Issue Zero:
The Lady in Stripes
page 2
And what could I really say about Issue Zero that would be compelling? On a personal level, the most compelling part of the event is that I had the company of this intellectual babe from the marketing department of a little magazine who spoke Zen and wore zebra stripes and an outrageous black Dr. Seuss hat adorned with a cabbage-sized red rose. (She later claimed she worked in every department of her little mag, not just marketing, and had a different hat for each job description, e.g., one with a feather for reading sonnets, a gangster fedora for collecting money from distributors, you get the picture.) We listened to poetry being read from some 25 magazines over 3 days and broke for sushi on Saturday night. She sold books and I handed out napkins with Big Bridge URL information made on the spot because I came to the event unprepared. The cyberness of Big Bridge and my general preoccupation with the woman in stripes somehow disconnected the promotional side of me and thrust me fully into the emotional side and so I had nothing to hand out. Most of the other magazine editors/publishers brought copies of their books. Tried to sell copies of their books. I could not sell copies of cyberspace so I had nothing to sell except enthusiasm. I don't know if I did that or not but I was happy enough with my performance. The 25 or so editor/publishers told stories about how they got where they got, why they were doing what they were doing, and read excerpts from back issues or new issues depending where they were in their thankless ventures as editor/publishers.
One thing I think was especially good about Issue Zero is that every day it moved from one place to another, kind of like a traveling circus. We began with a panel at St. Mark's on Friday night featuring: The Hat / Hanging Loose / Big Bridge / Skanky Possum / American Letters & Commentary / A Gathering of the Tribes / Shark / Big Allis; then Saturday afternoon picked up at Double Happiness with: Fence / Ixnay / Read Me / Germ / Chain / Fish Drum / Tool A Magazine; and then Sunday concluded at the Zinc Bar with Rattapallax / Snare / Booglit / The Transcendental Friend / Explosive / Log / Raddle Moon. (It’s important to note here that my zebra-striped literary companion friend changed the location of her zebra stripes from day to day, always leaving me wondering where the stripes might reappear.)
Then if I were to write this thing for Bob Holman I would abbreviate the Issue Zero email promo announcement sent out regularly by the organizers to editors that said:
“ISSUE ZERO: THE LITERARY MAGAZINE CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK MARCH 10-12 in which the editors from over 30 journals will meet to discuss their journals & the larger issues facing the writing communities in general. . . . The editors should try to address the questions: What where your reasons for starting a literary journal? Since you began the journal have your goals changed? What direction do you see your journal taking in the future? & how does that fill the needs of "the writing community" you are hoping to serve/represent/entertain? . . . Additionally, the editors might speak briefly in response to either the questions above, or comment on some other issue brought up at the conference which seems topical & pressing. Please remember to bring plenty of copies of your journals so that you can sell them & perhaps (at least) recoup your carfare. . . . Hosts: Brendan Lorber & Douglas Rothschild. Brendan Lorber is the editor of LUNGFULL! Magazine, a literary magazine that prints both the final & rough drafts of people's work so readers can see the writing process. Douglas Rothschild is an editor at the subpress collective, an innovative small press. Regie Cabico is Friday night coordinator at the St. Mark's Poetry Project.”
And then I would be pretty much done with all I had to say about Issue Zero. I would still be trying to figure out what the dream about the finch meant. I’m not sure this would be enough for the literati. I met a lot of nice poets and publishers and editors and heard exceptionally good work. Each of the magazines represented had a creative slant that was original, which was different from what I expected because I thought that most of these people were publishing each other most of the time. But it appeared that even when they did publish each other the overall effect of any given issue made a unique statement on the literary scene and how the individual could experience it. People complained and people bragged about exposure and costs. Some bragged about how little they made and others complained about how well they were doing and how difficult it was to keep up with an underpaid (read as “none”) staff.
But finally, I’m not comfortable with reviews or complex literary criticism. I don't know how you write a review. I’ve read them and find them mostly boring. If I liked reviews so much I would probably write reviews rather than poetry. Poetry being more like a dream and a review being more like a linguistic nightmare in exposition.
So, Suzi, this an account of my morning and an update on my dreams. I could send this letter to you and leave it at that or send it straight on to Bob Holman at About.com and see if he wants it as coverage of the Issue Zero conference. But I’m not sure I’ve said what I should say or covered everyone at the conference, who organized the conference, or participated in the conference, with ample gratitude. Also, my writing is sloppy and I don't have an editor. What do you think? You want to take a knife to this? Should I send this to Bob? Or should I just relax and tell you good morning and wish you well for another Saturday?
Love,
MR
You can also read Brendan Lorber's report of the Issue Zero conference at the St. Mark's Poetry Project & at Jacket.
