Contemporary Small Presses Post 2020: A Critical Workshop

CONTEMPORARY SMALL PRESSES POST 2020:

A CRITICAL WORKSHOP

 

David Vichnar, PhD (david.vichnar@ff.cuni.cz)

Office Hours:  by appointment (Room 219b);

Elective M.A. Course (Wed 17.30-19.00); Program in Critical & Cultural Theory;

Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (Room 111)

 

This seminar examines the role of contemporary small presses in shaping radical and experimental literature after 2020. Working with books from ten independent publishers active across the Anglophone world, students will investigate how small presses operate as spaces of innovation outside mainstream publishing, fostering alternative literary communities and aesthetic agendas. The course combines close reading of selected works with critical study of publishing strategies, design, distribution, and editorial vision. Students will develop their skills as critics by writing reviews, preparing presentations, and producing a final comparative paper on two presses. Emphasis will be placed on connecting literary analysis to the broader material and cultural conditions of contemporary publishing.

The goal of the course will be not only to cover and evaluate what is currently “out there,” but to produce hands-on critical research on the contemporary publishing scene: reviewing books, interviewing authors and publishers, writing critical pieces on the publishing plan, “politics” & “poetics” of selected houses, etc. Final research papers will be framed with view towards their publication online and elsewhere. Work in the seminar includes 3 short reviews on individual novels & one longer concluding presentation, covering a selected press, at the final roundtable discussion in January. 

 

SYLLABUS

Oct 1             Introduction: Course Overview

Oct 8             Equus Press           

Harold Jaffe, Performances for the End of Times (2022)

Vasicek & Ferguson, 404_error: memoir of a nobody (2023)

Louis Armand, Anizar (2024)

 

Oct 15           Anti-Oedipus Press

Harold Jaffe, Brut (2021)                                 

Ansgar Allen, The Wake and the Manuscript (2022)

Lance Olsen, Shrapnel (2024)   

 

Oct 22           11:11 Press             

Collected Voices in the Expanded Field (2020)

Danika Stegeman LeMay, Ablation (2023)   

Vi Khi Nao, Suicide (2023)                                              

                                                                       

Oct 29           Inside the Castle  

John Trefry, Apparitions of the Living (2018)

Karolina Zapal, Notes for Mid-Birth (2019)                

Robert Kloss, A Light No More (2022)                         

                                                                       

Nov 5             Expat Press           

James Nulick, The Moon Down to Earth (2020)

Elizabeth V. Aldrich, Ruthless Little Things (2021)  

Olivia Kan-Sperling, Island Time (2023)

 

Nov 12          Sublunary Editions

Jessica Sequeira, Luminous History of the Palm (2020)    

Coma-Thompson & Foster, 926 Years (2020)                                  

Christina Tudor-Sideri, The Sign of the Labyrinth (2020)    

 

Nov 19          Orbis Tertius Press

Mark Wilson, Until No Crevice Remained (2021)

Matthew Kinlin, Teenage Hallucination (2021)         

Ryan Madej, Aurora (2023)                                            

                 

Nov 26          Calamari Archive, Ink

Kelly Krumrie, Math Class (2022)             

Laura Ellen Joyce, The Museum of Atheism (2024)             

Janalyn Guo, Our Colony Beyond the City of Ruins (2024)

                                                                                                           

Dec 3             Sweat Drenched Press

Zak Ferguson, On the Blink (2022)                    

N. Casio Poe, Deracinate (2023)                                   

Christopher Owens, Dethrone God (2024)    

                                                           

Dec 10           Corona Samizdat Press 

Rick Harsch, Adriatica Deserta (2021)             

David Vardeman, “Easter” (Suggestion Diabolique, 2022)

Zachary Tanner, Some Features of Living Matter (2022)

 

Dec 17           RESERVE                

Reflections, debates, final paper topics discussion

Jan 7             Concluding Roundtable Discussion

 

COURSE READER 

All of the primary reading will be available from the faculty Moodle system (https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/ view.php?id=1184) for the students to study as part of their weekly readings.

 

PRESENTATIONS

Each student will prepare 3 brief “review”-type book presentations during the semester, hopefully in tandem with a colleague. With all texts extending 100 pages, the presenter will assign (via email) a 50-page excerpt of passages to read for the rest of the class in reasonable advance (by Monday previous). The rest of the class will read the excerpts and come to class ready to discuss them.

 

FINAL RESEARCH PAPER 

The final paper (“zkouška”) shall have the scope of 4,000 words and will be due by the end of January 2026.

It will present a comparative critical evaluation & analysis of 2 publishers of choice, discussing their selected thematic parallels and contrasts. Individual deadline extensions are possible but need to be discussed with the lecturer in reasonable advance. N.B.1 Students need to discuss their final paper topics, bibliography, etc. with the lecturer ahead of the end of the course, i.e. in mid-Dec. 

 

CREDIT 
Students will be given their non-graded (“zápočet”) credit for presence at, and active participation in, a minimum 10 sessions of 12 total (40%), the concluding roundtable (30%) & their three presentations (30%). The “graded-paper” (“zkouška”) credit option will include, in addition to the above, the submission of a final research paper.

N.B.1 Due to Departmental policy, only MA students are allowed to enroll for the graded paper credit option.

N.B.2 for Erasmus students: you can only enroll for the non-graded/Zápočet credit option; however, should your home university demand it, you can consequently receive a “grade” for your overall performance.