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While many lament the death of print and the death of the book in this digital age and current economic situation, with the downsizing of major publishing houses and major publications migrating from paper to internet-only formats, here is one thing to consider: small and independent presses are generally not known for doling out lucrative contracts to potential authors. Due to this apparent absence of profitability, small and independent presses are able to publish and distribute the work of writers who exist outside of the mainstream.
For API authors, independent presses present the opportunity to write and publish books which are not market driven. We do not have to pitch our manuscripts as written in the vein of popular and bestselling Asian American literature about exotica and food.
July 7, 2009
Small Press: Maiana Minahal, 'Legend Sondayo'
Hi all. This is my first post to the Hyphen blog, so here is a very brief introduction. I'm Barbara Jane Reyes, and I am a Pinay poet and author based in Oakland. I blog regularly on poetics and the American poetry industry. One thing I'd like to do with my posts here is to introduce you all to some of the writers in our community who are published by small, independent, and grassroots presses. While many lament the death of print and the death of the book in this digital age and current economic situation, with the downsizing of major publishing houses and major publications migrating from paper to internet-only formats, here is one thing to consider: small and independent presses are generally not known for doling out lucrative contracts to potential authors. Due to this apparent absence of profitability, small and independent presses are able to publish and distribute the work of writers who exist outside of the mainstream.
For API authors, independent presses present the opportunity to write and publish books which are not market driven. We do not have to pitch our manuscripts as written in the vein of popular and bestselling Asian American literature about exotica and food.
One such author writing outside of mainstream market expectations is the poet
and interdisciplinary artist Maiana Minahal, former director of UC
Berkeley's Poetry for the People. Her second book, Legend Sondayo,
has just been released by Berkeley-based Civil Defense Poetry. I just
picked up Minahal's pocket-sized book, which I've been carrying around
in my purse, and reading in snatches. This is a good way to read a book
of poems, savoring them one at a time, appreciating each poem's form,
density, and space. She writes prose poem and free verse as adeptly as
haiku and hay(na)ku sequence. Here is an excerpt from "stolen/kali":
As you may see, Minahal's poems are concrete and active with a woman kicking ass (kali is a Filipino martial art). Read this excerpt aloud and you can hear its musical staccato. The woman's movement is both dance and combat.
I enjoy Minahal's poetry because, apart from being precisely crafted and lively, it's subversive. It literally subverts an old Filipino folktale of the woman Sondayo, who battles the wind goddess, because the wind goddess stole her husband. In Minahal's retelling, she creates an urban and contemporary Sondayo: "Times have changed, so now I can tell you what I couldn't back then: I fought that wind goddess for my wife, not my husband. In those days, we didn't have all your genderqueer and polyamory or trans tweeners, flaming and flaunting. (More power to them!)"
Writing outside of mainstream expectations is also writing against their expectations. It's a thriving and necessary bottom-up approach which is familiar to those of us who work with community arts organizations. That said, do pick up your copy of Legend Sondayo and show your support for the independent publishers bringing us these necessary voices.
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| my | coils claw |
knife blade singe |
| her |
wind boils |
fist and stab |
| she |
strangle jagged |
edge razor diamond |
| strike |
burn deep |
fear livid scream |
| glitter |
heart rot |
slaughter bind blue |
As you may see, Minahal's poems are concrete and active with a woman kicking ass (kali is a Filipino martial art). Read this excerpt aloud and you can hear its musical staccato. The woman's movement is both dance and combat.
I enjoy Minahal's poetry because, apart from being precisely crafted and lively, it's subversive. It literally subverts an old Filipino folktale of the woman Sondayo, who battles the wind goddess, because the wind goddess stole her husband. In Minahal's retelling, she creates an urban and contemporary Sondayo: "Times have changed, so now I can tell you what I couldn't back then: I fought that wind goddess for my wife, not my husband. In those days, we didn't have all your genderqueer and polyamory or trans tweeners, flaming and flaunting. (More power to them!)"
Writing outside of mainstream expectations is also writing against their expectations. It's a thriving and necessary bottom-up approach which is familiar to those of us who work with community arts organizations. That said, do pick up your copy of Legend Sondayo and show your support for the independent publishers bringing us these necessary voices.
Posted by Barbara Jane at July 7, 2009 8:55 AM
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hey Barbara. your comment about the apparent absence of profitability becoming an oddly enabling thing rings a bell with me; how else to explain Hyphen's continued existence (knock on wood) while more commercial and far more mainstream publications close their doors? (well, i guess there is one other way to explain it: that the hard-scrabble survival that most everyone is coming into some acquaintance with now, is the hard-scrabble we've always known.) we know to look to the cracks in the sidewalks, not the front-yard flower gardens, for the things that find ways to grow.
You can also buy a copy of the book directly through legendsondayo@gmail.com!