Guest blogger, Jane Omerod
Here are two hands, here are two heads, here are two hats. Poet/performer (“Hi! Thank you very, very much for inviting me!”) and editor/publisher (“Dear Blah, We are sorry / congratulations”).
I first seriously started writing poetry back in early 2004 when I moved from England to New York. I’d written a novel, slugged through a Creative Writing MA, stacked up the rejections, but moving overseas meant a new beginning. Figuring I wasn’t going to find a social life by sitting at home with a no idea second novel, I began to go to open mics. Bam! This is what I wanted to do for years without knowing it! Poetry, performance, inspiration, creation. Chatting, listening, absorbing, arguing. Writers from all ages and backgrounds. My policy was to talk to a new person every time I went out.
In late 2006, a friend suggested collaborating on an anthology. Seven of us —all regulars at The Cornelia Street Café—spent a year working on it. We decided to include just our own poetry, plus artwork as we all had painting/photography backgrounds and interests. Through the old, randomly pointing at the dictionary approach, we found a name for our venture: Uphook Press. ISBN and barcode were ordered, legal necessities researched, money put in the pot, and in 2008 “A Cautionary Tale” was there in blue and yellow, perfect-bound glory.
Next up? Three of us from the original group discovered a love of publishing and editing. Next time though, let’s have other poets. Poets we didn’t know. Poets from all across the United States. Hey, we all submitted our work to journals, organized our own reading series, performed all over the place. We knew how we liked to be treated. We wanted to meet more and more poets. For myself, I wanted that same feeling as when I first arrived on the poetry scene. Community. Connecting. Honing social and editorial skills. Gaining self-confidence. Attempting to understand the ins and outs of InDesign. Studying small presses and journals to figure out our tastes and aims.
An ad in “Poets and Writers” for poets who loved both the ink and the mic bought hundreds of submissions. “you say. say.” was published in October 2009 and we organized readings from Philadelphia to San Francisco. Poets suggested and helped setup events. Poets who lived in the same city but were unaware of each other kept in touch and later featured at other readings together.
“hell strung and crooked” is forthcoming in September 2010. Forty-one poets this time. More readings. The learning process grows. InDesign is still a challenge but we are crazily proud of both our aesthetic and content. Uphook Press now has four editors. With all this analysis, I find my own writing improving enormously. My first full-length collection came out last year from Three Rooms Press.
And the cats? Well, I have to admit that sometimes dealing with poets is like herding cats…
(Bite-proof gloves, check. Humor, check. Fun? Oh, yes!)
Jane Ormerod is the author of the full-length poetry collection, Recreational Vehicles on Fire (Three Rooms Press, 2009), the chapbook 11 Films (Modern Metrics/ Exot Books, 2008), and the spoken word CD Nashville Invades Manhattan. www.janeormerod.com
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About Misty Ericson
Great article Jane! I remember when we first started ” A Cautionary Tale”
I had never seen or heard of such an anthology. A show case of artists looking at how we live and create, After our first book, Jane and I decided to take the press a step further and invite other poets who enjoy the mike as well as print. All true;
We were exposed to a new world, connecting us to other spoken
word artist and poets who enjoy sharing their work in the same way.
To help other artists meet one another in other cities and establish this community. We continue; “hell strung and crooked is our largest collection yet, with 41 poets, “you .say.say.” had 29 poets, this is our third book, and we are extremely excited, some of our former poets have resubmitted, and now we have a number of artists who continue to support uphookpress in bringing us back to cities we performed our last anthology!!! Helping our vision grow!
This has been an incredible journey and continues with surprises daly…
For me establishing uphookpress as a formal company was familiar, as I have
been involved in business my entire life…My first career is in hairdressing and came to writing after opening my third salon, never say never!! I always wanted to perform, originally I wanted to be an actress, a comedian, and now the whole world of creativity has come together…
It is a pleasure to work along side everyone at uphookpress……
ice founding editor of uphookpress……
It’s been my distinct and exquisite pleasure to hear Jane perform her work all over the place and to work alongside her as her colleague and co-editor at Uphook Press. Her energy is immense, her dedication, instense. She reaches out into the world, brings it all in, then sends it back out again to make it a more artful place.
Fabulous article, Jane. This is a wonderful site. If cats were writers, they’d all be poets, wouldn’t they?