If you have questions.
Well I have a comment and a question.
It seemed to me the comment first
that New Directions [INAUDIBLE] of dramatically changing
the world of the publishing offer a model because it has
survived in such a exotic and idiosyncratic way
and to be where publishing itself is going.
So maybe you have something to say about that and the question
is I first came to New Directions
through Thomas Merton and--
I first came to New Directions through Thomas Merton
and Siddhartha and maybe I'm wrong about this,
but it seems to me that with Laughlin's death
his interest in--
he was always, it struck me, interested in issues
of spirituality, philosophy and that doesn't seem
to be the case as much anymore.
I don't know if that's been a conscious decision
or maybe I'm just overlooking books that you have published.
So the comment first was about the new directions as a model
for publishing in the brave new world of the net.
And the question is has there been a conscious just
drifting away from that particular interest of Laughlin
or is there something I just don't
know about that's going on?
So I think that was kind of a two part thing.
It is two part, and I'm sorry for that.
I always hate two part.
Ignore the first part.
I'm much more interested in whether--
because I follow that kind of writing a lot.
It seems that there's less of it in the new directions list
these days.
Yeah, I mean I think Laughlin had particular-- things came
to him like I was saying in sometimes very it would seem
from the outside accidental or by chance ways
and Merton was a similar kind of thing.
And I mean we've continued to publish Merton
and we're actually bringing out two little volumes of--
about spirituality.
And so there hasn't really been like a specific choice
not to do those kinds of books.
Also I don't think Laughlin ever specifically--
I mean there was certain things about India and poetry,
but we still do bring out those kinds of books as well about--
but maybe not overtly so if that makes sense.
But as far as the first part of your question
was about a model of publishing house.
Like I said, it's a balancing act,
but we are fortunate in the sense
that we've had this time over the years
to build this backlist and that's
a lot of what we rely on besides more and more on our front list
too.
But publishers now it would be really hard to do that,
to start off like that as an independent profit press.
Usually the model now is a non-profit press
which is great.
But it involves a whole other side of fundraising
and creative development and things like that.
That's different but there's definitely some great presses
now who are doing that.
And then there's the University Press model which is, well,
in the past supposed to be funded by the University
but I think that's been changing a lot.
Yes, Wendy.
This question actually relates to Fenton's question
about new directions as a model.
A lot is being talked about digital publishing
as a necessity, and I agree with Fenton's statement
about your press as a model.
And I'm curious, does new direction
see any things in digital publishing that
might be innovative or interesting
or beyond the realm of necessity sort of exciting possibilities?
I think we're in the middle of dealing
with the necessity where you have to-- as a publisher,
you have to give readers the option now of an e-book
on the various readers.
We're always going to be publishing book-- books as we
always have and even have made a point of publishing books
that you really can't see on an e-reader.
Knox is one example.
This edition of Robert Walser's Microscripts,
which is these little notes he wrote on scraps of paper
and translated.
And the way we did it you couldn't really
do that on an e-reader.
I think now we have been trying to get a lot of our books
onto that format.
Poetry is different.
Poetry it's still a little tricky
to do line breaks and things.
I mean, it's yes and no and that--
but we haven't quite embarked on the poetry side of that yet.
It's mostly for the nonfiction and fiction for e-books.
There's a lot of interesting stuff happening
I think literature wise through the internet, but it takes--
it's a different kinds of forms, whether it's a journals
or there's this organization called Triple Canopy
and they do they do an interesting way of presenting
a little chap book form within the realm
of this visual presentation.
But we haven't quite gotten to that as a publishing house.
I really enjoyed your talk.
Thanks.
I have a question about the poetry list
which it seems like now that books
by Nathaniel Mackey and Susan Howe and Michael Palmer coming
out on new directions.
It's fascinating that though all those poets broke
through on little tiny, tiny presses almost like presses
that new directions used to be and now they're
seen as more much more established
poets now maybe as a result of being on New Directions.
It's almost like the reverse has happened
in terms of finding the avant Garde
and then really almost establishing them.
Anne Carson is definitely a counter example of that
because I think for maybe first or second book came out
on New Directions.
But what's your sense of at least with the American poetry
list and how that's changed maybe just in the time
that you've been there?
Yeah, sure.
Yeah, it's interesting because I mean
I think looking back at what Laughlin was doing,
I mean Pound, Williams, all those people they were actually
already being published elsewhere or had been
or things went out of print and then
Lachlan came in and picked up.
He definitely wasn't publishing their first books.
Later on with some of the more international people,
I think Borges and Neruda and some of those,
it was a different story with the international stuff.
But I don't know.
It's funny because I came really relatively late
in the game in New Directions, but also a kind of continuing
beginning for what you need to change as a publishing house.
And I think even since when I started there until now there's
always been this sense of ND is more
of a place where poets who have already published a couple two
or three books or chap books or something, especially now
the publishing scene is so different than it was.
There's so many great small presses
and other resources out there.
And again truthfully it is also part of the balancing act
too of trying to do it.
And also wanting to stay committed
to international poets which is again
we're doing 30 to 35 books a year,
including the fiction list and a lot of the international poets
actually are still their first books here,
but in their country--
And it's really a hard sell for the most part,
even if we love the book.
So I don't know if that answers your question.
But we are starting a little pamphlet series
that's modeled after a poet--
the poets of the year.
It was called that Laughlin did of these little chap books
and we're--
they'll probably be about 40 to 48 pages and as a way of trying
to do more poetry and more affordable ways
and without having to commit to a full book which
is it's hard to do.
We still do, but there's different--
we have the poets we've been publishing all along
and then we have the continuing reinventing of the backlist.
Like there's an Ezra Pound, new poems, and new selected poems
and translations so with notes you know and so that
with the new stuff.
So there's different things that are going on.
Anyone else?
Sure.
This is maybe a bit more personal, a little less
about the business.
But I'm interested in I can think of the obvious ways
that this work might have influenced
or this editorial position might have influenced your work.
But could you talk about some specific and particular ways
that your job influenced your poetry?
I think that's hard for me to say.
Yes, it's hard.
Like I said, I think the skills that you
learn in editing, slowing down and things it's always--
that always helps with your writing and translating.
But I think one of the things really
is as an editor you're really--
your job is reading all of these things
and you're seeing so many different things and how
people put things together as a book and stuff.
And so inevitably your--
it comes into the unconscious or whatever.
And so you're just seeing these things.
So I think that's one positive thing that happens with that.
Does that answer?
Was there someone else -- here I can bring you--
I have a question about your translating work or just
getting.
How would you encourage a young writer who's still trying to--
still exploring their own work?
How would you encourage a young writer
to also spend time translating or would you encourage
a young writer to do that?
Yeah, I think translation is one of the most amazing things you
can do to--
that helps your writing in ways because there's already
this distance and there's already this template
you're working with.
And the way I got started was really just bilingual books
of poets that I loved and then just first kind of just thing
and that's--
I think it's a fun way.
It's also something I found was very supportive of is trying
to-- you don't have to be perfect with the language,
but being able to go back read enough
for the little of the Spanish, sit there with a dictionary,
look at it and try and understand what's going on
and listen to the sounds, I think that's great.
And you're seeing something of the original language
and you're just--
the next step is just messing around with--
it's almost-- it could almost be mathematical in the beginning.
Other people here translate too and that's--
I think it's different with prose and poetry.
But I think it's a great thing to do.
Just a follow on the point of translation.
I'm interested in also your own work as a translator.
You're talking about when you began,
which again is very simple and almost mechanical.
And now you're doing this very high profile work with Liu--
Xiaobo, and also along the way you did Su Dongpo which again--
and again you're doing this works with different presses.
Of course, we're talking about New Directions, but gray--
Gray Wolf with the Liu Xiaobo.
So especially with the Su Dongpo which was with-- which
was with Ugly Duckling which is just
a small publisher of books.
It's just a little chapbook.
How has that been to go from doing this work
translating classical poetry that you probably can't even
expect much of an audience for, I mean even with the print run,
and now doing very high profile work now with Liu Xiaobo
that you're getting so much press for?
Just in a few years, what has that been like?
I don't know.
In grad school, I was taking--
I took a translation class and that really
got me motivated to do more.
Before that again, I was always playing around
with bilingual poems and things like that.
And then I also had translated a collection
of classical Chinese poetry for myself and I actually
brought it out myself.
It was in four volumes, little volumes divided into seasons.
And that was just an exercise.
So I guess I hopefully knew more of what I was doing before I
was thrown into other stuff.
But I don't really--
I don't know Liu Xiaobo that really
fell into my lap, that whole project.
I could talk about that a little bit some other time.
That question didn't really come into mind
because Penn organization basically
just sent me some poems and said,
can you translate these for the magazine?
And I said, OK, I'll translate a few of them.
And then one thing led to another.
It really happened really fast like that.
I had been doing it for a while, so hopefully it's
not going to be bad.
You'll decide.
Does that make sense?
I don't know what else to say about.
The Ugly Duckling, they're a great press.
They brought out the Su Shi that Su Dongpo book--
chapbook-- They do.
I don't know if people are familiar with this press,
but it's out in Brooklyn and they do a mix of finding scraps
of materials and then letterpress,
but also not letterpress and it's-- and they have
a subscription service.
You could see the books in the library.
And it's just I had known some of those people
and they were interested in that set of translations,
and then it was just--
they're not-- you're not working on like on a deadline schedule
with--
it's great because then you're just kind of like, oh, maybe
this will work.
And they're not getting paid anything.
They're all devoted to the books except for one person now
who's the managing editor.
And so it's so free to do what you're doing.
They get grant money and it goes through like three or four
different ideas of what it could actually look like as a book.
They're just amazing little operation there
that I think has steadily been getting
a lot more attention for what they do with books and poetry
anyways.
Anything else?
One more.
So I was just thinking about here we are in Tucson
and New Directions is in New York and Ugly Duckling
and there are so many amazing presses there.
Tucson is very lucky to have its own amazing presses,
but I was curious so what advice might you have
or what thoughts might you have about, say,
poetry in Tucson in a smaller city as opposed
to poetry in a big city?
What for folks here who might be MFA students who
might be thinking about, oh, do I stay in Tucson?
Do I move?
I have to move to New York?
What do I do?
Any thoughts or advice for them?
Yeah, well, I don't think--
I think the community of writers can come from wherever really.
Obviously I'm in New York for the sheer number of readings
per day you have or per week.
It is incredible that that's there
and you have various poetry foundations there
in the city all contributing to that schedule of calendar
of events.
But as far as like small press stuff,
the history of small presses and these things in the US
they're all over the place.
And here it's really seems like you have the space and rent
is not cheap in New York.
So a lot of people even have been moving away too.
And I'm not saying like it's either here or there.
I think it really comes out of a local situation
and the motivation and energy that people have
and it really does seem like hearing more and more
about what's going on here.
It's an amazing community of things that are happening.
I think Minneapolis too has this kind of stuff happening
and I was out in Marfa last year and there's
little things happening.
So I think poets, artists they go where they make things
happen within their own way.
Of course, you can't be New York for sure, again for sure.
But I'm just saying if you're talking
about like do I have to be there to do this kind of work?
But no, definitely not.
I would say there's even more means elsewhere at this point.
Great.
Well, I should also thank the East Asian department
too that were co-sponsoring this as well.
So thank you.
Thank you very much, Jeffrey Thank you so much for coming,
speaking with us tonight.
Everyone come back tomorrow to hear
Jeffrey read his own poetry and Katherine Larson,
and thank you for coming.