Edmonton
poet, fiction writer, reviewer, editor, and micro-press publisher Mark McCawley
has died.
[A 2008 photo of
McCawley (in the background) from my Factory (West) Reading Series; see the post it came from here] An enthusiast for what
he referred to as “transgressive, urban post-realist writing,” he founded
Greensleeve Editions in 1988, a press that produced over fifty chapbook titles,
including works by writers such as Janice Williamson, Daniel Jones, Neil
Scotten, Ken Rivard, Richard Stevenson, Andrew Thompson, sd edwards, Faye
Francis, Michael C. McPherson, Giovanni Testa, Beth Jankola, Shannon Sampert,
alan demeule, James Thurgood, Carolyn Zonailo and Stephen Morrissey. According to
one bio, “From 1986 to 1993, Mark taught poetry and fiction as a creative
writing instructor for Continuing Education (now Metro College).” Since 1993,
he’d edited and published the litzine, Urban Graffiti, a print journal that shifted to online publication in May, 2011
with issue 11. Well-known as both curmudgeon and contrarian, McCawley railed
against monotony in literary writing and culture, and was a fierce and loyal
supporter of a number of writers across Canada, from Amanda Earl, Stuart Ross, Liz Worth and Thea Bowering to Matthew Firth, Catherine Owen and Julie McArthur, among so many, many others, whether through Greensleeve Editions and Urban Graffiti,
through numerous interviews he’d conducted, and reviews posted via his Fresh Raw Cuts. His dedication to the late Daniel Jones, for example, meant that he worked to keep Jones’ work in
constant print, as Nathaniel G. Moore revealed in an article for Poetry is Dead:
Yet other work still remains in limited edition
quantities. Mark McCawley, editor of Edmonton’s Greensleeve Editions and the
underground literary journal Urban Graffiti, published Jones just before his
death and kept the letters the late writer sent him. “I published a chapbook of
Jones’, The Job After The One Before,
in 1990. Ever since, I have endeavored to keep the chapbook in print,
re-printing whenever necessary.”
His
own fiction and poetry appeared widely in Canada in magazines and in the
anthologies Burning Ambitions: The Anthology of Short-Shorts, edited by Debbie James (Toronto ON: Rush Hour
Revisions, 1998) and Grunt & Groan: The New Fiction Anthology of Work and Sex, edited by Matthew Firth and Max
Maccari (Toronto ON: Boheme Press, 2002). He himself was the author of nearly a
dozen chapbooks of poetry and fiction, including Fragile Harvest - Fragile Lives (Greensleeve Editions, 1988), The Deadman’s Dance (Greensleeve
Editions, 1989), Last Minute Instructions
(Toronto: Unfinished Monument Press, 1989), Voices
from earth: selected poems/ with R. Kurt (Calgary: Prairie Journal Press,
1990), Scars and Other Signatures : prose
poems (Greensleeve Editions, 1991), Thorns
Without the Rose: fictions & prose poems (Greensleeve Editions, 1991), Stories for People with Brief Attention
Spans : fictions (Greensleeve Editions, 1992), Just Another Asshole : short stories (Greensleeve Editions, 1994), Collateral Damage (Montreal: Coracle
Press, 2008) and Sick Lazy Fuck
(Ottawa: Black Bile Press, 2008). As Black Bile Press editor/publisher Matthew
Firth, a long-time friend of McCawley, once said of him: “His own writing is
straight-shooting, pulls no punches, honest and drenched in authentic
experience.”
Far
more active over the past decade or so than he’d been during the early 2000s,
he blogged regularly for Sensitive Skin,
posted music podcasts (here and here), provided essential critical and personal support to numerous
writers, regularly started arguments and kicked against the pricks. I know he
had a series of ongoing, and rather serious, health issues, some of which were due to his two-decade battle with chronic pain (and a medical system that often managed to make things worse) stemming from an accident.
During
my year as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta (2007-8), we hung
out a couple of times, and he even participated in a reading through my Edmonton reading series, The Factory (West) Reading Series. He was gruff, grumpy and engaged, and
even startled that anyone wished to speak to him about writing, having been
dismissed enough times that he’d begun to expect it. During our first coffee afternoon
at The Garneau Pub [see the post I wrote after we hung out here], he complained
of being kicked out of the English Department at the University of Alberta
during his student days. When I pointed out that, since I was picking up the
tab, technically that same department was buying his coffee, he lightened, and
laughed. We’d kept in touch pretty regularly since, trading emails and a
variety of links, and he was kind enough to review a number of above/ground
press items, as well as conduct the occasional interview for ottawater (including one he did with Christine McNair)
I
shall miss his complaints, criticisms and contributions, all of which were offered with enthusiasm.
He
is survived by his son, Devin McCawley
Some
further Mark McCawley links worth paying attention to:
Greensleeve Editions is an Edmonton-based micro-press that publishes transgressive, discursive, post-realist writing. Founder, publisher, and in-house editor, Mark McCawley, is the author of ten chapbooks of poetry and short fiction, most recently, Sick Lazy Fuck (Black Bile Press, 2009), Collateral Damage (Coracle Press, 2008), as well as Stories For People With Brief Attention Spans (1993) and Just Another Asshole: short stories (1994), both from Greensleeve Editions. His short fiction has also appeared in the anthologies: Burning Ambitions: The Anthology of Short-Shorts, edited by Debbie James (Toronto: Rush Hour Revisions, 1998) and Grunt & Groan: The New Fiction Anthology of Work and Sex, edited by Matthew Firth and Max Maccari (Toronto: Boheme Press, 2002).
1 – When did Greensleeve Editions first start? How have your original goals as a publisher shifted since you started, if at all? And what have you learned through the process?
Greensleeve Editions first began in July, 1988, with the publication of my first poetry chapbook, Fragile Harvest/Fragile Lives. Although primarily a poetry publisher to begin with - fifty chapbook titles within the first five years of operation - I had long considered the short story to be a perfect fit for the chapbook format. By the mid 1990s, the micro-press had transitioned from being primarily a poetry press to a publisher of transgressive, urban post-realist writing and fiction. All along I had had the opportunity to publish some leading edge work by some now very well known CanLit writers - Excerpts from the journals of Alberta Borges by Janice Williamson, QHS by mary howes, Working Stiffs by Ken Rivard, The Job After The One Before by Jones, The Divining Rod by Stephen Morrissey, and Letters of the Alphabet by Carolyn Zonailo - to name only a handful. Throughout the process of micro-press, or chapbook, publishing for over twenty years now, I have learned the importance of sticking close to one's creative guns, so to speak, and not being afraid of failure or making mistakes. As a publisher, I've made some big ones. You learn and move on to the next title.
2 – What first brought you to publishing?
As with a lot of young writers, what first brought me to publishing was the impulse to see my work in print. Also was a long time love affair with the chapbook format. While trade books can sometimes make a writer seem impersonal and distant - I've never lost that feeling when holding a chapbook that the writer is "in my hands".
3 – What do you consider the role and responsibilities, if any, of small publishing?
I can't speak for other micro-press publishers, but my own personal publishing credo has always been to provide a venue, or a vehicle, for new writing to emerge, especially if that writing is transgressive and post-realist.
4 – What do you see your press doing that no one else is?
Greensleeve Editions is a micro-press interested primarily in publishing transgressive, discursive, post-realist writing concerned with the struggles of hard edged urban living, alternative lifestyles, deviant culture - presented in their most raw and unpretentious form. To that end, Greensleeve publishes chapbooks, litzines, and weblogs to further this particular publishing mandate. Since 1993, Greensleeve has published the litzine Urban Graffiti, featuring new fiction and poetry by Jones, Matthew Firth, Bill Brown, Michael Bryson, Sonia Saikaley Neale McDevitt, Hal Niedzviecki, Clint Burnham, bart plantenga, Philip Quinn, Angela Hibbs, Vern Smith, G.R. Gustafson, Jason Heroux, David Groulx, Jeffrey Mackie, T. Anders Carson, and Nathaniel George Moore. Urban Graffiti is presently preparing it's eleventh issue, Vice and Debauchery. Although in the very early stages, I am currently contemplating the publication of a "Best Of..." anthology.
5 – What do you see as the most effective way to get new books out into the world?
Any way possible. Mail. Word-of-mouth. Internet. Be as inventive as you possibly can be. Make every launch "an event". Attempt to launch your titles in unconventional venues such as bars, nightclubs, etc. During the launch of the zines Urban Graffiti X and Splurge 2, Greensleeve Editions hired several local Edmonton bands at a Southside Edmonton bar. The zines were included in the cover charge. After the cost of the zines were covered, and the bands were paid, the evening's profits went to a local charity which ran a Street Newspaper devoted to Edmonton's homeless. That night, everyone won. Still, what venture may work one time, may not another. Network with other micro-presses. In the end, what aids one micro-press, aids all micro-presses. To that end, I've started the weblog, Fresh Raw Cuts, to review micro-press titles, and direct readers to where they can purchase these titles. Of course, what helps my fellow micro-press publishers, also assists myself and my press.
6 – How involved an editor are you? Do you dig deep into line edits, or do you prefer more of a light touch?
I am your basic editor. It's my role to make the writer's work come across as clearly and succinctly as possible, not to rewrite or rework the manuscript or submission. Either the manuscript or submission will fit the mandate of the press, or it will not. By the time I solicit a chapbook manuscript from a writer, I'm already well acquainted with their style and abilities, and any editing on my part is usually quite minor. On the other hand, the litzine I publish, Urban Graffiti accepts unsolicited submissions and therefore requires a firmer editorial hand. Still, only between five and ten percent of submissions for the litzine are accepted for a given issue. That said, except for basic editing and proofing, accepted submissions are accepted as is.
7 – How do your books get distributed? What are your usual print runs?
Greensleeve Edition chapbooks and zines are distributed through mail-order. Print runs range from 100 to 250 copies per print run. Greensleeve Edition chapbooks and zines are individually rubber stamped for authenticity.
8 – How many other people are involved with editing or production? Do you work with other editors, and if so, how effective do you find it? What are the benefits, drawbacks?
Between 1988 and 2004, I was solely responsible for editing and production of Greensleeve Edition titles. In 1991, though, there was a brief collaboration between Greensleeve Editions and Unfinished Monument Press with the publication of Small Press Lynx: an anthology of small press writers and their writers, edited by Mark McCawley and Chris Faiers. From 2004 onward, my son Devin McCawley has taken an active part in the production and co-publishing of Greensleeve Edition titles, while I am still the chief editor and publisher.
Are there benefits or drawbacks to working with other editors? For the most part, I find too many editors, like too many cooks, tend to ruin the dish. For that reason, I've avoided editorial collectives both as a publisher and as a writer - group think has always been antithetical to true creativity.
9 – How has being (an editor/publisher) changed the way you think about your own writing?
Immensely. I have witnessed my own writing, over the last twenty years or so, viewed first with scorn and contempt then with something akin to acceptance (albeit within the micro-press community and the CanLit underground). All that has really changed, frankly, is public perception. Micro-presses have always been the route for new, transgressive writing. The internet has only served to magnify this process even more so. What was once considered a pariah of Canadian publishing, and not taken at all seriously by writers and academics alike, has swiftly changed in a dozen short years. What does this mean for my own writing? I don't know. One thing is certain, though, my writing has always been welcome at Canada's micro-presses, and will continue to be so, because Canada's micro-presses have always been the source of innovation and creativity in an otherwise bland publishing landscape.
10 – How do you approach the idea of publishing your own writing? Some, such as Gary Geddes when he still ran Cormorant, refused such, yet various Coach House Press’ editors had titles during their tenures as editors for the press, including Victor Coleman and bpNichol. What do you think of the arguments for or against, or do you see the whole question as irrelevant?
Totally irrelevant. I have published my own writing quite often. If I don't do it, who will? Especially if your writing is transgressive? I suspect if one looks into the publishing history of, say, a Gary Geddes, one is bound to uncover a certain amount of academic nepotism. It's impossible to avoid, particularly in a publishing industry as small and insular as Canada's. Geddes is no better, and no worse, than any other editor for the press anywhere else, and no less guilty or innocent. I'd much rather see new writing published no matter where, or by whom. As is, the same CanLit writers seem to be published again and again while new writers continue to work their craft in obscurity. What does this say about the current state of Canada's publishing industry?
11 – How do you see Greensleeve Editions evolving?
I see Greensleeve Editions continuing to evolve as a micro-press as it has from it's humble beginnings. While Greensleeve will continue to publish transgressive poetry and short fiction chapbooks, I see the litzine Urban Graffiti eventually evolving into a completely web based entity. I can forsee the day when, as publisher, I'm arrested for obscenity for the publication of one of my chapbooks. I look forward to that day. I just wonder who the writer will be...
12 – What, as a publisher, are you most proud of accomplishing? What do you think people have overlooked about your publications? What is your biggest frustration?
As a publisher, I am proud of the many risk-taking writers who have allowed me to publish their work over the last twenty years - poets, short fiction writers, novelists. I am proud of the many titles I have been able to publish on a shoestring budget. Most of all, I'm proud of all the issues of the litzine, Urban Graffiti, and all the writers who appeared in its pages.
What do I think people have overlooked about Greensleeve Editions publications? Easy. Their existence, especially within Alberta. In many cases, I couldn't give Greensleeve Edition chapbooks and zines away in Alberta - particularly to the rare books library at the University of Alberta, and the special collections library of the Edmonton Public Library - even for free. While the Rare Books Library at the University of Wisconsin at Madison has a complete collection of Greensleeve Edition chapbooks and zines - which they paid for, too - Libraries in my own community don't consider them at all worthwhile.
13 – Who were your early publishing models when starting out?
In 1988, there were no micro-presses in Edmonton. All the micro-presses I knew of were based elsewhere - mostly in Toronto. My early Greensleeve titles were modeled after some of those Toronto chapbooks I had collected up until that time - Unfinished Monument Press, Streetcar Editions, Pink Dog Press, Proper Tales Press.
14 – How does Greensleeve work to engage with your immediate literary community, and community at large? What journals or presses do you see your books in dialogue with? How important do you see those dialogues, those conversations?
Quite a few writers have mistaken Greensleeve Editions for a Toronto press. Can I blame them? A transgressive publisher based in Edmonton? Smack dab in the middle of Alberta's Bible Belt? It has proved somewhat more difficult when it comes to engaging the immediate literary community - which is perfectly fine if you write and publish poetry (Edmonton has always had a very vibrant poetry community along with an annual poetry festival), yet very little for the emerging short fiction writer.
As a micro-press publisher, I am in constant dialogue with other publishers - particularly Matthew Firth's Black Bile Press who I view both as kindred to my own press (we often publish many of the same new writers) and my own writing as well. What assists Black Bile Press will most assuredly assist Greensleeve Editions in the long run. Networking and communication between micro-presses can only benefit everyone concerned.
15 – Do you hold regular or occasional readings or launches? How important do you see public readings and other events?
I hold "launches" or "events" as I call them with the publication of each issue of the zine, or chapbook. Early on - between 1988 and 1993 - Greensleeve held regular public readings at a local Downtown Edmonton gallery, coordinating chapbook publication with author readings, some local, some from out of province. It's worthwhile if one can accomplish it. Now it is easier to focus on the individual event.
16 – How do you utilize the internet, if at all, to further your goals?
Yes. I use the internet, Facebook in particular, to advertise calls for submissions for Urban Graffiti, and to promote a launch or event at a given venue.
17 – Do you take submissions? If so, what aren’t you looking for?
I presently take submissions only for the litzine, Urban Graffiti. Chapbook manuscripts are by solicitation only. All queries welcome.
18 – Tell me about three of your most recent titles, and why they’re special.
Urban Graffiti X was a special issue of the litzine because not only did it reach the tenth issue, it was also a transgressive tour-de-force of new writing by Philip Quinn, Bill Brown, Neale McDevitt, bart plantenga, and Angela Hibbs.
The Job After The One Before by Daniel Jones. Besides Jones' story "1978" which I published in UG #1, The Job... is probably the perfect Greensleeve chapbook. Four linked stories that will give the fan of Jones' fiction deeper insight into The People One Knows: Toronto Stories.
Just Another Asshole: Short Stories by Mark McCawley. In these loosely linked stories of one man's descent into middle age madness, poverty, and degradation in Edmonton's big empty.
Edmonton’s Mark McCawley, Urban Graffiti and greensleeve editions
I met up with Edmonton writer and publisher Mark McCawley [see his recent 12 or 20 interview here], and traded a pile of his publications over the years with some of mine. His is a name I’ve heard for years, usually associated with other post-realist working class fiction Canadian writers such as Matthew Firth, Daniel Jones or even Grant Shipway (think, too, of the anthology Hal Niedzvieki edited for McClelland and Stewart in 1998, Concrete Forest: The New Fiction of Urban Canada). An active poet and fiction writer, he edits and publishes chapbooks through his greensleeve editions, as well as the litzine URBAN GRAFFITI , all of which have been on hiatus for the past couple of years. Some of what he gave me included chapbooks of his own work, The Length of Distance (greensleeve publishing, 1989), the deadman’s dance (greensleeve editions, 1989), Last Minute Instructions (Toronto ON: Unfinished Monument Press, 1989), Thorns Without the Rose and Other Stories (greensleeve editions, 1991) and Voices From Earth, Selected Poems by Ronald Kurt and Mark McCawley (Calgary AB: The Prairie Journal of Canadian Literature, Number 13, 1990), as well as a whole stack of work by others he’s been producing in Alberta for nearly twenty years:
Neil Scotten, Blue (greensleeve editions, 1990) Ken Rivard, Working Stiffs (greensleeve editions, 1990) Richard Stevenson, DICK AND JANE HAVE SEX (greensleeve editions, 1990) Andrew Thompson, sd edwards and Faye Francis’ collaborative Everybody Does It! (greensleeve editions, 1990) Michael C. McPherson, A Backward Climb Up The Stairs, four fictions (greensleeve editions, 1991) Giovanni Testa, inscapes (greensleeve editions, 1991) Beth Jankola, One Sided Journey Through Politics (greensleeve editions, 1991) Janice Williamson, excerpts from the journals of Alberta Borges (greensleeve editions, 1991) Beth Jankola, Voices in the Night (greensleeve editions, 1992) Shannon Sampert, Secret Sisterhood (greensleeve editions, 1992) alan demeule, Flesh Temple (Edmonton AB: perimeter press, 1992) Daniel Jones, The Job After the One Before, Stories (greensleeve editions, second revised edition, 1993) James Thurgood, Icemen Stoneghosts (greensleeve editions, 1993) Carolyn Zonailo, Letters of the Alphabet (greensleeve editions, 1992) Stephen Morrissey, The Divining Rod (greensleeve editions, 1993) Beth Jankola, The Sunflower Poems (greensleeve editions, 1994)
Conspiracy Northwest, ed. McCawley (greensleeve publishing, 1989), Aaron Bushkowsky, Beth Goobie, Margaret Greene, Barry Hammond, Ronald Kurt, John Lane, Mark McCawley, Ky Perraun Keeper of the Conscience: an anthology of social/political poetry, eds. Ronald Kurt and Mark McCawley (greensleeve publishing, 1990), Mark McCawley, Chris Faiers, Allan Sarafino, Katherine Kostyniuk, Ronald Kurt, Clifton Whiten, Alan Demeule, Jones and Joan Brown.
Hang up the telephones of small men. A radical fringe group of intellectuals form a liberal humanist splinter group to protest tower shortages. Transmission lines tremble with memos; baseball memories shimmer short stops. Miami Man holes up in his provincial office facing north to the river. Passionate outbursts from smokers plot to overthrow the government, rail against “those corrosive artsy crafty lefties.” The word sailboat blinks off/on in small circles before their eyes. (Alberta and Frank caucus and muse: “Will spring nourish this insurrection or find it nodding off in March?” (Janice Williamson, excerpts from the journals of Alberta Borges)
Nineteen minutes and twenty-one miles out of Edmonton, tracks begin to click like a primitive clock, counting distance between switching yards and abandoned stations, click, click, a perpetual morse code. In picture windows prairie pauses, each view exacting as the last with only the occasional sun sight to remind us of motion.
Remembering once when origins and destinations didn’t matter, only the space between here and there and time passing in backwater towns, travels of legendary drifters who rode the rails like buffalo into an uneasy extinction.
We chase the sun all day towards a horizon we hope to find darkened by mountains and granite slabs still stained with human blood, measuring the length of distance by the weight of silver wheels pounding ground’s bleached geography.
If we’d listen, we’d hear decades grind beneath boxcars, the strain and pull as the engine heaves ahead, its destination a future we may or may not traverse.
For now, we jolt and shudder uncomfortable companions to coal and cattle, crisscrossing this checkered prairie quilt of canola, barley and wheat. (Mark McCawley, The Length of Distance)
To find out about available chapbooks and prices (he says he has masters to most if not all of these, so he can theoretically have everything in print) contact him directly at: mccawley64@hotmail.com
