Writ Large Press

I haven’t had time to post here for a while, which means, among other things, I haven’t mentioned anything about a news exciting project we started working on. I promise I’ll write more in-depth about The Last Chapbooks Project in a few days.

A quick summary: a very cool recently opened used bookstore called The Last Bookstore, on 4th & Main in downtown Los Angeles (at the old Old Bank DVD spot), offered us some shelf space to curate with chapbooks from local writers. Well, as of today, Thursday 3/11/10, the shelf is open, just in time for this month’s Downtown Art Walk! So drop in, if not tonight, sometime soon.

The shelf will always hold chapbooks from 20 authors. Most often than not, there will be 3 copies of each book. We will regularly rotate the authors and books.

We will begin a monthly reading series, most likely in April.

It will all be a blast!

So, without further delay, here is the list of the 20 initial authors/books:

• Christina Kerr – Stumbling Out Loud
• Margie Goodspeed – Shovel and Pail
• Susan Vorhand – Pouring Ribbons
• Elya Braden – The Journey Home
• Barbara Greene Rusin – Free Range
• Justin Klippel – Squid Ink
• John M. FitzGerald – The Mind
• Pat Lucas – The Mistress
• Mary Thornton-Brown – The People in the Sky
• Bruce Arnold – Tide Pools in Lava
• Robert Carroll – B+
• Chiwan Choi – cancer
• Alejandro Escudé – Unknown Physics
• Paul Cummins – From the Shadows: Poems from 2009
• James Berry – Monk’s Room
• G. Murray Thomas – Songs of Inappropriate Desire
• Carrie Kirshman – Grey
• Veryle Rupp – Inside Snowfence
• Alice Hayward – Breathing in the Depths
• Hal Martin Bogotch – The Dance of Life

Also, a few local anthologies:

• Wednesday #1.2 “Alchemy”
• MO+TH #5
• Twelve Los Angeles Poets – an ONTHEBUS Series

Thank you writers who have sent me your books. They are beautiful in the bookstore.

I hope all of you will continue to support our local writers and places like The Last Bookstore that are too few and far between.

This morning, Lightning Source approved of the changes in our proof, which means that we were finally able to order our books!

It’s a 5-day turnaround, so still good for the release party in honor of Aaron’s book, but just to make double sure, we put on a rush job order.

The postcards we ordered should be here by tomorrow (was hoping for today). Once I have those in my hands, I’ll be footing around downtown passing them out.

All in all, almost time to breathe. Almost. Need to see those boxes of books here. Then breathe.

Also, we got a Press Release written up and sent out. Hate writing those. I don’t know why. Something about it creeps me out. But part of the business.

SEE YOU AT THE PARTY!!

Here’s, at least as far as I know, the first review of our very first title, Kim Calder’s Who’s to Say What’s Home.

It appears in Rattle and Kim is very happy with the review.

I like this passage best:

I found one of the best poems of the collection to be “emergency room,” in which the daughter has to face her father’s aging and eventual death. This is a universal issue that we all have to deal with, yet the poem doesn’t veer into triteness at all. Calder demonstrates a remarkable ability to portray real grief – which I find refreshing in the midst of the many poems in this collection that seem to try to drown grief out.

Check it out!

Our next scheduled book, as you know, is playwright Aaron Henne’s You Already Know. It is a great book of writing exercises that are meant to be useful and functional for writers of all genres and of varying levels of experience. We are extremely proud of the manuscript and can’t wait to release it!

But – wait we must.

We’d originally had the book scheduled (hoped) for a end of May release, but due to various circumstances, we’ve had to delay it.

Most of it has been me (Chiwan) dropping the ball, I think, since Judeth’s been extra busy at her new teaching job, preparing and directing a middle school/high school production of Babes in Arms.

My apologies.

But, on the other hand, we know that the extra time will do nothing more than give us the opportunity to make the book absolutely perfect. Perfect, I say!

So we’ll continue to keep you in the loop regarding You Already Know.

In the meantime, enjoy this video of Chet Baker performing “My Funny Valentine” from Babes in Arms.