One of the small presses I have admired the most the past twenty years is PUNK HOSTAGE PRESS, which was founded by IRIS BERRY and A. RAZOR as a communal D.I.Y. Literary project. The authors who have contributed their writing to this loose affiliation of unremunerated usurpers of normatively include:
PLEASANT GEHMAN
RICHARD MODIANO
S.A GRIFFIN
JACK GRISHAM
MAISHA Z. JOHNSON
A.D. WINANS
SHAWNA KENNEY
If PUNK HOSTAGE PRESS could have a house band to play at publication parties, it would be the New York Dolls. As far as I know, nobody has ever put together a tribute band for the New York Dolls, which might be a quick way to test their lineage as purveyors of audacity. I can imagine someone doing that for the Clash, for instance, but not the Sex Pistols or the New York Dolls. My point is that this press still has an “edge” to it and its roster gives off an odor that immediately makes them unfit for academy consideration.
Other presses that have emerged this century that could be aligned with Punk Hostage include the University of Hell Press, which has its roots in poetry performance scenes in Washington, D.C. and San Diego, California. Now based in Portland, Oregon, I had the pleasure of talking to the founder of University of Hell Press at the PAMLA conference in October, 2023. Greg Gerding started as a poet, and one of his press’s first titles was his own LOSER MAKES GOOD. His early collection of poems is about what one might expect of a 22 year old who is overly influenced by Charles Bukowski’s writing. However, Gerding’s self-portrait of alcoholic stupor is one that would probably have won grading admiration from Bukowski. The “Drunk” poem is maybe the best one on that subject by any young writer in recent years.
One of the most interesting books published by Gerding was a collection of erasure poetry, but the technique had a target: the patriarchy. The book predates the emergence of the “metro” movement, and as such has an understated ferocity in appropriating masculine “literacy.” re-registering the refusal to accept what’s gone down in history as ineligible for transmutations.
Gerding’s long display tables at PAMLA also included “I’ll Show You Mine,” which is not a book that Gerding published. Gerding instead was the editor as well as the interviewer who got women and men to open up about their sex lives. The transcribed monologues, replete with astute self-recriminations, indicate that Gerding would probably be a good therapist, since many of those interviewed are candid about the kinds of abuse they suffered in learning how to be affectionately intimate with another person. There is relatively little emphasis on actual genital interaction: words such as clitoris or penis (or its slang signifiers) are only occasionally invoked in the accounts of “everyday people” who “talk candidly about love, sex, and Intimacy.” In general, the monologues exhibit a level of trust in the interviewer that exudes an authentic intimacy; I myself have not been as honestly intimate with some of the people I’ve been close to in my life as these thirty people are in allowing the insights of their memories to be overheard in “I’ll Show You Mine.”
The New York Dolls
PAMLA conference
PM Press had a table
Mother Foucault’s Bookshop
Broadview
Norton
CATARACT PRESS
Greg Gerding
Various books, including “I’ll Show You Mine,” which is not a book that Gerding published. Gerding instead was the editor as well as the interviewer who got women and men to open up about their sex lives,
By chance, I was reading several of the books that I had purchased from Gerding. HIs early collection of poems is about what one might expect of a 22 year old who is overly influenced by Charles Bukowski’s writing. However, Gelding’s self-portrait of alcoholic stupor is one that would probably have won grading admiration from Bukowski. “Drunk” poem.
The third book I spent some time with
Of pornography and patriarchy
John Got — University of Wisconsin La Cross
MLNP
The Sexual Life of Catherine M.
About Bill Mohr