10th SAAS CONFERENCE

“The Backyard of the U.S. Mansion: Critical readings of poverty and wealth in the United States”

Alcalá de Henares (Madrid).  April 14-16, 2011

 

1) Small Presses and Innovation:  Drawing Larger Circles in Society and the Market

Panel Chair: Manuel Brito
Institution: Universidad de La Laguna
E-mail: mbrito@ull.es

According to Len Fulton’s Directory of Small Press & Magazine Editors & Publishers, there were over 5,000 small press publishers and editors in the United States by the early 1990s. This panel will analyze how the circulation of innovative American literature appealed to the pattern of bringing inequalities to light through the publication of small presses in the late 20th century. Our goal is to study how the editors of these small presses overcame diverse factors related to their own marginality and material poverty. This panel will also focus on excluded literary voices involved in cultural deprivation and their involvement in the publishing of small presses: Chicanos, African Americans, regional poets, authors related to workshops or gay and lesbian writers. Suggested topics could include, but are not limited to:

- What role/s small publications played in changing literature and social perspectives in the period 1970-2000.

- How academy subsumed innovations and creative research published in little magazines and small presses.

- Market vs. individual position in the publishing industry.

- What are the benefits of these publications considered as 'high' culture? Were they useful?

- How technological production affected potential readers of this kind of publication.

Similarly, this panel will discuss the practical attributes in any small press that Loss P. Glazier mentions: 1) not “corporate” 2) locally based 3) small scale administration 4) integrity of the publication rather than conceived as a commodity, and 5) well-defined, limited readership. Finally, we will reflect on how poverty conditions usually associated with small presses do not impede that their authors become successful in the market, as can be seen through their continual presence in bookstores, awards lists, and regularly accepted submissions in major trade publications.

 

10th INTERNATIONAL SAAS CONFERENCE
Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 14-16 April 2011

THE BACKYARD OF THE U.S.A. MANSION: Critical Readings of Poverty and Wealth in the United States

Name:

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Panel:

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Abstract (400-600 words):

Please, complete this form and send it, in electronic format (via e-mail), to the Chair of your selected panel. Deadline for sending proposals is October 29, 2010.