Today, it’s my pleasure to host Kristina Marie Darling’s next big thing. I wrote about Kristina’s book The Moon and Other Inventions here. This time she’s busy supporting other writers; read on to find out more:
What is the working title of your project? The title of my project is Noctuary Press. Noctuary Press is a small publishing company that promotes cross-genre work by innovative women writers. I chose this title because a “noctuary” is a record of what passes in the night. Noctuary Press strives to create a record of, and give visibility to, innovative writing by women that takes place at the peripheries of existing genre categories.
Where did the idea for your project come from? I’ve always felt like there is something missing from cross-genre work that is currently being published. Much of this work merely questions the notion of genre, but does not engage with it in a meaningful way. Noctuary Press strives to fill this gap in contemporary small press publishing, and to create a dialogue about the politics of genre categories within the literary community and in the academy.
What genre does your project fall under? If I have to choose a genre for this project, I’d say small press publishing.
What actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? I’d definitely want to be played by Betty White. I’ll be tagging some of my authors, so they can answer this question in relation to their own manuscripts.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your project? This project is an attempt to explore, document, and interrogate of the politics of genre categories within literary community.
Will your project be self-published or represented by an agency? The chosen manuscripts will be published by my press, Noctuary Press. I work with a local small press printer and designer, Sunnyoutside Press, to provide books of a professional quality.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your project? Although the press was just launched in October, over a year of planning had taken place beforehand.
What other books would you compare this project to within your genre? This year we’ll be publishing titles by Carol Guess, Kristy Bowen, and Eva Heisler. I’d have to say that these manuscripts resonate in really fascinating ways with contemporary archival projects like Lucie Brock-Broido’s The Master Letters, as well as work that questions readerly expectations of narrative (such as Jenny Boully’s The Body, Thalia Field’s Point and Line, and Sabrina Orah Mark’s Tsim Tsum).
Who or what inspired you to publish these works? Genre categories frequently serve as a means to exclude writing that does not fit within these parameters. Innovative writing is almost always “othered,” and more often than not, the writing that is “othered” is women’s writing. I wanted to offer a public space for women to question, interrogate, and revise the notion of genre, since this type of forum did not seem to exist anywhere else.
What else about your project might pique the reader’s interest? Be sure to check out our forthcoming titles. You’ll find erasures, algebra word problems, bed barges, and much more.
Visit Noctuary Press’ website here.
Kristina Marie Darling is the author of nine books, which include Melancholia (An Essay) (Ravenna Press, 2012), Petrarchan (BlazeVOX Books, 2013), and (with Carol Guess) X Marks the Dress: A Registry (Gold Wake Press, forthcoming in 2014). Her work has been recognized with nominations for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, the San Francisco State University Poetry Center Book Award, and the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Book Award. Within the past few years, her writing has been honored with fellowships from the Corporation of Yaddo, the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Ragdale Foundation, as well as grants from the Kittredge Fund and the Elizabeth George Foundation. Visit her online at her website.
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