Frances Kruk

yt communication is a press run by Sean Bonney and Frances Kruk out of the Hackney borough in London. Similar to most small presses it operates within a small geographic sphere, but they also operate with an aggressive stance against assumed norms of the publishing world.

Frances: “What yt does has a sort of delinquent flair and involves a messy and raw energy that is otherwise lacking here and now.”

“Hackney,” for instance, is not only a borough in London with a taint to it (Wikipedia notes that it was named the “worst place to live in the UK” in 2006), but it also carries the etymological connotations of being hired out for labor (variously as a writer, horse or prostitute), as well as to render common or vulgar or “to undo the freshness or delicacy of.”

Frances: “We avoid glossy surfaces in writing, the polish of too much artifice and the smugness that comes with poetry that is too pleased with itself…We demand grit. We are not afraid of bodies and that thing that often represents them on the page (aka ‘I’). We tend to be obsessively angry in a way that just isn’t cool by liberal standards and care not for the opinions or practices of the contemporary poetry office.”

They creatively twist and violate easy opinions and judgments. Aggressivity, filth, delinquency, oppositionality, can all be celebrated, but their irreverence often produces genuinely provocative and creative poetry.

Sean: “yt is a word originally used by the Russian Futurist Kruchenyk in 1913, context was ‘frot fron yt,’ I think. yt communication originated in me and Frances having a very hungover breakfast in the Z Cafe, Hackney, discussing the brilliance of the word. We’d started a press before we knew it. Originally ’cos we thought it would be funny to make lots of corporate shit—pens and that—but it turned out to be cheaper to make books.”

Sean Bonney

Small press networks often operate by word-of-mouth, close association or sheer random encounter, and while the Internet can make geography less of a factor, it is no guarantee for broader recognition and reception. yt’s publishing strategy embraces the limited, indeterminate circulations of the small press: Indeed, they valorize them.

Frances: “What yt wants to do is avoid computers, cut ’n’ paste manually and on the photocopier, and keep things fresh and messy. Each book is unique and not-precious, but nevertheless is inviting and refreshing to flip through and get a paper cut from. The yt goal is to support and crank out wicked and mischievous works, dedicated to reducing boredom and coziness, causing annoyance when and where necessary. Or rather, annoyance being a minimum, complete discomfort, abjection and lots of fuzzy static are more appropriate.”

Their presence in Buffalo this week is a result of chaos and luck. We are particularly lucky to host them on September 27 when they will read at Rust Belt Books with yt collaborator Sophie Robinson, and Buffalo native, now Baltimore transplant, Ric Royer. Those with busy Thursday evenings have a chance to catch them the following night at the Adam Mickiewicz Library on Fillmore as part of the launch reading for three local poetry magazines: P-Queue, Damn the Caesars and Pilot (where Sean, Frances and Sophie are published).

For more information about yt communication check out the following blogs: ytcommunication.blogspot.com and abandonedbuildings.blogspot.com.

“This Ain’t the Chicago Review” Reading. September 27, 7pm. Readings by Sean Bonney, Frances Kruk, Sophie Robinson and Ric Royer. Rust Belt Books (202 Allen St.)

“Triple Launch Extravaganza.” September 28, 8pm. Launch readings given by contributors of P-Queue, Damn the Caesars, and Pilot. Adam Mickiewicz Library (612 Fillmore Ave.)