While sitting down at the computer for a few hours two nights ago to compile that list of June writing contest deadlines and calls for submissions, I came across an awesome new independent literary press based out of St. Louis. Architrave Press, founded this year, selects poems for publication and then offers them for sale individually, the same way you can buy a song from iTunes. Their website isn’t set to launch until September, but I did find their facebook page. Here’s some more info:
“All our poems are hand printed on fine paper using an antique Vandercook #4 letterpress at All Along Press in St. Louis, MO. Most poems are printed as individual pages which can be collected into reader-curated chapbooks or journals; a very few are printed as broadsides.
By printing poems individually, each ‘card’ or ‘page’ is its own object. Pages can then be purchased individually so readers can put together their own journal or chapbook in the same way songs are sold on iTunes. Individual pages can be tucked into a greeting card, tacked up on a bulletin board, etc. We’ll also sell subscriptions so readers can automatically get all the poems in each ‘edition’ (10 poems each).”
I think this idea is amazing. I love seeing how the print publication world is shifting and adapting to both accommodate and utilize new forms of media, as well as how writers and publishers continue to find ways to make print fresh and innovative in an increasingly digital market. What a fun (and creatively empowering) opportunity for readers and lovers of literature to put together their own poetry mixtape collections, and all for a pretty reasonable price.
Want to submit some poems of your own? You can find Architrave’s submission manager here. Curious about other neat things All Along Press might be doing? Visit their website.
I can’t wait to see what Architrave Press will have going on in September, and I’ll post an update in a few months when their site goes live. For now, go “like” their Facebook page, and share your thoughts on this neat idea in the comments section below.