An Interview With Publishing Genius Editor and Writer, Adam Robinson
If you think HTML Giant is just a cadre of too-smart literary nerds, think again. Adam Robinson, editor behind Publishing Genius, weighs in on small presses, being a poet, producing literature and more.
Matty Byloos conducted this interview over several rounds of email, with Publishing Genius Publisher and writer, Adam Robinson, who is located, along with Publishing Genius, in Baltimore, MD.
Having colleagues in the literary world, people who you genuinely respect and admire for what they do and make, is priceless. Adam Robinson, first as a writer and then later as a publisher, is another bright shining star who has been placed in my literary universe through HTML Giant. I’ve found the cover of his last book (Adam Robison and Other Poems, poems by Adam Robinson) haunting dark corners of my imagination for the better part of the last year. And as a great book cover can often do, I took the image and its seeming permanence in my mind as a sign of great things to come (once I could finally explore the work and words inside).
Needless to say, I was not disappointed when I actually began talking with him. But maybe even more important to me as a fellow writer and small press publisher to-be, is the presence of another great and original thinker in the world, all of which was uncovered to me over several weeks of emailing back and forth with Adam, who lives and works in Baltimore, home of my favorite television show, The Wire.
As part of what has developed into a series of helpful conversations with small presses, I asked Adam to join me in an extended dialogue over email. The following is the entire discussion, unabridged, with Adam Robinson the writer, Adam Robinson the small press publisher, Adam Robinson the musician, Adam Robinson the cultural thinker. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did throughout.
Byloos: You are a writer yourself, and a publisher as well. In terms of your publishing, you do online publishing and then maybe more involved, one-person projects in print. With your writing, you handle literary ideas and cultural critique online, and then produce work for publication, including books. I don’t want to ask, “How do you do it all,” because in my mind, one just decides what’s important and then does it, and some are capable of doing more than others. But I am curious how you situate all of these similar, but not quite the same, pursuits? This could be answered in terms of a hierarchy, a schedule example, or by talking me through the outcome of each effort, and how you see that fitting into your overall artistic / authorial production. Riff away.
Robinson: Well, this is a gratifying question. You’re right about the “how do you do it all” thing — it’s just something we decide to do. I’m lucky to have great support from friends and other people who also do a lot, like you. And I could definitely do more. I mean, I still have time to sit around and watch stupid movies or have a beer with friends, though whenever I hang out with people I always end up talking about publishing. Which is to say: it’s an obsession for me. Like how Rilke said a writer has to write — I just have to think about the writing business. A few minutes ago I was looking at a loan notice for my car and I thought the words “Roxane Gay.” I’ve never met her, but there I was, thinking about another publisher for no reason. I think I have a problem. It’s absurd how much I think about what is Octopus doing next, or how did Open City get to where they are.
Byloos: I want to talk about an idea that comes up a couple of times in an interview you gave earlier this summer (June 7, 2010 with Josh Maday for jmwwBLOG). The general tenor sounds something like:
“Poetry is our best shot at . . . understanding what’s understandable.” [from an interview with Michael Kimball, I believe] or:
“Oh man, nothing is as good as being wrong.”
or even:
“[…] if I don’t already know a thing, it’s hard for me to really learn it. It has to come natural.”
So there seems to be this divide between what I’ve identified as “intuitive” versus “tactical” methodologies in a creative practice. Like “just doing” and figuring out or not figuring out later, versus “hypothesizing, theorizing, working through an idea” and then having the “art” exist as the byproduct of that process — two potentially different schools of thinking. Maday (in the interview), talks about this as a kind of wellspring from which your themes or inspiration either flow, or return to, and he defines it as “a struggle with knowing and not-knowing.” All this makes me think of Mallarme, of Barthelme’s essay “Not Knowing,” and in general, a kind of privileging of “discovery” in the practice of making art. Relishing the unknown, even making it precious. Not sure if this is best summed up in a question, or if I’m just interested in hearing you riff more on some of these ideas (Selfishly, I’m sure because it should be said they are ideas that have guided my art-making practice for a long time now.)
Robinson: The thing about both things is that the real work happens at the end. I am all about messing up, but I know that most of my mess ups aren’t actually interesting or worthwhile. Likewise, the people who prefer to ideate before they create still have to make sure the outcome is interesting. I used to paint and a couple years ago I decided I was going to paint again so I got all the supplies and thought about it and thought about it and came up with an idea and started working on it and it stunk, so I let that go. When Dinosaur Jr ends their cover of “Just Like Heaven” too early, clipping the end, it makes total sense, but it’s wrong, right? I mean, it’s broken, but I’m glad they left it like that because it works. On the other hand, people who bash it out — I think Vonnegut called the diligent ones “bashers” — they appeal to me less because the sloppiness of intuition is more my speed. So tight writing sometimes just seems bad to me. Oh man, oh man, there’s a lot of crap out there. 80% of everything. The intuitive and strategic alike have to have a good filter. Maybe that filter is where art happens.
Byloos: Do you give the same advice to writers on Publishing Genius with regard to touring, as you might give yourself?
Robinson: I’m not sure touring is all that important, but I definitely want all the PG authors to read as much as possible. On one hand, it’s a great way to spread the word about a new book, but the trick is to get people to show up at the readings who haven’t already heard about it. And to do this, you have to reach outside the network. So while it’s more fun to do a reading where all your friends show up, it’s probably better to do an in-store at Barnes & Noble with only three retired Navy guys or something.
Byloos: How much is the marketing that goes on for your press a collaborative effort between you and the writer? Is this something that you think about during the time when you are selecting works to be published, or is this process purely about the work itself?
Robinson: The marketing stuff is always a pretty half-ass collaborative effort. Usually the writer will blog about the book and tell all their friends and set up as many interviews or whatever as possible, then by the time the book comes out they’ll have used up all those channels. Then it’s my job to be ready with a bunch of reviews and other stuff. I’m really bad at this, but for some forthcoming books, like Sean Lovelace’s Fog Gorgeous Stag and the back/front book by A. Minetta Gould and Amber Nelson, I’ve started a bit earlier and a bit more deliberately. We’ll see.
I never think about how diligently a person will promote their book when considering it for publication. Well, I did twice. I knew Shane Jones had a good presence, and as I suspected he handled promotion brilliantly (as everyone knows). I thought about it with Andy Devine too, knowing he wouldn’t do anything for the book since he doesn’t exist, but put it out anyway because it seemed so necessary.
Byloos: How have you curated the writers on the press — meaning, have you actively solicited work that you want on PG in order to develop the press’s personality, or has it been submissions-based, in which case you’ve gotten some really high quality and adventurous work, which leads me to ask, in your opinion, how does that happen? It’s really such a remarkable thing to see a small press have such weight in terms of a few years of excellent writers and great titles…
Robinson: About half the books are from submissions. My scariest solicitation was Mairéad Byrne, my favorite poet, whom I hardly knew at all. She talks about it in the beginning of this wonderful interview at Harriet. I met David Daniel at a writing conference and loved a story he read there. He’s written all these well-regarded Private Investigator novels — the Alex Rasmussen books for St. Martin’s — and he was my first perfect bound book, so that felt like a coup for me. With Pee On Water, by Rachel Glaser, I had her on a list of people I’d love to publish but she emailed me out of the blue.
The trick is to keep myself interested. Right now I’d love to work on a novel, and — oh cool, I am — Justin Sirois’s Falcons on the Floor, which will come out for the summer beach people who want to read about Fallujah. I think it might be wiser for a small press to focus on a genre, to be like Octopus or Canarium and just do poetry because I love that stuff. Oops!
Byloos: I’m always curious to hear about influences, especially in light of your comment regarding “keeping yourself interested” when it comes to running your press and staying busy with a lot on the plate. And here, I guess I’m talking about off-the-page influences, like the other stuff in life. I get super geeked-out at how good the writing is on the HBO series The Wire, and can count it among some of the most inspiring writing I’ve witnessed in the last ten years. I take that inspiration, and while not directly influenced by it (I’m not running out and trying to write a detective-based tv show), I certainly feel the weight of it when I’m working and trying to create something important in my writing or in my painting studio. Can you maybe discuss 3-4 points of inspiration, be they from music, cinema, architecture, anecdote, etc.?
Maybe as a follow-up, since you are responding from and living in Baltimore, you can talk about your take on The Wire, since the show’s story is based in your city?
Robinson: Right, a lot of influence doesn’t necessarily come from the same discipline as what I’m working in. I mean, my work comes first from my head, which is influenced more by what conversations I’ve had recently or whatever, yeah, movies, TV, than by what poetry I’m reading. I’m reading a lot of online stuff right now as I edit for the Best of the Web, so I’m seeing the very current trends of good writing, but even that has less to do with what I write than the way I woke up this morning. That’s what I write. The style in which I write it is probably very influenced by what I read. So be it. So, to your question, here’s the first things that come to mind:
The 70s. I watched RAMBO on Saturday for the first time. I love the long, distant shots. I love how hulking the cars are and how awkward the fight scenes are.
Temperatures in the 50s. This is the perfect temperature for thinking about the 70s. Also, it makes me very aware of my surroundings. I keep wondering, “Am I cold right now? What cold is coming? Is this what I was worried about all summer?”
30 Rock. Also, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. These shows about making things make me want to be the best at making things.
I also loved The Wire and would see them making it a lot while moving around town. But I think I liked Deadwood better.
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THANKS TO ADAM ROBINSON FOR PUTTING THE TIME AND EFFORT INTO THIS DIALOGUE.
Adam Robinson lives in Baltimore, MD, where he runs Publishing Genius. His first collection, Adam Robison and Other Poems was released by Narrow House Books in 2010 and he self published a second collection, Say, Poem in May. He holds an MFA in creative writing and publishing arts from the University of Baltimore, and he plays guitar in Sweatpants, a rock band.
Adam Robinson, the poet, was the Poetry New Work Feature #5 for Smalldoggies Magazine on October 29, 2010. You can read Adam Robinson’s poems here.
He currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Find out more about Adam Robinson at the Publishing Genius blog.
(Photos Via: The Author)