Lessee:
Ric's Wesleyan anthology looks likely to be very useful in the US. People of
my generation, especially, will benefit. So there remains a second job of
transatlantic information to be done -- co-operation between the young.
If it came to project stage with decent publishing back up, I'd be glad to co-
edit an anthology of the younger Brit/US people -- though I wouldn't want to
muscle my way in if others were deemed more suitable. What I can't do, I'm
afraid, is make many start-up moves from my standpoint in Paris: I'm just too
isolated from face-to-face contact.
I feel there would have to be a very small editorial team (or two editors with
an editorial board of advisers) with a balance of gender and ethnicity,
including both British and US input. Keston's input would clearly be
valuable. Editors would have to work from an essentially neutral place in
terms of poetry politics. Either one of the bigger poetry presses should be
approached, or there could be cooperation between Brit and US publishing.
Lawrence Upton's comments on ALP also very timely -- I don't know much about
their current activities, actually -- ex-pat, you see. Circulation in both
countries should be one of the first considerations.
The interest from Ken Edwards and Lawrence Upton is a very good sign and
witness to their ongoing being-of-use to others. Also, the project would have
to spread wider than the Brit Po list if it is to take off. Anyone game for
this wider task of spreading the news? And eventually the Buffalo poetics
list would be another place to start touting for enthusiasm.
Keston's experience of working with US attitudes towards British poetry is
instructive: I doubt his own level of energies will go unremarked for long!
But awareness of Brit po is very low in the US and has been formed by various
promoters from both countries who have been working out of smallish corners
and presenting limited views of what's going on. Hence the need for more
publishing co-operation without the grinding of axes.
I'm very sympathetic to Tony Frazer's wish that Australian/NZ/Canadian poetry
be included because I know what I'd think if I were from those nations. But
wouldn't this make a first anthology unwieldy, muddly, and of real service to
none of the countries? A later project? Internationalism, yes. But the
anthology, even as presently projected, would be an editing nightmare!
Doug
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