Saturday, June 11, 2011
Sooner Than Expected
Unfortunately, the idea I had for a place to publish my yoga chapbook has not panned out. After reading the much vaunted yoga memoir, Poser, which I admired, I noted the publisher, and sent Jonathan Galassi at Farrar Straus Giroux a few samples (with drawings). He wrote me back a nice note declining them but saying that he liked them anyway. That's something. On to the next, less ambitious plan!
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7 comments:
Well, that is encouraging...
Yes! I wrote him back, asking if he had any suggestions, other than self-publishing.
FSG gets an awful lot of mail... I hope he does write you back.
He hasn't done so up to now. I'm sure he has no more idea of who would be interested in an oddball project like mine than I do. The yoga places don't comprehend poetry; the poetry places don't cotton to yoga. It's the story of my life.
Well, as I understand it, a lot of U. S. yoga practice is focused on the body--you need something larger that is associated more with Hindu philosophy. You need pressed that have a wider sort of interest in yoga as a part of something larger if you want to publish with a special interest press.
And in the state, we do use it medically for people who are distressed, mentally ill--that made be some kind of lead since there are new publications linking medicine and poetry...
I can imagine a small press having an interest, but you would do well to try and figure out who are the editors who are interested in such things.
And of course you might look to presses that do a lot of visual art as well as poetry since you have illustrations.
I have sent it to presses interested in the other, primary branches of yoga, including Iyengar's own press in India. They didn't even answer my query. From the response of others in the Iyengar movement here, I gather that they just don't know what to make of poetry in English. That's why I can't get anyone to send it to Mr. Iyengar himself.
So far I haven't gotten any sort of encouragement from any presses that publish yoga philosophy, of the ones I have sent to, most of which are in India.
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