Note to self: staring at the words “unephemeral* ephemeral” for too long, too early in the morning, leads one to experience a dreamy distance between sound and meaning in the English language…
I’ve said it before: I enjoy the ephemerality of the micropress. It’s here and it’s gone. There may or may not be a reprint–TBD, based on the publisher’s whims (most often real concerns of time, money, energy). Browsing in my hometown’s best bookstore (or, as my partner likes to say, “the best bookstore in the world”**), Attic Books, the other day, I made sure to check out the collection of Canadian micropress publications upstairs–chapbooks and broadsides and the like from above/ground, The Ryerson Press, The Reading Well, and others. I feel a particular wonder before a slim, well-worn copy of a micropress publication, perhaps especially those micropress publications that, like my pamphlets, are modest in their form and design (ordinary cardstock or even printer paper), but still robust enough, and, evidently, desired enough, to travel through the decades, often surviving beyond the micropress’s own lifetime.
Every season, the fifty copies I print for each Opaat pamphlet are quickly come and gone. It takes no more than a month, typically, to move the pamphlets I print, with most going out in the first week. This makes the work both demanding and satisfying, leading to a somewhat consuming, frenzied focus on my end, a kind of intensity that appeals to my Aries moon. Once they’re gone, they’re gone, the task complete. I can move on (Gemini rising)–I can rest and plan, return to the other work (paid, domestic, etc.) and fun (mostly knitting) that occupies the better part of my year.
While the response to Opaat has been satisfying, the one downside to selling out so fast, of course, is that interested parties have nowhere to go if they want to read any pamphlets they might have missed purchasing. Until recently, I had kept for myself two copies of each pamphlet (more on this change soon), which are somewhat unromantically gathered in a manila envelope stored in my workshop (i.e., kitchen). Jaime Forsythe, a good friend and Opaat-published poet, has a number of Opaat pamphlets displayed in a stylish holder in her living room–I don’t have her design sense (seriously, you should see the outfits she puts together. Inspiring.).
I’m happy to report that in addition to these private collections, the pamphlets are now collected much more accessibly and properly in two library collections. As of about this week, a complete set can now be found at the Cape Breton University Library, thanks to university librarian Martin Chandler, who started acquiring the pamphlets over two years ago. Martin had missed out on the first season, and later on another season, but I recently made the decision to pilfer my own collection (with two copies of almost all the pamphlets) to fill out the one at CBU. I now have only one copy of each pamphlet, but that’s plenty for me, especially if it means more readers can check out the poems.
The only hiccup in this process was Nanci Lee’s pamphlet–the inaugural pamphlet, long out of print, of which I only had one copy. Nanci was generous to part with one of the publisher/artist proofs I had supplied to her (hers was the only pamphlet for which I made these proofs, as I wanted to surprise/impress her with them before pitching the idea of publication).
Display of Opaat pamphlets at the Cape Breton University Library
(Last fall, I saw Martin in person in Sydney when my partner and I were in town for a poetry reading at wonderful local indie On the Same Page Books. We chatted about a few things, including the micropress, and I was thrilled to learn that Martin had set up a display of Opaat pamphlets at the library. I asked him to send me a photo of the display, which he warned me, almost sheepishly, was modest–I love it.)
The second library collection can be found at the University of Toronto’s Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library (where I spent a bit of time scouring sixteenth-century French sermons for references to birds during my PhD), which recently purchased copies of most of the press’s pamphlets–I couldn’t sell them a complete set as I had prioritized filling out the CBU collection, as described above.
Is anyone still reading? I do go on about these things, a fan of dwelling on money and other material details (Taurus sun).
As a MacAskill/descendent of Cape Breton Gaels, it brings me great pleasure to know that the library in Sydney has a complete collection of Opaat pamphlets. I’m also determined to round out, as best I can, the collection at the Fisher library–I have another publisher/author proof of Nanci Lee’s pamphlet ready to send to them. After that, they’re only missing six pamphlets, and I’m ready to buy them off my authors or other parties who might have those titles on hand…
Three cheers for libraries and all that they do. As my partner says, it’s good libraries were invented long ago, as there’s no way we’d be able to get them going in today’s political climate.
*To skeptics: the Wiktionary says this is indeed a word.
**You can imagine how happy it makes me that my partner, born and raised in Toronto, thinks the best bookstore in the world is in London, Ontario.
Annick MacAskill 