"We're not trying to replace Bookfest," said Brangien Davis, editor of the local journal Swivel. She took a sip of her Coke. "Or be anything like it."
Jennifer Foster, editor of Antioch University Seattle's magazine KNOCK, laughed.
"Our event is free," said Leah Baltus, editor of Rivet magazine.
"This is for people who make books, too, not just people who sell them," said Amber Curtis, editor of the journal Cranky.
"And in a lot of ways," Foster said, "it's not about selling books at all, because none of us are ever going to make any money off this."
The four editors are the core of StetSet, a "group of Seattle-based independent publications and editors working togetherto strengthen and promote do-it-yourself publishing in Seattle and beyond." We were gathered to talk about their first event, which takes place Sunday, July 10, at the Crocodile Cafe, under the slightly gung-ho name "Synchronicity: An Indie Press Sideshow." It will feature genuinely bizarre-sounding stuff, including something called "Miss Fortune and the Misfortune Cookies" by Vanessa DeWolf, Amy Ragsdale, and Linden Ontjes (who is incredibly smart and incredibly crazy); and Joshua Beckman, of Wave Books, who's reading a poem under construction called "Blues and Coppers."
"Do you know any acrobats?" Davis suddenly asked.
"We're animating a poem," Foster said.
"Joshua Beckman has to have acrobats in order to read his poem."
Beckman later confirmed his request to have performers animate "Blues and Coppers" at the July 10 event, but by the time we talked he'd found his performers. "It'll be myself and another person who's a musician"—the poem also requires accompaniment—"and I believe, although I don't know the exact number, four small children who study gymnastics and they'll be dressed as butterflies and they'll be rolling around us." The poem is long, and it keeps changing. Since reading it first at Open Books' anniversary a few months ago, Beckman has read it in New York, L.A., and other cities, adding to it and, also crucial, editing as he goes. If you force him to describe it he says: "Although the piece is not primarily a narrative piece it involves narrative elements about people who go around with nets hunting butterflies." Blues and coppers are a kind of butterfly.
Sounds really fucking weird. I endorse. But be warned: There are also plans for things like "spontaneous painting and poetry writing," Curtis said. (When she saw my expression, her thought expanded and she said, "Part of this is taking a chance.") In addition to the performances, there will be dozens and dozens of journals, publishers, and artists hawking their stuff. A comic artist I saw at a bar over the weekend told me he was looking forward to it. Did he think it was going to be good? "I can't tell," he said. But he pointed out that there are rarely events that bring independent presses together. ■
