This morning, poet and Bodily Press author John Phillips alerted me to the fact (or fiction) that the various syllables of my first name in Slovene signify something like “ever hopeful but progressively insane.” Whether or not this is true, it is the final, critical factor in my decision to launch a summer crowdfunding campaign for The Bodily Press, right here, right now.

On a day like today, a day like any day in this most particular of burning worlds, might you deliberate on the question of whether poetry is worth a penny or two, there is a link below where I’ve listed various new & forthcoming titles, bundles, & subscriptions made available at various donation tiers. I realize I’m not the only human being in the world asking for money this year, not the only small press for that matter either. It is what it is. Here’s to what I hope is our mutual hopeful insanity.

SUPPORT THE BODILY PRESS HERE!!!

It is no secret that this is a difficult moment for small presses throughout the United States. With NEA funding cut from a growing number of non-profit arts organizations, many small publishers among them, the calls for support have been numerous and wide. The less we rely on government funding, the more we rely on readers such as you. Though this might seem to come at a cost, it does perhaps allow a rare moment of literary and artistic independence for authors and publishers living and working within the United States.

Whether happily or unhappily, The Bodily Press has never benefited from NEA grant funding, and therefore has not incurred a related loss this year. But we also still need your support. I am raising funds for the publication of many new titles, the specifics of which are detailed below, and to sustain my continued publishing work with The Bodily Press through the end of the year.

SUPPORT THE BODILY PRESS HERE!!!

The theme for me this past year, as founding editor of The Bodily Press, has been that of the chance encounter. Many of the books I’ve published this year are the result of having stumbled onto several authors and artists and their work simply by encountering them by chance on the streets of Amherst. Coming to learn of new poets’ work through a steadily growing, creatively and politically steadfast network of living writers, in our ever-evolving, ever-diminishing public spaces, online, and in person, contributed as well.

I found a new form of diversity this year, in my chance encounters with poets not only from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, but working in and out of wildly contrasting aesthetic modes of creation and thinking. The theme of diversity is fraught, on the one hand under attack by right-wing pundits, and on the other hand, ever-dangerously close to an edge where it blurs into tokenization. In working with such an array of authors, artists, and poets, I have done my best to allow what poet paul catafago (author of The Palestinian Freedom Now Suite, forthcoming) refers to as “mystic transfer.” In this spirit of collaboration and trust, my work as an editor and designer has greatly benefited from such diverse points of view and aesthetic modes of creation as exhibited by the authors whose work I publish.

This year I have edited books that include:

• the unwaveringly direct spoken word protest poetry of paul catafago’s full-length collection The Palestinian Freedom Now Suite;

• the minimalist crystalline gems of John Phillips’ chapbook Concrete;

• the haunting gnostic lyrics “written in a ghost language” of Patrick Pritchett’s full-length collection Brief Mercy of This Life;

• the long-lined American psychic landscapes of Deja Rene Carr (AKA Mal Devisa)’s mid-length collection Elbow Sugar;

• a series of paintings and commentaries by “painter-among-poets” Tasha Robbins released, at long last, as An Angel Alphabet, a full-color book to be held by the human hand, visually depicting the Hebrew Alphabet Malachim in Cornelius Agrippa’s Angelic Script;

• the bluesy tercets of Aldon Lynn Nielsen’s chapbook Supertrios (Disc 1);

• The coy keening of Sarah Menefee’s streetwise short lyrics in her chapbook Winter Rose;

• the jagged clarity of image present in Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi’s chapbook A smudge. Attenuated.;

• and the poetic reimagining of public life lyrically outlined in Andrew Mossin’s A Common World.

In my editing and design work, I also found myself descending into the beautiful mess of my own contradictory affinitas (hilaritas?), which proved to be so rich in aesthetical, emotional, and political complexity that it inspired new directions in my own poetic practice. The two books of my own poetry compiled and published through The Bodily Press in May of this year (Wandering Subject and Starlings) borrow more than a phrase or two from the above works, not to mention the work of others I published last year, such as Nathaniel Mackey and Joseph Donahue. It is exciting to realize just how potent an effect these encounters have had on my own particular relationship to poetry, and how they have helped to reshape my own language in relation to the world.

SUPPORT THE BODILY PRESS HERE!!!

It is at this time that I ask that you peruse the list of rewards on our crowdfunding page, a list that includes all these titles, as well as bundles, subscriptions, and more. Maybe there’s something that catches your eye, or better yet, your heart.

SUPPORT THE BODILY PRESS!!!

Not only small presses, but these poets and artists, whose work often occurs at the margins of any given cultural page, need all the support, and more importantly, readers and witnesses they can find. I thank you very much, on behalf of those authors and The Bodily Press, for any amount you are able to give. Your support is crucial, and very much appreciated.

Yours,

Eliot Cardinaux

Founding Editor

The Bodily Press