Nonstop Pop by Becca Klaver (2012/13)

 

Nonstop Pop

Becca Klaver

Bloof Books

part of the 2012/13 season

#96 of 100 printed. Off-kilter sized hand sewn chapbook. Bloof was a thing doing a thing at a time when things were done and appreciated in Brooklyn. I almost see the ghost of Frank O'hara in the background. A lot of "I did this and I did that". Whereas "I lost interest". Such is life. Just sayin'

Odalisque by Ben Fama (2014)

 Odalisque

Ben Fama

Bloof Books

#37 of 100 printed. Good presentation. Feels like a "best of" without it be said as such. 

The Failure Age by Amanda Montei (2014)

 The Failure Age 

Amanda Montei

Bloof Books

somewhere in America

(c)2014

Bloof Books is a fascinating story of exploration and mystery. Their website features a police blotter of creative folks that the press has published throughout the years. This particular volume has a fuzzy bearskin rug on the front cover (no actual bear was harmed in the making of this cover) #32 of 100 printed. 

Handsewn. Oddly sized. Screams UNIQUE. 

This Is What It Is Like To Be Loved By Me by Jared White (2013)

This Is What It Is Like To Be Loved By Me

Jared White

Bloof Books

(c) 2013

2nd chapbook created during the 2012-2013 season. Hand sewn. Oddly sized. It looks like a waitress's order sheet. #95 of 100 printed. Bloof does some unusual stuff, like the dimensions of this book and how after they have parted ways with all 100 copies of this book, for example, they digitalize it for future consumption. It's prose poetry. Kind of. Meh. 

Conversation with the Stone Wife by Natalie Eibert (2014)

 Conversation with the Stone Wife

Natalie Eibert

Bloof Books Chapbook Series

(c) 2014

#33 of 100 printed. 

Natalie Elbert's rocket really took off shortly after the publication of this chapbook. She is the author of Indictus, winner of Noemi Press's 2016 Poetry Prize, as well as the poetry collection, Swan Feast (Bloof Books, 2015). Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from POETRY, Granta, The Jewish Current, The New Yorker, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, The Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of the 2016 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellowship at University of Wisconsin–Madison and is the founding editor of The Atlas Review.

This chapbook, although only produced in a run of 100 numbered copies, had multiple cover images; possibly by the same artist. Interestingly enough, nearly all of the poems in this collection were published previously in different publications and yet together are a "completed thought" and I truly do appreciate a book of poetry that is in fact a completed thought.

windowboxing by Kirsten Kaschock (2012)

 windowboxing

Kirsten Kaschock

Bloof Books

(c) 2012

At least for the 2012-2013 season Bloof Books printed a run of 100 numbered chapbooks and then released the text digitally. 

The chapbook has a subtitle, actually, which is kind of novel in that most do not. The subtitle is "A Dance with Saints in Three Acts" which corresponds with the cover. 

This collection is hand-sewn and has drawings throughout by Koen Kaschock-Marenda. Ms. Kaschock is a multidisciplinary artist who teaches at Drexel University in Philadelphia. The work here skirts the edges of many of those disciplines. It's a beautiful dance. 

This is print #39 of 100 made. 

Packing by Hailey Higdon (2012)

 Packing 

Hailey Higdon

Bloof Books

(c) 2012

This chapbook was well received and reviewed upon it's release in 2012. I remember reading with her at a rather bizarre event outside of Towson, Maryland a few years ago. It was a odd meddling of country fair with absurdist/difficult poetry being read in a building but it might as well have been a freak show tent to the blue hairs who wandered in. I remember Hailey reading well that day whereas some of the other poets attended seemed determined to "shock and awe". 

This is #86 of the 100 numbered copies that were printed. Bloof has done good work presenting quality writing and this is an early example of that. I mean, I could quote heavily from one of those reviews but we are talking about a chapbook that is almost a decade old and has been digitalized for on-line consumption. But you can't feel the cover electronically, and I do enjoy holding a book that actually feels like something. Not slick plastic that makes me want to wash my hands afterward to remove the slickiness of the cover. Be that as it may, the writing is good here and the presentation is worthwhile and e-books are just texts, aren't they? 

down spooky by shanna compton (2003)

down spooky
Shanna Compton
self published
(c)2003

Shanna Compton has become a known commodity. This brief chapbook isn't. If one ventures over to Ms. Compton's website there is no mention of it. There is a good deal written about the full-length version of a collection of poetry with the same name as this, Down Spooky, which was published by Bloof Books in 2005 but this is an earlier (and I assume more rare) version. The cover is unique to the chapbook.

The chapbook is 16 pages. It begins with an empty crossword puzzle and ends with a now full crossword puzzle. There's a concept to this chapbook that was mothballed by Bloof once a full collection was forthcoming. I find it curious when the original version of a work is "reinvented" by a larger publisher, sometimes despite the effort and thought-process that went into the earlier version.

In some respects a chapbook is a more pure form for a concept piece than a full length book. The making a book of 70-some pages is like making sausage. It's a grind. The end product doesn't represent the sum of the individual poems but the thickness of its spine. Unless poems are arranged in the original order as they appeared in the chapbook, the uniqueness of the chapbook is lost. Completely.

To most people, and to most poets themselves unless they also published their chapbook "in-house" this all might be academic but as a publisher who has seen entire chapbooks swallowed whole into larger books with none of the images or uniqueness that went into the chapbook, it's awfully depressing to see one's ideas flushed for "uniformity" as defined by the Big Fish Press which has published the whole Big Book of poet (whomever)

The Big Book is the brass ring, I understand that. At the same time, what makes a chapbook special is what large books don't attempt to do. Whether that is alternating colored pages, or covers, or illustrations which will never be attempted to be recreated, or any number of other "bells and whistles" and have them in hand so much quicker than books with spines. In some respects, I find big books to be BORING visually because it's "costly" to be otherwise. Okay, then boring it is!

This chapbook is not boring. This chapbook is a priceless example of the little sliver of nothing that compels me onward to seeking out chapbooks wherever I can.