Why I Love Anne Elliott Is Revealed
Dateline: 2/10/98It's hard to do it yourself when the media wants millions of you's. And dollars. How I miss mimeo! and those dizzying collating parties with their fetishistic rubber fingers. Is Mouth Almighty REALLY the City Lights of our era? Are Sun & Moon and Coffee House small presses? All I know is,
One person with Big Soul and Talent, tiny bucks and great art (design) sense has made some of the loveliest books of the past few years. She is ANNE ELLIOTT, terrific poet, and the publisher/editor of BIG FAT PRESS.
Here. Let her speak for herself!
From: fatliar@juno.com (Anne E Elliott)
To: nuyopoman@aol.com
Hi Anne,
How fabulous and!
Mutual is the!
Admiration!
Bob!
How did Big Fat start?
I used to spend a lot of time in special collections at the University of California, San Diego, looking at Kathy Acker's handmade books (Childlike Life of the Black Tarantula series). At the time I was also very inspired by Henry Rollins' DIY aesthetic, although I was more attracted to the process of making the books than the editorial process and marketing (yuck). I have always been afraid of submitting my work to others for consideration, potentially a colossal waste of time. At the time I was performing in the persona of "Big Top," a megalomaniacal ringmaster of fine arts. The dream was to have Big Top be, among other things, the big cheese of a publishing company. Big Top has since died quietly, but the interest in small-time DIY book stuff has remained.
How do you select the poets?
People just give me stuff. Most of them are people I know already, or people who have seen and admire the books and want one of their own. A couple of manuscripts have been solicited (even coaxed!), but most are brave authors willing to approach me and give me and themselves a chance. The rejection part is hard, but I'm getting better at it. I am interested in more than just poetry -- my main goal is to create a group of works that is interesting as a whole. For example, Regie Cabico's book contains many thematic similarities to Guillermo Castro's book -- possibly because they share a home, a computer, a bed, blah blah. Yet their voices are radically different: Guillermo writes with a stark economy, and his work is driven by metaphor. Regie writes in a more conversational, narrative way. I like the way these two books together fill out a collector's library. I am looking in general for writing that is well crafted but not arrogantly "finished." If an author has something they think is too "experimental" to send to a mainstream publisher, that is the thing they should send to me. ALL GENRES, not just poetry.
Who does the art?
I do the cover art and the binding. The cover process is linoleum block printing. Some of the photography inside the books is by other people who are associated with the authors. I also do the typesetting, etc.
You are internationally renowned perf-po, so. . . you start a BOOK thang? (IOW, talk about the tapes, please).
I collect spoken word audiotapes and dreamed of producing them. I made three, which are textually interesting but sound a bit rough for modern listeners. If I have learned one thing in this endeavor it is that I am a shitty engineer. I have ideas, but better leave the technical sound stuff to the pros. Also, I learned that books sell way, way better than tapes at poetry readings, and have a better profit margin. It seems that I am one of the few collectors of spoken word audio. (But maybe it'll change!!) In general, chapbooks are never a waste of time because they always sell. People hear something they like and they want to read it later and get the nuances they missed, or see how the line breaks happen, or whatever. The response to the books has been way more positive.
How did you get to be a poet?
I went to school for visual art. I ended up in an unusual graduate program taught by intermedia types and performance poets. Learned from Jerome Rothenberg that poetry is an intense, ancient, tribal experience. Learned from David Antin that some of the best editing is done onstage, and that using punctuation can be a bit tight-assed.
At the time my work consisted of installations where I would cover the walls and the furniture of a space with stream-of-consciousness text. It looked like wallpaper, or like some kind of grid had been superimposed on everything. I noticed that my audience spent a lot of time reading the stuff so I decided to spend a few years focusing on the text without getting wrapped up in how the room looked. Started using a computer instead.
Influences?
My dad (a priest, retired, now an opera singer), the people I mentioned above, Anne Sexton, William Blake, Adrienne Rich, my friends, The Book of Common Prayer, John Irving, David Wojnarowicz, Anne Waldman, Anais Nin, my friends' children, the idiots on TV.
Favorite poem in whole wide world?
"Power" by Adrienne Rich.
Current po book you are reading?
The Dream Police* by Dennis Cooper. This shit is intense.
What do you think of the Pussy Poets, right now (no censoring!)?
I miss them a lot. I don't miss collaborating, because we were turning into Snappy Spice, Late Spice, Whiny Spice, Martyr Spice, and Get Me Out of Here Spice. We were all very attached to the IDEA of female solidarity but as artists we had totally different ideas about how poetry should be made. We really had no idea what it meant to be a poet group, and the pop star fantasy was debilitating. Everyone is doing so well on their own. Kathy wrote a novella & a screenplay, Gloria is teaching and performing constantly, Janice is a girl culture maven over at pseudo.com, Cristina went to Yale for costume design, and I'm doing books. I think everyone is a lot happier now though I'm sure we all miss the attention we used to get.
Imagine, the world in five years. What will po be doing then?
Many people will be collecting spoken word audio. The bootleg problem will be notorious. Weather irregularities and fuel shortages will have forced people to turn off their computers and TVs and read to each other. Poetry will be so non-MTV, it will be cool again. Football will be outlawed for its violence and Mouth Mondays will be the #1 event. Movie stars will send rare books to each other. (Oh my god, that's already happening. . .)
AND POETS WILL STILL BE GOSSIPING ALL THE TIME!!!!
Hope I have satisfied your curiosities, Bob. I enjoy the attention so it is my pleasure to answer your questions.
PS: my spell check gave me the following suggestions:
Nuyopoman: nymphomaniac
Wojnarowicz: workaholic
Antin: antics
hmm. . . .
*As a result of a commercial relationship between About.com, its Guides and Amazon.com online booksellers, this title can be purchased directly from Amazon.com by following the link above. (Note: Amazon.com is solely responsible for fulfillment of book orders placed through these links.)
