YesYes Books
The essence of Indie publishing is
independence. And so we are free to publish always and only the work that keep
our minds and hearts alive. For YesYes Books that means poetry and prose about
sex and love, connection and despair, longing and living.
I want to smell the sound of you
eating
My thighs, spread
Like
warm apple butter
-from Heavy Petting by Gregory Sherl
We look for words that challenge
and sooth; that make us cry and laugh and sweat and search for our partners so
we can get busy. Life is a fucking shitstorm. At YesYes Books, we want to read
words that are not afraid to live right in the middle of the tornado. And so
that’s what we publish.
THE DRUGSTORE IS A VOLCANO
My pills are blackberry
kissing.
My pills are tiny fish
exploding
in the morning.
It's 1989 again every
where
I look. My name is Bank Teller's
Red Button & I am
happy
for lightning bugs & De La
Soul
so happy my boundless
affection
is not lost it's all right my
boundless
affection is only
bleeding.
I wish your knuckles.
I wish your alligator teeth
your barbed wire love a
universe
where stars explode into
congregations
of birds.
I wish your fists &
exploding birds
& bruises on my lungs.
I wish your goodbye hand
was a derringer muzzled
into my gut.
-from
Panic Attack, USA by Nate Slawson
But with freedom comes
responsibility. Since Indie presses are
small in size in terms of manpower and capital, we need to make up for that in
quality and innovation and commitment so that we earn the trust our authors
place in us. As a result, we seek the highest physical quality for the books
YesYes produces. We use McNaughton & Gunn for printing. We obsess over
paper choices. We seek cover art that can live as art by itself as it also
engages in conversation with the poetry that lives inside. We want people to
want to touch and hold our books and feel pleasure even before they crack the
spine.
With freedom also comes the ability
to take risks and think in new ways. At
YesYes Books we have a strong commitment to innovation. This shows up in who we
publish. Our first three print books are
the first full collections for each author. We are also pushing forward a
number of poets in our Poetry Shots
and Frequency series who do not have
full books out yet such as Phillip B. Williams, Ocean Vuong, and Dana Guthrie
Martin. We are pairing them with well-known voices including Bob Hicok,
Dorothea Lasky, and Ben Mirov.
We Mark Time with Ceremonies
They roam.
They build moats.
They build
fierce men named Marcus
and quote
them until we grow tired of listening
to quotes by
men named Marcus.
They build
women whose cunts we bedazzle.
We gather at
the cunts but avoid
the anuses.
But the anuses are free,
they tell
us.
We aren’t
listening.
We are
living like cats now,
maximizing
our time in the sun.
We are
poets. We are all poets.
Poets is all
we are or ever were.
-forthcoming POETRY SHOT
by Dana Guthrie Martin
Innovation also shows up at YesYes
Books through our attention to the electronic landscape. YesYes has been hugely
blessed by the crazy work ethic and brilliant brain power of Thomas Patrick
Levy. Not only is he a poet to swoon for (check out his chapbook Please Don’t Leave Me Scarlett Johansson
and his forthcoming I Don’t Mind if
You’re Feeling Alone), he is a dynamite web developer and designer. We are
about to roll out the first of three electronic-based poetry initiatives and we
can’t wait to share!
To finish, how about one more spot
of life in poetry.
from 30 30
I expect a bat to replace the bumblebee
trapped between the window’s outside side and its smudged inside. This bat
would not need to transform, would be content with its bat-self, it’s wide
expanse of wing dependent on its knotted sternum, it’s small smashed face
perfect in this weathered light.
-forthcoming POETRY SHOT by Metta Sáma
awesome post!
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