Our call for submissions, for the You Shoulda Been There subscription series, has sent a flurry of questions to our inbox here at The Reading Room CLE. Here are the answers, in a handy explainer for you!
What is a chapbook? What is a broadside?
Back in the days when “having a thought” and “sharing a thought” were two separate things, we used to chop down trees, mash them, boil them, and serve them up as paper, decorated with words made of a colloidal suspension of lampblack and water. In those far-distant days, when we met to share slam poetry, or spoken word, or storytelling, or what have you, the poets would often bring merch to sell.
This merch was produced, semi-illicitly, on Xeroxes at the poets’ day jobs; you might type up twelve or twenty of your poems, run them off on the office copier during lunch, and then stitch or staple them into a cover decorated by an artist friend. You would then sell these at your performances, and perhaps a local bookseller might take a few copies for their display rack. These are the chapbooks we are looking for.
Here's a famous example, by Neil Gaiman; he printed a run of 5,000 of these for a convention. It’s a 20-page booklet, bound in cardstock with staples. The story Snow, Glass, Apples is very famous now, as is Mr. Gaiman, but this DIY edition is a small-run, handmade version that was first distributed in person to the attendees.
This practice also manifested in literary art prints; letterpress and other artists collaborated with poets to make illustrated prints, postcards, and posters. These are part of the centuries-long tradition of broadsides: oversize posters with news, lyrics, or advertisements. Here is a famous example, Neil Gaiman’s short story A Study in Emerald, printed as a poster.
Another heartwarming example, Neil Gaiman’s poem Nicholas Was, hand-lettered onto a minimalist Christmas card by Dave McKean:
What is the point of this? Does it cost anything to participate?
The Reading Room CLE hopes to share the experience of poetry, as a tactile, visual experience, more widely and with more diversity than the large publishers can achieve. We love spoken performance, and we are devoted fans of Button Poetry, but in addition to audio and video, this visual art is worth sharing.
There is no reading fee for submissions. We will purchase copies based on our subscribers’ preorders. We prefer digital copies to review, but if you do not have digital copies and need a prepaid mailing label, e-mail us and we can send you one. If your work is completely out of print, we are interested in reprinting it, and will pay a licensing fee.
What about unpublished work? What if I’m an artist but I don’t write? What if I write but I don’t make visual art?
Yes, we are open to unpublished work; although this project is designed to amplify backlist, we are happy to consider new work. Follow these submission guidelines.
We are always glad to make matches between artists and writers. If you have art or writing to submit to our matchmaking pool, send it our way. When the perfect spinster print and bachelor poem happen to meet across our desk, we will introduce them. Send up to twelve pages of writing, and up to twelve images of your art. Regular photos are fine; we can produce high-res scans for Cleveland locals through our partnership with Master Collective.
What if I want to subscribe? I love getting mail!
Sign up for our e-mail list, and follow us on social media, to find out when subscriptions open.