Elizabeth Treadwell was born in Oakland, California (although her maternal line is Oklahoman), and lives there now with her husband and their children. She is a graduate of Berkeley High School, UC Berkeley, and San Francisco State, where she got MFA'd. Her essay on studying with Paula Gunn Allen at Berkeley will appear in Women Poets on Mentorships: Efforts & Affections (Iowa UP, 2008). Treadwell is the author of seven books including the recent Birds & Fancies (Shearsman Books) and the forthcoming Wardolly (Chax Press). She is also the author of six chapbooks including The Graces (Dusie, 2006). She is currently working on a long poem of North American history centered round the figure of Pocahontas and titled Virginia or the mud-flap girl.
While living in Venice, California in 1993, Treadwell started a zine called Stilts which morphed later into Outlet magazine and Double Lucy Books, which she edited and published from 1997-2002, with the help of Sarah Anne Cox, Grace Lovelace, and Carol Treadwell. In 2000 she began working as director of Small Press Traffic in San Francisco and in that capacity in 2005 founded the journal Traffic, which is an extension and expansion of the organization's long-running newsletter. Her latest editorial project, thimble, is due to begin sometime in 2008.
She has a semi-retired blog and a working website.
Publication Questions:
1) What projects are you currently on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web).
I've left the completion -- the 4 -- of Traffic #3/4 in the fabulous hands of Dana Teen Lomax, who is the interim director of Small Press Traffic (SPT) while I'm on leave; it includes a paper by Joel Nickels on Laura Riding's critique of modernism and her utopian suggestions. I look foward to doing more Traffics when I'm back at work.
It might be a bit early yet to talk about my new project, but -- it's called thimble, and it will engage with writing by women as folk traditional, in the sense of cultural survival(s).
2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?
Social awkwardness.
3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?
No, not really.
4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.
I'm sorry to have missed the chance to blog it out with our Miz Gertrude Stein.
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.?
I clunked around in the early days to build a site for Outlet/DLB, and I did all the print design for those and Stilts, with artist and photographer friends (and relations) contributing imagery--and some 'found' imagery, mostly from the old Urban Ore in Berkeley (when it was across the street from SPD). Nowadays Traffic is professionally done -- and I choose the cover art. For the first issue I wandered the studios of the California College of the Arts (where SPT is housed) and found some work, left a note, and the maker of said work agreed. For the second issue the image was by poet/artist Yedda Morrison, whom I also interviewed for the issue.
6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?
For me the very best thing has been being told by several younger poet/publishers that Outlet/DLB was an inspiration.
& I sure liked what Sina Queyras said about Traffic.
7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?
I'm not sure but I can't help myself so no doubt it'll be something. Maybe a micropress.
8) What are some of your other interests?
Hanging out with my husband and our dear kids; the neighborhood trees and creatures; our local relatives and friends. I'm thankful.
And walking and drawing are grand; the internet both a doggle and a boon.
9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?
Stein's "Patriarchal Poetry" is often timely, and very witty.
10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.
I like Hanksville, Native American Storytellers Online, and would also recommend Ella Cara Deloria's book Waterlily, which my sister the novelist Carol Treadwell wrote about in the context of Stein and Cather, in Traffic #2. (She was also a contemporary -- and colleague -- of Zora Neale Hurston.) In a bossy mood, I'd also say "ev'ry American" ought to read Paula Gunn Allen's biography of Pocahontas in order to realize a deeper sense of "what's happening."
11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?
First, community. For example, when I started Stilts I had an opportunity to write to Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, whose poems and essays had been (& remain) important to me; her warmth was encouraging and her work ran in several issues, of Stilts and Outlet. She also sent me homemade paper dolls. Second, finding work that truly astounds me, work that brimfully inhabits its idiosyncratic sensibility and information. "Oh hey, I didn't quite know that, yknow" -- that's the feeling I want from poetry. News some call it. It's a treat and a gift. Of course having said that, there are about a thousand other things I crave from poetry as well, like the limitless echoing comfort of a true folk song.
12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.
Whatever's in the fridge.
