Kristy Bowen lives in Chicago where she edits the online litzine wicked alice and runs dancing girl press, devoted to publishing chapbooks by women poets. She is the author of the fever almanac (Ghost Road Press, 2006) as well as several chapbooks, including feign (New Michigan Press, 2007) and at the hotel andromeda, a collaborative book arts project (w/Lauren Levato) inspired by the work of Joseph Cornell. Two longer books are forthcoming: in the bird museum (Dusie Press, 2007) and girl show (Ghost Road Press, 2009). Publication Questions:
1) What projects are you currently on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web).
I'm currently finishing up this years' round of dancing girl chapbooks with our last three titles by Michaela Gabriel, Kristy Odelius, and Nicole Cartwright Denison, and sketching out next years' schedule and design for the books we've already accepted. We are planning on publishing one book a month again next year, so I'm still in the process of selecting work from our summer open submissions period. We are now reading for the fall issue of wicked alice and I'm also working slowly on the print annual. Also, I've been plotting a series of Chicago poet broadsides.
As for my own writing, I'm in the midst of a couple of manuscript projects-one, a more autobiographical collection of love and anti-love poems called the kissing disease, and a novel-in-verse, dulcet, about two sisters in 1970's Wisconsin, plus a couple of little chapbook projects.
2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?
I am a bit of a control freak (who? me?), so I've learned to temper that in a business that very much depends on collaboration. I still am glad to have complete editorial control as to what and when we publish things, but I've loosened my hold a bit on other aspects of working with authors, artists, etc. Patience is another thing I'm still working to master, and thankfully, grace under duress.
3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?
Not really.
4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.
Sabrina Orah Mark. I'm still sort of in awe over The Babies, so I haven't worked up the nerve to ask her for work.
5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?
Back in 2001, I began by building an author site and the initial design for wicked alice from Angelfire templates during my downtown at work. They were horribly simple and littered with ads. I repeatedly find myself in that weird in-between generation, raised in the eighties, for whom computers are not completely foreign, but still strange and unchartered territory. I actually still use Angelfire as a web host for my personal site and the dgp site (sans ads), but in 2001, wicked alice moved over to the Sundress domain, and I design it in Front Page-still very basic no frills html. It still occurs to me quite regularly that my web design skills are very elementary and probably outdated, but I make do.
As for aesthetic, I like simple and clean design and letting the work we feature, particularly the visual pieces, be the center of attention. I've played with color, but I always find myself going back to basic black and white, especially on the dgp site, where I like the cover art to be the visual interest. For chapbooks, I typically ask the poet what their ideas are, or what feel they'd like to go for, and take it from there. Sometimes they already have something picked out, and it's just a matter of working with it. Sometimes I have to look around a bit. I've been trying this year to shake things up in terms of trim size and the whole concept of "chapbooks". You see this with Robyn Art's Scenes from the Body, which features text and photos that come in an envelope, or at the hotel andromeda, which is an "exploration" of poems, ephemera, postcards, objects,etc. One of the upcoming titles, Michaela Gabriel's The Secret Meanings of Greek Letters, is actually a deck of cards.
6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?
Probably the biggest was very recent. dgp was featured in Poet & Writers annual look at independent presses which sort of put us on the map and sort of got our name out there. Before, we'd been sort of a local and word of mouth entity.
7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?
I'd still like to increase the size of our publication list and make it a self-sustaining entity. I get a lot of good work I'd publish in a heartbeat if I could afford it.
8) What are some of your other interests?
feminist theory, collage/text art, bookmaking, acoustic music, postcards, ghost stories, road trips, Joseph Cornell, call numbers, french poster art, typewriters, diagrams, historical tours, costume jewelry, horror movies, victoriana, photography, hotels, alchemy, gothic novels, carnivals/ depression glass, surrealism, design shows, etymology, Lake Michigan.
9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?
Whenever someone asks me that question I feel this sudden panic. (The sensation is similar in regard to novels, movies, music, and colors. Favorite poem ever? Right this minute? Shouldn't I say something that will make me sound smart (or not so much)? The poem that at thirteen that made me love poetry? Poe's "Annabelle Lee." The poem that changed how I write? "The Wasteland". Today? I'm loving Plath's "Wintering" because I'm that particular mood.
10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.
I recently read Eirann Lorsung's Music for Landing Planes By (Milkweed, 2007) and loved it. Sort of a poet that seems to have come out of nowhere and absolutely floored me. It's a beautiful book, both in content and design.
11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?
I get crazy excited over the design aspects-cover art, fonts, and the like. Of course, initially there's excitement over the poetry, but then sort of melding the visual and the written together makes me happy to no end.
12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.
Read lots and write lots. And don't be afraid to takes risks, whether it's the work in front of you or how you find an audience.
