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Ernie Brill's avatar

I diisagree . The "small" press movement has been around since Margaret Fuller worked her ass off putting out "The Little Magazine" ( as I understand it) , and there numerous small presses throughout the twentieth century, often manned by a few doughty individuals that occasionally even broke iinto the rarified hierachica heights, like Paris Review, and others. Ive spent a good chunk of my adult life helping out at Small Press Bookfairs in New York Ciy and San Francico, helping to sell books from City Lights, Y'Bird Press. Thunder's Mouth Press. CoffeeHouse, Heresies,West End, Cineaste Film. Kearney Street Workshp, Hanging Loose, Beond Baroque,Curbstone, Kaya, TiaChuca, Shambalaa, MontwhlyReview and others. I have watched the incredible revolutioin in American poetry led by two organizations for writers-CaveCanem - an organizatiion suppoting AfricanAmerican writers, especially in and around MFA prorams, and, Kundiman, an Asian Amercan equivalent, and numerouss Latino Pressses,including Art De Publico, Tia Chaca, Noemi, and others. I think part of the problem, ffrom what Ihave seen for years at openmics, is thatmany professed poets and writers, includng thosewho do flash fction because someofthem are simply lazy and have no attention span and are so bereft ofimagination that. they constantly need prompts and cant tale tte slightest critique of their "work".

This past year I met a veteran poet, a prize winnng left-liberal poet. I asked him what hethought of the Amerian poet Sterlng A.Brown and the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. He had never heard of either poet eventhough Darwish is known throughout the worlld.

Part of thisis due to the utterly racissst and ingoistic educational stances amng most people iin the Happy Valley. They get their mostly whitewriters dead or alive from the US, Great Britian and a small sliver of France or Italy or Denmaak if the oneblockbluster overripewriter is promoted and hyped . You know the writers. Writers to bianianring the US Populacee the long-sought for solace ofOBLVION.. So many possible curious readers then have no idea or clue aboout such spectacular authors such as Vi Khi Nao , Linh Dinh and Don Le from Vietnam, or Ben Okri, Chimimmanda Adiche, and Ngugi Wa Thiongo from,respectivey, Nigeria, and Kenya; or all the marvellous new wiriters from Japan; the delightful Ugrasek from Serbia, the brilliant Hassan Blasim from Iraq now lving in Finland ( author of the groundbreakng restructing of the short story collecion The ICorpse Exhibition, and the fabulous author of the finest long poem in fifty years- Tyehimba Jess author of the kaleidiscocpic epic OLIO

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