Topside Press

Making books happen and stuff

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****FREE! Cheap drinks! Everyone welcome!**** Join us at Brooklyn’s trans open mic night!

Here’s the FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/174170936365682/

7pm at Metropolitan, November 1!

Future GENRE REASSIGNMENT: December 6 ...and in 2017: Jan 3 and Feb 7

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Black Girl Dangerous reviews WHEN THE CHANT COMES

Check out the latest essay on Kay Ulanday Barrett’s WHEN THE CHANT COMES: http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2016/10/when-the-chant-comes/

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BGD Book Review: When The Chant Comes By Kay Ulanday Barrett

Read Chanelle Adams' review of poet, performer and educator Kay Ulanday Barrett's poetry collection When The Chant Comes.

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After a few weeks of production delays we’re pleased to announce that KOKUMO’s debut poetry book REACQUAINTED WITH LIFE will start shipping on Monday! This one took some extra time getting it absolutely perfect with the printer, but it was worth it. We’re sure you’ll agree! Just $9.95, get it here: http://topsidepress.com/shop/reacquainted-with-life/

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from Kay Ulanday Barrett: What's good fall & winter?! Let's get into it, shall we? Eastcoast & Midwest,#whenthechantcomes is on the way to you-- please book me for talks, performances, workshops, & keynotes! Wobble with me na. #gendernonconforming #qtpoc#spoonie #queerpoets #transpoc #queer #queerandbrown  #sdqtpoc #transgenderart _____ [description: in a photo a brown round queer with glasses looks to the left. Bold purple text reads KAY ULANDAY BARRETT & beneath is white text with date/time/event info. In bright pink bold text reads, NOW BOOKING 2016-2017.] photo by JESS X SNOW.

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GENRE REASSIGNMENT  (more info here) Trans Open Mic in Brooklyn, NY October 4 @7PM  Metropolitan Bar in Wiliamsburg (559 Lorimer St, Bklyn) Hosted by Cat Fitzpatrick and Anton Solomonik FREE GENRE REASSIGNMENT is back! Transgender writers are invited to read at this open mic on the first Tuesday of every month. Prose, poetry, and all other genres welcome. Readers: Come early and give your name to one of the hosts. Line-up is randomly selected by lottery. Each reader gets 6 minutes. 

Save the dates for future GENRE REASSIGNMENTS: -November 1 -December 6

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Trans women writers' event in Olympia, WA, Sat Oct 15 @2pm

"Join trans women writers from throughout the Pacific Northwest as they share stories of the heart and beyond in this intimate reading at the Tumwater Regional Library in Olympia, Washington. The event is the first in a series, hosted by Wormbook Press, and is free to attend.”

WRITERS READING AT THIS EVENT:

Amari Fauna (Portland) Amy Heart (Olympia) JoeyJane Lovechild (Portland) Viatrix Noiz (Seattle) ---and more to be announced upon confirmation!

If you’d like to join the reading, they are looking for more trans women in the area to participate. Info at the link!

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GLAMOURPUSS Poems by Cat Fitzpatrick $9.95

Coming October 18, 2016 to US and international readers.

Pre-order here now: http://topsidepress.com/shop/glamourpuss/

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NEW TITLE: WHEN THE CHANT COMES

Poems from Kay Ulanday Barrett, 2003-2016 Shipping to the US and internationally now. Buy here (just $9.95!): http://topsidepress.com/shop/when-the-chant-comes/

About the book: Kay Ulanday Barrett has been bringing his unique poetry to audiences for over a decade, unpicking vital political questions around race, sickness and disability and gender, and chronicling the everydayness of life in the U.S. Empire with humor, poignancy and inimitable vitality.

Now at last a generous selection of his work will be available in print. Each of these poems is a brilliant little story. Taken together, they show a master craftsman at the top of his game.

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HOW TO BE A WRITER: 10 TIPS FROM REBECCA SOLNIT

“1) Write. There is no substitute. Write what you most passionately want to write, not blogs, posts, tweets or all the disposable bubblewrap in which modern life is cushioned. But start small: write a good sentence, then a good paragraph, and don’t be dreaming about writing the great American novel or what you’ll wear at the awards ceremony because that’s not what writing’s about or how you get there from here. The road is made entirely out of words. Write a lot. Maybe at the outset you’ll be like a toddler—the terrible twos are partly about being frustrated because you’re smarter than your motor skills or your mouth, you want to color the picture, ask for the toy, and you’re bumbling, incoherent and no one gets it, but it’s not only time that gets the kid onward to more sophistication and skill, it’s effort and practice. Write bad stuff because the road to good writing is made out of words and not all of them are well-arranged words.”

Read the rest of the article here:  http://lithub.com/how-to-be-a-writer-10-tips-from-rebecca-solnit/

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Online workshop with Oliver Baez Bendorf!

How to Make It: Nurturing Your Creative Practice

October 3 – November 28 (8 weeks)

From the website: “How to Make It is an eight week online workshop all about nurturing your creative practice. Wherever you are in that practice right now, this workshop is for you. Participants will learn, share, experiment, create, and reflect, while benefiting from a supportive cohort of fellow creative practitioners. Includes weekly multimedia lectures from Oliver Baez Bendorf, prompts to get you exercising your creativity and moving toward your goals, access to an online library of resources, and an interactive virtual space for you to share your progress and get feedback from your fellow practitioners and from Oliver. It’s a safe, inspiring, encouraging, playful way to dropkick your barriers and move forward into the creative life you’re meant to live, alongside a community of likeminded spirits. No specific experience is required, only a longing to feel more in touch with your creative self and a willingness (however skeptical) to do something about it. And an internet connection.

Part One (October): G H O S T S Part Two (November): H A R V E S T

What we will cover:

Getting to know the ghosts that haunt our creativity

Tips and tricks for getting out of our own way

Experiments in the creativity of daily life

Approaches to a sustainable creative practice with creative constraints of time, attention

Working with a variety of everyday supplies and materials

Writing and drawing

Alternative models for circulation and distribution

Registration: $275. Save your spot now with an $80 deposit (non-refundable; applied toward your registration) or register in full if you’re ready. Registration is rolling, but my workshops tend to fill up quickly and I recommend not waiting until the last minute.”

Register here: https://oliverbendorf.org/2016/09/09/how-to-make-it-8-week-online-workshop-with-oliver/

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One week left to get GA tickets for BinderCon in NYC, Oct 29-30. Get tickets here: https://shop.bindercon.com/

“Out of the Binders is a 501c3 nonprofit that provides content, community, and career development for 35,000 women and gender non-conforming writers.”

Find out more: http://nyc.bindercon.com/

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: NAMELESS WOMAN: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FICTION BY TRANS WOMEN OF COLOR

Hi, we’re looking for fiction to add to our upcoming print edition of the anthology we released last year as an ebook. We’re currently interested in short stories in any genre written by trans women of color and trans/nonbinary people who are affected by transmisogyny. In order to submit writing you must be a dmab (designated male at birth) person who also identifies as a person of color.

The total length of your short story or excerpt should be between 1,000 and 7,500 words. Each contributing writer will be paid $100 for their work. You don’t need to have any previously published writing to be published in the anthology. See full guidelines at our site: http://www.transwomenwriters.org/submission-guidelines-print-anthology

Submissions will be open from August 24th to October 12th, 2016, which is a flexible deadline so get in touch if you need more time. Please email your submissions and any questions to [email protected].  

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A Note To Our Community:

Last week, we became aware of a situation between one of the participants in our workshop---Zoey Wolfe, who has also been a lead organizer---and another individual from the local community that involved abusive behavior in an intimate relationship. We have been working to address this, but haven’t made a public announcement until now. We should have spoken sooner, and we apologize for that.

Last weekend, an accountability process began between Zoey and workshop participants and organizers. Zoey has now stepped back from organizing responsibilities as a result of that process.

We are grateful for participants engaging in these discussions. We are continuing to discuss how to make the workshop safer next week. Her stepping down is not meant to remove her from participating in the workshop at this time. This again reflects the conversations the workshop has been having.

We also do not mean to conflate our accountability process with the separate accountability process happening between Zoey and the community accountability group she is working with outside the workshop.

Taking over organizational responsibilities will be Robin Hill, who has been the workshop’s Housing Coordinator until this point. She can be reached at [email protected] with any questions or concerns about organizing after this.

Again: We’re sorry for not doing this sooner. We know this delay to act publicly has hurt trust placed in us, and we hope this announcement will be a first step in repairing that trust.

We stand unequivocally with survivors of abuse and are committed to supporting the accountability process. Abuse can’t be met with even the appearance of silence or disregard. We know we’ve done that, and in the future we’re going to do better.

With hearts full of hope, gratitude, and love,

Tom Léger, Publisher Cat Fitzpatrick, Editor Casey Plett, Workshop Instructor

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Thank you so much to the 216 donors who have supported The Workshop so far! Thank to your donations, we have the tuition for all the participants paid for, we have printing and copying supplies for the week, and we’ve been able to buy or reimburse nearly all travel expenses! We’re still raising money to finish paying for travel costs, assist with local transportation for the writers who aren’t able to use the NYC MTA’s transportation system, provide food and other supplies for writers, and all the other expenses that go into making this workshop happen for twenty-six people.

We’re got just a little bit more to raise, and we need to raise it by this weekend! Even $5 makes a difference! 

Donate here:  http://topsidepress.com/shop/the-workshop-summer-2016/

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THE READINGS

All the amazing readings happening during the week of the trans women writers’ workshop.

Genre Reassignment

Trans writers of NYC are invited to join Topside Press at GENRE REASSIGNMENT. Bring 4-6 minutes of prose, poetry, or whatever you call your current genre, 2 letters from therapists or psychologists (Master's degree or above) attesting to the veracity of your genre, notarized proof that you've been writing in your current genre for a period of not less than twelve (12) months, and certified original birth certificate indicating that you were assigned "writer" at birth.

Date: Tuesday, August 16

Location: Metropolitan

Time: 8PM

Butterfly Metaphor

Date: Wednesday, August 17

Location: BGSQD

Time: 7PM

Emerge, Synonym!

Date: Friday, August 19

Location: BGSQD

Time: 7PM

Foreshadow

Date: Saturday, August 20th

Location: Le Petit Versailles

Time: 7PM

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Guest post by workshop participant Thel Seraphim, who you can find on twitter at @mallwizard: There wasn’t any formal requirement that the workshop participants make grand sweeping statements about their philosophy of writing and life, but we all seeem to be doing it, so I thought I would share a short piece about the anxieties of identitarian literature. This is not exactly about the workshop but was inspired by the workshop discussion and especially conversations with Frida Fafán, Zach Ozma, & Kay Gabriel. It is cut from my digital zine, ‘. . . #1’ which you can find at https://gum.co/theotherellipsis, or read excerpts of on twitter @otherellipsis.

identity writing, 2

Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time reading & thinking about the flowering of black gay men’s writing in the 1980s & 90s. I find many of the concerns recognizable. There’s a sense of writing from the crisis. There’s a sense of responsibility in writing from a complex identity & a need to be true to all parts of it. There’s a sense that this identity by its very existence challenges the self-concept of liberation movements that hold themselves above critique. There’s also a sense of advancing that critique lovingly, a recognition of an expanded sense of home, & of mutual dependence.

I don’t point to this in order to draw a simple-minded analogy to my own situation, but as an antidote to the exceptionalism of trans concerns. We have something to learn from these men. & because they wrote genuinely from their position, we can learn from them. As the past recedes, their honesty & thoroughness remain a guide. I don’t know who else went that far. Of course I don’t mean to say here that this is an honesty that excludes artifice or formal invention. You can find poetry here, & experiment, analysis, ideas that feel absolutely fresh 30 years later. If one black gay man writes as effectively a black heterosexual, & another writes in a decontextualized, implicitly white frame of sexual identity, haven’t we really described two closets?

& for me? The constituent parts of my identity are very different than say Joseph Beam’s or Essex Hemphill’s, & the problems are different too. But thinking through their words & lives I find myself spontaneously organizing new responses to my situation. There’s a sense of rebuilding in the heart, & it isn’t just gender. If I can be allowed to be unguardedly optimistic, I think that trans people, & particularly trans people of color, are speaking to something that matters now, & that continues this tradition. The future will be curious. We can dare to take ourselves a bit seriously here.

Let’s talk about a few of the problems of trans writing now, without pretending to completeness.

We can characterize a lot of contemporary trans literature in its reaction to an injunction to disclose before a hostile or interrogating gaze. The trans memoir as a genre is often kicked around as an example of an absolute capitulation to that pressure. You asked for a butterfly story, so I gave you one. Perhaps I get surgery at the end. But looking beyond the genre of the memoir, which incidentally is capable of entertaining good writing & real opacity to that gaze, we find that a lot of other trans literature can also be characterized by its response to that injunction. I say “I refuse to give you what you want,” but in the course of spiting you, I limit my own expression.

For example I might cultivate bookish impersonality, at the cost of accessibility. I might cultivate a highly analytical tone, at the cost of heart. I might cultivate a counterintuitive set of influences or references, at the cost of connection to my own communities. I might cultivate a pure literary quality, write standard issue workshop fiction, at the cost of analysis, digression, & my own presence as the author. Everybody’s got an angle. It might be necessary to stay up very late together to come to the point & really find yours.

I see that injunction in writing as a person of color as well. There are obnoxious cliches of the genre. For example, establishing your connection to the ancestral homeland through food. Or grandmother. For me, maybe this is a bite of chiktay aron so, followed by an actual madeleine. Or sacrificing a bit of that connection, telling the story of being at home neither here nor there, neither black nor white, American nor foreign, inviting your your reader to draw a false equivalence between these different failures of belonging, which carry very different kinds of social necessity & coercion. Going down into that & becoming more alone. Who refused you? Who did you refuse?

This is just to say that to write honestly doesn’t mean to write artlessly or without guile, or to capitulate to that infantilizing gaze. That’s a way of falling into traps, & it’s very boring. I want to be as aware & creative as possible in my response to the pressures that deform my writing. I’ve mentioned only two here, but there are so many others.

I don’t think I can figure all of this out alone. I also don’t think I can figure this out in a single community organized by gender or sexual identity. I’m going to keep showing up, since those spaces continue to be a home, we continue to need each other. In my earlier sonnet I felt that dedication falter, but really we are stuck here together, even if we’ve only stopped in to get out of the rain.

So how to write as a trans woman while maintaining agency? I might say, flippantly, that I’m always trans but my writing reflects that only sometimes. But that’s too easy. Look, I have a lot of issues with the idea of writing from an otherwise unmarked transfeminine position. I don’t want to accept the frame of “trans literature” as it’s beginning to be institutionalized in the form of a few small presses, a few literary awards, a set of critical concerns, workshop culture, the beginnings of a canon. But I don’t want to retreat into a position that asserts the irrelevance of my transness or my ultimate disconnection from those concerns. I am writing as a trans woman, & as I do so I’d like to find out what that amounts to.