"If No One Can Find My Book, Does It Exist?"

The aggressive moves of Perseus Book Group has many small presses worried about the distribution of their books.  Travis Nichols, writing for PoetryFoundation.org, provides a thorough account of the change and its implications for American poetry.  Despite the overall glumness of the news, the piece begins with a spirited perspective from Noah Eli Gordon:

Noah Eli Gordon, a young poet living in Denver, believes he’s found the best way to get his books out to potential readers.

“I give them all away for free,” Gordon explains. “Instead of money, I ask the publishers for books, and then I mail them out to other poets I admire.”

Gordon frames his giveaway as part of a long poetry tradition rather than a symptom of a troubled marketplace.

“It’s like in Vita Nuova,” Gordon says, “when Dante writes about how a young poet would write a poem and then send it to the other, older poets in the community. If the poem was good enough, the young poet would then gain entry into their world.”

God, it feels good to read that.  The more poets evoking Dante in regards to book distribution, the flippin' better.  (Can that be our collective fun task this weekend?  To evoke Dante in some act of ours, small or large.)  In somewhat related news, Harper Perennial will publish Noah's next book, Novel Pictorial Noise this fall.  I'm very excited about its publication as it's the first book of which I am the editor (which might be news to him).  Though, all I really did was shepherd it through the assorted passages of corporate publishing (work enough).  But what's strange, or good, is that every where I turn, there is Noah Eli Gordon.  Just after reading this article, literally the next thing I did, I flip open the Spring 2007 American Poet to find, what else, a review of Inbox by Noah Eli Gordon.  It was the first thing!  And if that wasn't enough, there he is playing in a video in the post below. So long as he continues to say, and believe, things like that above, let him be everywhere.

Comments

[Cara]

Congrats on the book!

[Mike]

Thanks!