I couldn’t attend most of the chapbook festival events last week, but I did manage to escape from my day job for a few hours on Friday to attend the workshop “Chapbook Now: Producing Chapbooks.” Rachel Levitsky, Sharon Dolin and Ryan Murphy all gave some notes on the chapbook, both as poets who have their own chapbooks and as poets who publish chapbooks of other poets’ work, with Alice Quinn of the PSA moderating.
It was an informative workshop and I thought I’d share my notes since many people couldn’t attend.
Rachel spoke to her Belladonna reading series and the chaplets she produces which act as publication, program and keepsake. Two things I took away from her remarks are that poets need conversation with other poets as much as they need to be published and the chapbook can help get your work into the hands of people who “get” your work which in turn helps build a creative community for you that you wouldn’t otherwise have found. I also like how she stressed that chapbooks should be built around an “idea” rather than a “theme.” As someone who generates work through the exploration of a charged idea, I totally understood the delineation she was making. Engaging an idea and exploring it in-depth through a sequence of poems is quite different than collecting a group of poems that are just built around a common theme.
Ryan’s stories about his fictitious press (presses to be exact since he makes up a new one for each chapbook he publishes) were quite inspiring. He makes all his books by hand, doesn’t sell them and finances them himself (it’s his great love and hobby), and gives them away via his mailing list. I found it a great call to get involved (and get my own letter press!) with publishing poets you love and not waiting around for the established presses to do it. The comment I’ve been mulling the most concerned escaping from the weight of your own project, which I’ve been feeling of late with some of my own. If you find yourself unable to generate new work because your imagination is so tangled in work that is underway, self-publishing a chapbook of the project can help free you from it as the publishing acts as a sort of release or setting free, physically manifesting the project in a book form.
And Sharon shared what she called her top ten secrets for poets looking to publish a chapbook, a very common sense guide that echoes lessons I’ve learned over the years from submitting to chapbook contests. I won’t reprint all 10, but here are ones that struck me (paraphrased as best I can):
2. Everything begins with the title. Think of the title of the chapbook as the first poem.
4. Chapbooks can be organized in a number of ways including: your greatest hits; around an idea; a sequence of connected poems (like a narrative or a gallery show); or a single long poem.
7. The second poem matters too: be sure to vary it and show your versatility by juxtaposing a second poem that is very different from the first poem.
10. The chapbook may not necessarily lead to a full length book, but it will lead to more readings and exposure. Think of the chapbook as your calling card.
One area not covered (at least in our session) was the electronic chapbook. Since chapbooks are handmade labors of love, it might seem sacrilege to consider the electronic version, but with the rise of POD services and the ability to embed audio with the e-book, it is a new vehicle for allowing your work to reach larger and larger audiences while retaining a print option.
I left feeling like I’ve done things right, as if I have conquered three of the main chapbook types: Pear Slip in definitely a group of poems organized around the exploration of a thing and idea; Narcissus Resists is a sonnet sequence; and Platos de Sal is a single long poem, my “short story in verse” as I affectionately call it. I think I’m ready now to make the transition to the full-length manuscript world (and I have four contenders waiting in the wings…).