There have been some really excellent pieces of poetry here, and I 
wonder if we should go about getting a publication made.  Really.  
Remmer's last effort just bowled me over, and it would be sad if that 
poem, among many other fabulous ones, weren't published.

Comments?  Suggestions?

42 responses total.

Putting together a poetry conf. chapbook would be cool.  In theory, we could
make int a Grex fundraiser, but in practice I doubt it would raise that much
fundage.
A collection of poems on the web would be another possibility.

yeah, but if we make it up nice, we could auction a few copies =}

That's true, actually.  I forgot about the auction conf.

In any case, I'd be happy to contribute some time and effort towards putting
something together, if this is something we decide we want to do.

Sounds like an idea.

whoa -- that's weird -- I was just thinking about this a few weeks ago, but
I wasn't able to get around to enacting upon the thought.  I second the
motion.  And if I can scrounge any free time, I'd be happy to assist.

First off, what would we like to put in the chapbook, and who will be the
deciding force behind that?

I think it'd be cool if each of us chose a poem or two to put in.  Maybe we
could set up an item for reminding each other for favorites.  But it'd be kind
of obnoxious for one person to pick and choose everything, especially since
the contributors and the compilers are the same people.

All well and good, but what if EVERYONE wanted more than one poem?  Should
I ask that you limit it to two poems or soemthing, and see what the turn out
woul dbe?

NExt question:  how would we like to assemble this book?  Handmade, or through
a publishing company?  The latter would probably be more expensive, but less
time consumning for all parties involved.  We could take orders, if people
were willing to chip in.  (I would be.)  There are some publishing companies
in the a2 area (I know, I used to work for one).

A two poem limit sounds decent to me.  What would it cost to do this through
a publishing company -- do you know?

<shrug>  nope.  that's why I'm asking.

The middle option is to have a copy center do the binding. That's what
ConVocation did, once upon a time, when it had an "annual publication," and
I know others who do that. Drop the copy off, say how many copies you want
and how you want it bound.

The best recommendation for poetry would be center-stapled, 8.5 x 11 paper
(which makes an active page 4.5 wide by 7.5 long, assuming half-inch margins),
around, oh, 32 pages or so (that's 8 sheets of paper, with a ninth sheet for
a cover, probably in a thicker-weight)... I can't see going much fancier than
that, at least not for the first one. That would run maybe 80c for the
copying, unless they've really raised rates, and however much for the
stapling. All these numbers are just educated guesses.

If we wanted fancier, we could also go with spiral-bound, which isn't THAT
much more, but allows for an easier read.

It also depends on how many poems, and how long. I'd be more inclined to set
a limit at pages, not poems. Ginsberg Jr. might come along with Howl II and
take up 26 pages with a single poem, while cummings jr. might be able to put
four poems on facing pages.

BLeh, plastic spiral binding... metal, however, is nice...  Though most places
that I now of that do spiralbinding only use plastic.

Spiral binding also makes less sense with pages as small as Paul suggests --
I've usually seen it done on full 8 1/2 x 11 pages, which are a bit big and
bulky for a project this size.  And it costs a good bit more than stapling,
IIRC.

ok, I've sort of been gone for a while - is this publication actually going
ahead? or are these just "ideas"?
I agree with the guy who said "page-limit" indtead of poem limit, and I'd be
happy to help where I can :)
cheers.

Just ideas at this stage, since lumen only posted this item a week ago.

and Erinn has been thinking of it as well.

(have to give credit where credit is due, since that can be accounted 
in the drive behind this project)

hey, we're all involved; I imagine the thought was floating around, sinc eit
occured to three people in the same period of time, even if it wasn't
discussed till now.

spiral is nixed with small paper.  Though I lie boolet sized for something
made with a computer and a printer/copier, I would like to do something fun
and unique.  Maybe spend a few exptra bucs and use handmade (or that looks
handmade) paper.

(Hey, Erinn, check your "k" key....)

One other thing that occurred to me is whether we want to try to contact
ex-poetry-ites to see if they want to be included, or whether we want to stick
with current members.

oh yeah, good point -- maybe we could con jenna into submitting. (;
perhaps we should post/link this item to agora to call back anyone who's
posted in the past?

(my K is screwed up -- it's the computer's keyboard here at work, I have to
pound on the damn thing to make it function, and when I'm in a hurry, I type
lightly.)

If we actually do this, is there any chance that some of those of us who 
live outside of Michigan might possibly have accessw to a copy or two?

No! It's ours, all ours! Muahahahahahahahahaha!

shaddap!

*looks down* yessir...
I guess y'all out-of-staters can have copies...

So -- should we collect funds for this adventure?  Who shall we elect as
treasurer?  And have we decided to publish via Kinko's or delve into some
other resource?

It might be worth deciding what exactly we want to publish and in what format
before we do things like collect money and shop for ways to do it.  

so I"m puttin the cart before the horse? (;

Good idea.  Maybe we could establish some sort of list of the items with 
 the most kudos attached (good luck to the person who decides to do 
that) or maybe a list of all of the peotry (that'd take some time to 
look through, though) and have folks vote on which they think ought to 
be published.  Then you could publish the poetry with the most votes.

>shrug<

It's an idea.

Another idea would be for everyone to pick a few of their favorite poems, make
sure everyone is aware of them (by responding to the item in this conf, or
by posting an older poem afresh in this conf) because I would love to be a
part of this, but it has been ages since I posted last (mostly because I'm
a looser), so chances are that very few people remember anything I've
written... 
Just my two cents. *shrug*

I like the idea about making a web-accessible chapbook: cheap, and only as
time consumning as sitting in front of the 'puter screen normally is.  (; 

That's good. That way we could use all the stored poetry and wouldn't 
have to judge on whose peotry is "good enough" to be published.  I know 
I would feel strange having work of mine left out (assuming I didn't 
post very often) and anyway some people's tastes are different than 
other's

the poet coud add their own touch to the page by sumitting their poems in html
format, ready to tack onto the chapbook site; that way they have freedom to
chose which poem(s) and overall page appearance.

maybe.  Thing is, I'm not sure if I'll continue to have Web 
access..graduating soon and don't have it at home

try juno or something, jon, it's free.

thanks for all the suggestions.. but I have to get a modem first.

I'm considering *maybe* purchasing a desktop computer through a pay-an-
ISP-to-own arrangement.

four years later....

I was also thinking maybe we could each pick a poem, either our own or 
someone else's, and make a page for a chapbook.  A handmade chapbook 
which could then be auctioned, or maybe someone in Ann Arbor could 
keep it for anyone to look at?  If we pick someone else's poem to get 
creative with it would probably be appropriate to ask their 
permission. (:

I don't know what a chapbook is.

(but is glad to see Erinn came back and brought attention to items 
like this)

(Yep.)

Chapbook explanation, please!

chapbook n. A small book or pamphlet containing poems, ballads, stories,
or religious tracts. 

[chap(man) + book(so called because it was originally sold by chapmen).]
Source: The American Heritage. Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition, Copyright ) 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.  Published by
Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

chapbook
\Chap"book`\, n. [See Chap to cheapen.] Any small book carried about for
sale by chapmen or hawkers. Hence, any small book; a toy book.

(from dictionary.com)

it's a compilation -- handmade chapbooks, in my experience, are full of
character, very artistic.  At IAA, poetry classes used to make chapbooks
during and I had a hallmate who did one out of handmade paper.  It was
beautiful.  Not that we have to go to that length, but I was thinking maybe
we could do it scrap-style, designate a page size that everyone who wants to
participate should use, then paste it into a scapebook.

er /scape/scrap

I think that this is an excellent idea.  Perhaps for the selection process
this item could be linked to agora to invite more grexers to scroll through
the poetry conference and pick out their favcorite poems.  It might breathe
some new life into the conference.

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