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Beyond the book fair - More Small Press activity in Buffalo

More Small Press activity in Buffalo

Tisa Bryant

This year’s Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, which took place last month, was more evidence, if one needed any, that Buffalo remains a hotbed of small press activity. The spirit of the book fair lives on this week through two sets of events: Just Buffalo’s Small Press Poetry Series, and the UB Poetics sponsored Small Press Poet/Publisher Symposium.

Thursday, April 16, at 7pm at Rust Belt Books, Just Buffalo’s Small Press Poetry Series concludes its Spring season with two writers from out of town, Tisa Bryant and Dana Ward. Bryant comes to town on the heels of the publication of her book, Unexplained Presence, a cross-genre examination of “black presences in European literature, visual art and film.” Her works combine elements of film criticism, fiction, and even prose poetry to look at the construction of black identity within various cultural productions. Dana Ward is a poet from Cincinnati and also the publisher of Cy Press, a chapbook series that’s creating a conversation from West Coast to East about contemporary poetry.

On Sunday adn Monday, April 19-20, The UB Poetics Program is sponsoring the Poet/Publisher Symposium, with talks and readings by poet/publishers from around the country, both on and off campus. The festivities begin on Sunday night at the Karpeles Manuscript Museum at 453 Porter Avenue with poet/publishers Anna Moschovakis, Jay Millar, Kyle Schlesinger, andRichard Owens.

On Monday there will be a series of roundtable discussions, talks, and keynotes on the subject of small press publishing, featuring publishers from near and far. Here’s the full schedule:

10-10:45am: Keynote speaker Charles Alexander (Editor, Chax Press). “Between Poetics, the Poetics of Between, Pressing Between.”

11am-1pm: Interstitial Practices: A Poet-Publisher Roundtable. Panelists include Joel Brenden (The Enthusiast), Robert Dewhurst (Satellite Television), Geoffrey Gatza (BlazeVOX), David Hadbawnik (Kadar Koli | Hadbenicht Press), Margaret Konkol (Small Press in the Archive Series), Aaron Lowinger and Jessica Smith (House Press), Edric Mesmer (Yellow Edenwald Field), Douglas Manson (Little Scratch Pad), Richard Owens (Damn the Caesars | Punch Press), Andrew Rippeon (P-Queue | Queue Editions), Andrea Strudensky (Broke).

2-2:45pm: Keynote speaker Michael Masinski (Curator, UB Poetry Collection). “Exploration and Acquisition: Collecting All of Small Press Poetry.”

3-5pm: Rethinking Poesis: Making | Remarking | Responding.

“Five Micro-Ecologies: A Presentation of 5 Portable-Press at Yo-Yo Labs Chapbooks,” by Brenda Iijima (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs).

“__________,” by Jay Millar (Bookthug).

“the temptations of anti-sustainability, or wherefore survival?,” by Anna Moschovakis (Ugly Duckling).

“Ragged Edges,” by Kyle Schlesinger (Cuneiform Press).

The symposium concludes on Monday night with a group reading by poet/publishers Charles Alexander, Michael Basinski, Brenda Iijima, and Andrew Rippeon. Books will be on display and on sale at all of these events!

michael kelleher

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