Would you take this class?

D.I.Y. Poetry Publishing: Chapbooks, Zines, Webzines & Blogs

Course description: This class will explore creative, inexpensive (even free) alternative routes to poetry publishing for do-it-yourselfers. The first part of the course will focus on readings in these innovative genres: we'll read and discuss some recent poetry chapbooks, examine the approaches and niches of various themed zines and webzines, and survey the growing poetry "blogosphere." The second half of the class will emphasize mastering the tools students will need to create a class project either in the form of a group chapbook, a group poetry blog, or both. Guest speakers (or online guests) will include prominent bloggers, webzine editors, and chapbook publishers. As a final step, we'll talk about setting up a personal promotional email list, publicity, sales, consignment marketing to local bookstores, and setting up your own online store with PayPal. There's no reason why the "first book" has to be your first step to publishing your poems (or others' poems you love). If you can't find a magazine or book publisher that jives with your poetry--or even if you can--after this class you'll have no excuse to keep it to yourself. You can do it yourself!

Instructor bio: Shanna Compton is the Associate Publisher (and former Publicity Director) of Soft Skull Press and the editor of LIT at New School University. She has self-published three chapbooks: Opal Memos Nonchalant, Big Confetti, and Down Spooky, all of which sold through multiple editions for a total of more than 1000 copies. Her third chapbook Down Spooky was expanded into a full-length collection and is forthcoming from Winnow Press in September 2005 as the winner of the Winnow Open Poetry Award. She has curated and hosted both the Frequency Series at Shortwave and the Soft Skull Sneak Peek Series at the Bowery Poetry Club. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Best American Poetry 2005, Gastronomica, McSweeney's, Verse, BOOG City, and dozens of others magazines and webzines. She is a self-taught DIY web designer and poetry blogger, and recently edited an anthology of personal essays on video games called GAMERS: Writers, Artists & Programmers on the Pleasures of Pixels. Visit her online at http://www.shannacompton.com/blog.html.


..because I'm pitching it around. I think I would enjoy it more than a straight workshop, not least because it would require heavy use of the saddler stapler!!