We have had a busy Summer/Fall season for The Friday Collapse, our virtual monthly poetry series that takes place on the last Friday of each month. We usually take a brief break for November and December and come back in January. We will do this again this year, with a few other scheduled events like book launches and readings outside of the Friday Collapse schedule. We will host a virtual book launch reading for Han Raschka this month on November 11. (see previous posts)
Collapse Press participated in a book festival this month on the East Coast with author events and book sale opportunities. We have a few other opportunities coming up as well, and will be sharing as usual on social media/pages. @collapsepress #collapsepress #thefridaycollapse
We have had a few discussions in our facebook group (Letters for the End Times) about the possibility of an anthology, with proceeds going to a particular cause that is important to the community. We are still thinking about a timeline for that, and what that process will look like. Please look for some more specifics here on our website around February-March 2023.
Of course, we are an independent press and in addition to the organizing, events, and table opportunities, we produce books. We are pretty clear on our mission with that effort and the goal has been to seek out authors without the pressure of quantity and catalog building. It is a community effort, and as many of you know it is not the most lucrative work financially and the hours of time don’t translate into a sustainable business model. We do what we can when we are able, and it is important to us that we are able to give our time and energy to the manuscripts that we are committed to. When you support our authors, attend events, and share your platforms with the people involved, it reflects the spirit of the independent press because we cannot compete with the big fish with resources. Community is what we have, right?
We don’t have the ability to open submissions at this time for a few reasons. Time and day jobs, of course. But we also want to be transparent and not tie up a manuscript and make a commitment unless we are able to see it through. We want a collaborative, close process. We want to talk about the vision for the project and see how we can develop it beyond. We go through each page together, and talk about everything from the cover to the launch plans. We can’t work this way quickly, with a rapid series of releases. We are pretty happy to be on book launch #4. Stay tuned for what comes next!
We will be sharing more plans in 2023, announcing new projects and our features for The Friday Collapse. Please check back soon. -E. Lynn Alexander
