September 8, 2010, poets from the 16 Rivers Press anthology, The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems of the San Francisco Bay Watershed, will read at 7 p.m. in the Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library, 828 I Street, Sacramento. For more info about the free event, call (415) 273-1303.
When it is time to take up certain tasks in life, whether baking bread or publishing poetry books, all the difference in the world depends on who you ask to help you. The Little Red Hen only had a lazy dog, a sleepy cat, and a duck, and each time she asked for help, “Not I,” replied her compatriots. Well, she got to keep all the bread for herself, but there’s only so much bread one little red hen could possibly eat. There’s got to be a better way . . . and the Bay Area’s 16 Rivers Press has figured it out.
Jackie Kudler, one of the original members of the San Francisco-based publishing group, admits to having something of a collectivist bent when it comes to bringing projects to fruition. Fortunately, she got with the right group of people to share the burden of work and complete each task. Since its formation in 1999, the collective has published 21 titles and brought in nine new members. And while some poets may question some of the founding principles--for instance, authors receive no money from their book sales, rather each book’s sales support future titles--what cannot be denied is that they do excellent work, having set high standards for both the poetry they publish and the production values that carry through in creating beautiful, table-top worthy books.
Named for the sixteen rivers that feed into the San Francisco Bay (Can you name them? See the end of the article to find out if you got them!), the press is essentially regional, and collective members are expected to participate in meetings usually held in Marin. However, one long-time member who now lives in Connecticut, has taken on a supporting role.
Besides Kudler, the other founders of 16 Rivers are Valerie Berry, Terry Ehret, Margaret Kaufman, Diane Sher Lutovich, Carolyn Miller, and Susan Sibbet. Each member contributes unique skills to the enterprise; for example, Kudler, a college instructor by profession has done public relations work and now serves in that capacity for the press; Kaufman, a popular poetry teacher, turns out to be a whiz with fundraising, while Berry, a physician who was also good with math, originally took on the group’s treasurer role. (A new member with an accounting background will now take that on.)
In addition to tackling their specific jobs to keep the press viable, each poet-member of 16 Rivers also reads every manuscript that is submitted, attends a monthly decision-making meeting, and works with every other poet to produce the best book possible, right down to critiquing every line of a book if necessary. The group hires out for their graphic-design services and have found in David Bullen, a Santa Cruz-area artist, an aesthetic sensibility that reflects their own. Bullen has worked with 16 Rivers on several titles.
16 Rivers has survived and gained much notoriety and success in an eleven-year period even as other small presses have come and gone. Kudler attributes their tenacity to the energy of the collective itself. It was Terry Ehret’s “brainchild,” according to Kudler. Petaluma poet Ehret had enjoyed having her first full-length collection, Lost Body, win the National Poetry series and get published by Copper Canyon Press; yet, even with those honors, Ehret had difficulty getting her second book published. According to Kudler, Ehret found “it was back to square one.” Many poets know how difficult it is to get attention for a first book, so when it was clear that each publication was going to present production, publication, promotion, and distribution challenges, Ehret decided to take action by inviting other poets to join her in the publishing venture.
They named the organization 16 Rivers for the major fresh-water arteries that feed the San Francisco Bay, and like those waterways, 16 Rivers Press has smoothed a path to publication for each member. Beyond the efforts to just get a book done, the collective supports each poet with marketing, sales, promotion and distribution.
The collective looked to Alice James Books, a similar consensus-based publishing venture formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1970s to bring out more books by women. 16 Rivers created its own publishing guidelines and rules for how they could build something long-term. At first, members invested their own money to launch two titles but eventually, book sales began to support new publications.
If the issue of poets not receiving remuneration from their own book’s sales strike some as unfair, Kudler points out that few poets generate real income from book sales. "You can spend large sums over many years trying to gain a foothold through poetry contests." Even well-known poets, like Marin’s Kay Ryan, she points out--a recent U. S. poet laureate--sent poems out for years before she achieved book publication. “If you do this long enough,” Kudler points out, “you know you are not in it for the money.” (Kudler's own book, Sacred Precinct, came out in 2003.) Instead, the collective members have answered their question, “Wouldn’t it be lovely to create a beautiful press that published beautiful books?” with a resounding yes.
At 16 Rivers, proceeds from book sales finance future titles. They solicit new manuscripts and new members of their collective during a manuscript reading period between November 1st through and February 1st. In their guidelines, they explicitly state that poets who submit manuscripts must consider a three-year commitment to the collective if their book is chosen for publication. In the first year, the poet participates in meetings and “gets the lay of the land”; the second year is devoted to production of his or her own book, while the third year involves mentoring another new members to the collective. It’s not for everyone, but the group has been able to print the books of all those in the collective--some with more than one title--and all the books have the support and imaginative backing of the collective to ensure each title's ultimate success.
After a manuscript is selected, the invitee is queried about his or her skills; they have been fortunate to find people who fill a particular niche of fundraising, marketing and publicity, financial management, or graphic design and production coordination. One individual brought in web-site building skills, while two--Sharon Olson and Nina Lindsay--were librarians. Kudler says she had not previously appreciated the power and energy of librarians but working with Olson and Lindsay has made her realize, “if you get a bunch of librarians together, you could literally run the world!”
Kudler says they have found that members reflect a range of personalities and work-styles: “Some people jump right in, while others sit back at first, get the lay of the land, then start moving into an area that needs attention.” Murray Silverstein created Naming the Rivers (a CD of selected poems by members) and then spearheaded the collective’s recently published anthology, The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems of the San Francisco Bay Watershed.
16 Rivers’ secret weapon has been their subscriber list. When the organization formed, each member was asked to write down the names of anyone and everyone who might have an interest in poetry and poetry publishing. “That list even included sisters and cousins who said they liked poetry,” says Kudler. Since several members had been active in the local poetry scene for many years--as teachers or participants in readings and poetry organizations--they started off with about 1,000 names to use for promotional contacts, a list that continues to grow with each new member.
The collective isn’t driven by any particular poetry "aesthetic," says Kudler; instead, they try to avoid the “workshop syndrome“ when all poems begin to sound alike as one or another aesthetic tends to dominate (i.e., narrative vs. language poetry.) “There are different ways of writing poems . . . what we are looking for is poetry that jumps off the page, is exciting.” Although the manuscripts are put through a rigorous critique process, “the poet always has the last word.” Kudler says when she was preparing her own book, it was helpful to hear which poems could be dumped or trimmed down. “They helped me do some wonderful things in shaping the manuscript, as well, which is another art all in itself.”
Their decision to create and publish an anthology that included poets who are not members of the collective has been successful in gaining 16 Rivers a broader readership. The Place That Inhabits Us came out this year to high acclaim. The collective is concerned they are not “as diverse as we would like to be”--they are mostly white women over 40 years of age--to address this, they are creating a chapbook contest (with a December 2010 deadline) to invite poets under the age of 40 to submit shorter books of verse, with the winning title to be published in 2012. Several members teach or lead workshops and can reach out to poets in this way as well. Two new members of the collective, Albany, California’s poet laureate Kristine Hutchins, and Berkeley poet Jeanne Wagner, will see their books printed next year.
It’s not always easy working closely with other poets. Kudler admits that interpersonal issues sometimes arise. After one particularly grueling four-hour meeting, a member sent out an e-mail with a subject-line that warned “death-by-poetry.” Nevertheless, the experience of working in such an intimate consensus process, with fellow writers who take every line of a poem seriously, and who stake their own reputations on the outcome and success of each book, has allowed 16 Rivers to build trust and a vibrant sense of community. “I have a great deal of faith that a group of people who want to do something can get it done,” says Kudler. And unlike the Little Red hen, they enjoy sharing the bread far beyond each poet’s limited barnyard.
ROSTER OF MEMBERS
Dan Bellm
Maria M. Benet
Valerie Berry
Terry Ehret
Margaret Kaufman
Gerald Fleming
Lynne Knight
Jackie Kudler
Nina Lindsay
Diane Sher Lutovich
Carolyn Miller
Sharon Olson
Susan Sibbet
Murray Silverstein
Lynn Lyman Trombetta
Gillian Wegener
Helen Wickes
CAN YOU NAME THE 16 RIVERS?
San Joaquin, Fresno, Chowchilla, Merced, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Bear, Mokelumne, Cosumnes, American, Yuba, Feather, Sacramento, Napa, Petaluma
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These articles on poetry are consistently interesting and educational. Well written, well researched. Supportive of the hard working poets here in the Bay Area.
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