Received an e-mail this afternoon from Tom Beckett that ended my hunt for a full-collection of his work before it began: such a work doesn’t exist.
At first I was saddened – for his work, for those who have only been able to nibble when they wanted to feast, for those who haven’t read his work, for all poets and readers of poetry alike. Such omissions poison the body poetic.
Then I was flabbergasted. Then I was outraged. Then I was galvanized.
Where’s the kink in the publishing process? Where’s the brain fart? Why does a poet such as Tom Beckett, whose twenty-year plus body of work carries some of the cleanest, clearest, thought-striking poetry that I know, not have a full-length book? (To define a full-length book: over 80 pages long, printed in a large enough edition to be available in all the bookstores that carry small press poetry and in all the public and university libraries so many of have first met the writers who have changed our writing lives.) Why does he not have a book when perhaps less talented peers publish a book every year or two?
Leaves of Grass? This is not a new problem to poetry. Optimistically, publishing by demand, first pioneered by Miekal And and Liz Was and their Xexoxial Editions early in the 1980s (though they get no credit for the concept), has been one possible, economical solution – printing smaller editions of 25-50 books at a time, reprinting as sales dictate. In publishing by demand, then, a book never goes out of print unless the publisher folds (which, pessimistically, happens more often than not). One drawback, however, to this practical, financial publishing strategy: a book issued in this manner never gains the momentum – coast-to-coast exposure – that sustains even modest sales. (As publisher of many a title under the SCORE imprint, none that I would consider to be out-of-print, I know this from personal experience.) A book such as this does not generate reviews, does not gain distribution from Small Press Distribution or other distributors, does not inspire book tours and readings in cities across the U.S.
A proposal: a collective of small publishers, say 15-20 who contribute as many $ as they can, who identify writers deserving of a full-length collection based on his/her body of work over a twenty or more year span of time (other selection criteria to be continually hashed, thrashed out). Then, through intense, vibrant, vital negotiation, selection of one writer per year for publication. My pledge as one small publisher: $300-400. My vote for the first selection: Tom Beckett.
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