of other people seen by the largest audience possible. And when people do recognize me and god forbid try to talk with me, I get very uncomfortable like maybe I'm not doing my job correctly because it is not me that I'm trying to get them to recognize. I don't know. That might be it. Man, this is the strangest gig I've ever had and I was a drummer. Seriously. It is a mental ride of Keseian proportions. If I were honest, that's what I'd have told the student interviewing me. I'd have said this editing thing will blow your freaking mind daily in ways you will never be able to imagine and dealing with it will challenge you constantly. You will gown up as a ghost and then shriek when you're the one discovered. What a long strange trip indeed.

 

But the rewards, my friends, are sublime. Here, then, is our offering to you, our June 1st, 2012 post. And like Orville said to Wilbur, let's kick this pig and see what it'll do!

 

On Friday, March 11, 2011 an earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku, Japan, which triggered a powerful tsunami with waves that reached over 133ft, and which traveled in places up to six miles inland, wreaked havoc on the people and their country. The earthquake was so powerful it shifted the Earth on its axis some estimate as much as 10 inches. The tsunami then triggered a number of nuclear accidents including meltdowns at three reactors.

 

15, 854 were killed. 26, 992 injured, 3,155 missing. Additionally, 129,255 buildings collapsed. 254, 204 half-collapsed. And 691,766 buildings were damaged. 4.4 million Japanese households were left without electricity, and 1.5 million without water.

 

I read in the news recently a warning that the residents of California will be receiving thousands of tons of debris from Japan that has been traveling across the Pacific, including, among other things, tennis shoes with the feet of the dead still in them. I was left dumbstruck all over again by the loss of so many.

 

In response to this unbelievably horrible event, the Poets of Japan did what Poets do. They picked up their pens and they wrote. I desperately wanted to publish some of that work because I believe reporters can tell you what happened somewhere, but only a poet can truly show you how it felt. Associate editor Mari L'Esperance suggested I contact Alan Botsford, editor of the brilliant journal Poetry Kanto, and Alan graciously agreed to guest edit a column collecting some of the writing from the most prominent poets in Japan.

Here, then, is, as Alan writes, "a sampling of the wide spectrum of voices in contemporary Japanese poetry." Some address the disaster of March 2011 and subsequent struggles, as in the work of Hirata Toshiko, Tanaka Yosuke, Hachikai Mimi, Sugimoto Maiko, and Takahashi Mutsuo and these are necessary, stunning, vital poems. And others are gorgeous and subtle and beautiful and every bit as vital, and we're honored to bring you a featured interview and video reading with Tanikawa Shuntaro, and offerings from Abe Hinako, Nomura Kiwao, Yotsumoto Yasuhiro, and Minashita Kiriu. This work is deftly translated by a bank of talented people and I would be remiss if I did not mention them: William I. Elliott, Kazuo Kawamura, Hiroaki Sato, Jordan A. Yamaji Smith, Jeffrey Angles, Miho Nonaka, Leith Morton, Rachel Carden, and Marianne Tarcov.

 

It is my hope that the poems of these talented authors touch your soul as it has ours here at Connotation Press, and remind you that we are all in this together. THANK YOU ALAN and all the contributors and translators for this gift.

Hoppenthaler's Congeries this month is barreling down the runway of summer with  terrific new work from Mitchell L. H. Douglas (with an interview!), Jan Beatty, Michael Pettit, Aleš Debeljak, translated by Brian Henry, Kara Candito, Ishion Hutchinson, Craig Challender, Daniel Nathan Terry, and Sally Bliumis-Dunn. Another great Congeries, and DO NOT MISS John's blog this month. Brilliant!

 

From Plate to Palate with Amanda McGuire follows the First Lady, Michelle Obama, and  looks at gardening for the renter. Amanda's guest Abigail Cloud stops by to help create a container garden. Sweet! We've got two wonderful essays and a screamingly cool video so please check it out. You'll be glad you did. Thanks Abigail & Amanda!

 

Travel, anyone? One of our most popular columnists, Nicholas Baker, takes his Discovered travel column this month to Tangiers. Join Nicholas, Freddy, and their friends as they traipse through the land of ex-pats Paul Bowles and William S. Burroughs!

 

Drama editor Kathleen Dennehy brings us Bob Funk, a play by Craig Carlisle that he also revised into a screenplay. In her interview, Kathleen asks, "Redemption seems to be part of the play's Organizing Principle- and for almost all of the characters- a facing down of how we lie to ourselves to get through the day. Is this an accurate interpretation?..." Stop by the post to see the answer and a grip of wonderful information on writing from Mr. Carlisle, and then check out Bob Funk. Terrific work. Enjoy!

 

In our Book Review column Laura Blasingham returns to review Murder in the First-Class Carriage: the First Victorian Railway Killing, by Kate Colquhoun. Book Review editor Stephanie Brown writes, "...I love to read the reviews written by fellow librarian Laura Blasingham; she picks books which are a match for me—non-fiction with lots of interesting turns and digressions, absorbing and fascinating and stranger than fiction." I completely agree. Thanks Laura & Stephanie!

 

Rebecca O'Connor sits in for Movie Review editor Robin Russin this month and reminds us of the brilliance that is Bette Davis in the classic, All About Eve. Did you know Marilyn Monroe was in this film, too? And how about the performance of one of the genius character actors of all  time, Thelma Ritter? Even the supporting cast of this one is superb.  Check out the review and then check out this true classic of American cinema.

 

Finally, we encourage  you to come back on the 15th of the month for our Mid-Month post and as is our tradition we do so by bringing you a sampling of both our Fiction and Nonfiction columns. From Fiction, we've a new piece by Connotation Press repeat contributor Scott Campbell, and from Creative Nonfiction, a powerful new story by Erika Trafton. But our Mid-Month post is more than Fiction & Creative Nonfiction, we'll have all new Poetry, Book Review, and Undergrads, too. Looking forward to seeing you there.

 

I guess that's about it for June 1st. Whew! Is it just me or does this thing keep getting bigger? The editorial staff and all the folks here at Connotation Press hope you enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. And thank you again to Alan Botsford and all our new Japanese friends for their art and dedicated translations. We are truly blessed.

 

Connotation Press: In Summer, The Song Sings Itself

 

This issue of Connotation Press is dedicated to the memory of one of the true gentleman of rock music and the man with the best left hand in the business, Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm. Mr. Helm passed away on April 19, 2012 . Although he was in poor health for some time his passing still brought a mourning through the world that was palpable. May he rest in peace.