Interviewer’s Note: On behalf of Farrago’s FMI, I recently had a chance to sit down with a local nonfigure, as he calls himself, Slade St. John. Slade runs a micro-press on the side and dabbles—more than dabbles, really—in cryptozoology. His press is Horn’s Call Press, which operates on an invitation-only basis for publishing chapbooks of poetry.All they’ll find is it’s under construction. And for now it’s invitation only. I just don’t have the time—plenty of inclination, just no time—to run open calls.
–Berrien C. Henderson
FMI: Slade, how long have you been micropublishing?
SSJ: Only three years. For about a year I played around publishing broadsides and postcard poetry. Things like that. It’s a slow process regarding the micro-press itself, and any hope of making money, well, it’s not about that really.
FMI: Just getting someone’s voice out there.
SSJ: Exactly. And I’m something of a Luddite when it comes to the digital age. There’s something about dead trees I like.
Continue Reading »
Tales from the Slushfiles #3: Keep ‘em Coming!
NOTE: The previous Tales from the Slushfiles post originated from these two LiveJournal entries: selfavowedgeek.livejournal.com/104576.html and selfavowedgeek.livejournal.com/107466.html .
Given the ups and downs of markets lately—whether closing temporarily or closing altogether—the Old Man just wanted me to remind everyone that the basement is still open to submissions. That’s mighty convenient and classy of him since he never does much more than open the door to the basement and heckles me about reading slush. Recently, he said, “How goes the slush reading?” I said, “They’re pretty good, but it’s hard reading them in bad lighting.” He said something about building character in an assistant editor and candles. I riposted about John Milton’s daughters as anamneses. He grumbled. I giggled and thought how clever I was and that I had won. Then he slammed the basement door, and that blew out the candles.
Continue Reading »
