While not the death knell for Chain, this is the last
annual issue of Chain for some time. We’ve been
putting together these books for twelve years and feel happy,
but quite exhausted. We’ve decided that it’s time
to continue the Chain project in another form—not
only to further the possibilities of our original intent, but
also to save us from the crash and burn associated with putting
out a journal that regularly has over seventy contributors.
Our
call for work in our new form (Chain
Links) is at the back of this issue. We are asking for guest
editing proposals for a small book series. In other words, we
are asking for you to take on the role of editor for us for
some unspecified amount of time. At least long enough for us
to collect ourselves. (Note: Those of you that still have issues
owed you on your subscriptions will receive copies of the small
books.)
We
started Chain because we wanted to talk to more people.
We were both in Buffalo at the time. The weather was often inhospitable.
The university where we were graduate students had unusually
ugly architecture. The friendships we had in the city and at
the university were complicated. We needed more contact with
people who were not dealing with the various sorts of cold in
Buffalo. We also felt we needed to talk to women, to extend
ourselves beyond Buffalo’s great male poet heritage. So
we started our first issue by only publishing women and also
by publishing chains of poems (one poet sent a poem to another
poet then sent a poem to another poet who . . . ). Since then,
our circumstances have changed quite a bit. We are in warmer
locales with better architecture…but our desire for opening
up new kinds of conversation continues. Looking back at all
of the issues of Chain, we are still intrigued and excited by
the work people sent us. It still feels fresh and compelling
and we’re grateful to everyone who has joined us in this
project.
For
us, as editors and as poets, Chain worked. We have learned much
over the last twelve years. Our debts are large.
Some facts about Chain . . .
Year
founded: 1994.
Total
number of pages printed: 3,712.
Topics
. . .
1. Gender and Editing
2. Documentary
3. Hybrid Genres (double issue)
4. Procedures
5. Different Languages
6. Letters
7. Memoir/Anti-Memoir
8. Comics
9. Dialogue
10. Translation
11. Public Forms
12. Facts
Total
number of people published: 898.
Number of women: 539.
Number of men: 359.
Average
printing cost per issue, $4100.
Number of copies of each issue printed: 1000.
Average number of direct mail subscribers: 300 (although this
number varies widely depending on how good we are at sending
out those annoying subscription solicitations).
Average
amount of money raised by subscription per issue: about $4000.
Average amount of private donations per year: about $3000.
Average
number of emails received about Chain per year: 1804.
Average number of emails exchanged between Jena Osman and Juliana
Spahr per year: 1309
Number of major editorial arguments: at least three.
Number of issues edited while Juliana and Jena lived in the
same city: 3.
Number of issues edited while Juliana and Jena lived in the
same time zone: 4.
Number of corporate jets and catered sushi lunches: zero. (Although
we did hold our 2005 meeting in Desert Hot Springs but we paid
for it out of pocket.)
Amount Jena and Juliana have been paid to do Chain: zero.
Original
funders: Professors Robert Creeley, Charles Bernstein, and Dennis
Tedlock; the SUNY-Buffalo graduate student association; the
Council for Literary Magazines and Presses; the Pennsylvania
Council on the Arts; the National Endowment for the Arts, the
New York State Council on the Arts, the University of Hawai‘i
at Manoa SEED grant; various generous individuals who donated
funds.
Institutions
somewhat associated with Chain: SUNY at Buffalo, University
of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Ursinus College, Temple University,
Mills College. (Although none have provided direct funding or
administrative support.)
People
who have worked with us on typesetting or editing over the years:
Adam Aitken, Kingsley Amis, Charles Bernstein, Javant Biarujia,
Manuel Brito, Nicole Brossard, Norma Cole, Maria Damon, Dubravka
Djuric, Bob Doto, Thalia Field, Miriam Gianni, C. S. Giscombe,
Ray Gonzalez, Georgi Gospodinov, Arielle Greenberg, Ernesto
Livon Grosman, Karen Hannah, Lyn Hejinian, Emelihter Kihleng,
Myung Mi Kim, Deirdre Kovacs, Joel Kuszai, Walter K. Lew, James
Meetze, Nick Moudry, Traviz Ortis, Marjorie Perloff, M. Nourbese
Philip, Kristin Prevallet, Joan Retallack, Catherine Schieve,
Kerry Sherin, Ken Sherwood, Gary Sullivan, Jeffrey Twitchell-Waas,
Edwin Torres, Cecilia Vicuña, Roberto Tejada, Marina
Budhos, Nzadi Keita, Kerry Sherin, Dorothy Wang, Robyn Wilcox,
Sara Wintz, Janet Zweig.
Languages
included: Alibata, Arabic, Aztec, Cacan, Cherokee, Chinese,
Creole, Cyrillic, Czech, Danish, English, Esperanto, Estonian,
French, German, Greek, Guarani, Haitian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian,
Igikuria, Ilocano, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kiswahili, Klingon,
Korean, Kunza, Latin, Maori, Mohawk, Ojibwe, Old Norse, Persian,
Phoenician, Pidgin (Hawai‘i Creole English), Pohnpeian,
Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Sanskrit, Serbian, Serbo-Croatian,
Sign Language, Solomon Islands Pidgin, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog,
Tamil, Tarifiyt Teeline, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Vorlin.
Some other magazines with the word “chain” in the
title that you should not confuse Chain with: Chain
Leader Magazine, Chain Whipped Magazine, Electronics Design
Chain Magazine, Food Chain Magazine, Chain Reaction Magazine,
Supply Chain Systems Magazine.
First
sentence of each issue . . .
Relation: Perhaps a good starting point would be to discuss
my apprehension about editing. This issue of Chain continues
an investigation into forms that are traditionally perceived
as neutral or “objective.” Past issues of Chain
have focused on the topics of gender and editing and documentary.
We are tired of cyborgs. We are suspicious of mules (seeing
them as sterile or as drug dealers). We worry about the over-hybridization
of plants. This issue explores how things get made. This issue
is about conversation. Dear Editors, I SEE words on my forehead
IN THE AIR on other people on the typewriter on the page. This
issue of Chain grew out of a conversation I had with Jena Osman
last year at the Kelly Writers House in Philadelphia. In late
1995 I gave up smoking, which put an immediate, temporary end
to my writing. I’ve been thinking about your note re: Chain
and I came up with something, one or two things really: NON-CONSUMER
FICTIONS as a sort of play on “consumer fictions”
and also as a commentary on the state of the art which is all
geared toward consumer categories of genre . . . The topic for
this issue was Cecilia Vicuña’s idea originally.
For the eleventh issue of Chain (we still can’t quite believe
we forgot to celebrate our 10th anniversary issue), we put out
a call for work that addresses “public forms.” While
not the death knell for Chain, this is the last annual
issue of Chain for some time.
--JO
& JS
