Ashley Obscura: I realized very early on that chapbooks were hard to keep track of on shelves though, both on my personal shelves and at the bookstores we were distributing through. And, so, naturally, I gravitated towards the idea of adding spines to our books, mostly for function and as a means of further validating these works to the public by making them easier to spot on shelves.
On top of that, in order to access funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and be eligible for their grants, our books needed spines and had to be 48+ pages. So, that stipulation has definitely affected our publishing program.
With all that said, I do like to think our books generally still embody the spirit of the chapbook—which I view as being more experimental, rebellious and free-spirited as a trade book. Trade books have endless expectations thrust upon them by the industry, and so I appreciate the sense of freedom that chapbooks hold.
David Ly: It’s great to see how Metatron has evolved, while continuing to capture, as you say, those experimental, rebellious and free-spirited aspects of a chapbook. Much like what Adèle curates at Rahila’s Ghost Press. Adèle, what are the main things you look for in a good chapbook, and how does Rahila’s Ghost differ from other presses, say like, Metatron?
Adèle Barclay: With chapbooks I'm especially interested in writing that contains a sense of risk. What's happening in terms of style and content that hasn't really been seen before? Poetry, especially in the form of chapbooks, is a space to play and disrupt the status quo, and so when I read a manuscript that is truly weird, I get excited. I think Rahila's Ghost tries to make a home for voices that CanLit's traditional radar doesn't pick up on. A chapbook is like an EP where an artist can test the waters and not have to worry about pleasing the market or award committees and, instead, can find their own niche audience.
David Ly: I like that idea of a chapbook as an EP. Can you expand on what you mean by voices that CanLit’s traditional radar doesn’t pick up on? I imagine being free of the kind of funding that Ashley talks about above helps with that?
Adèle Barclay: Presses are made out of people. The differences between the presses come down to the community building each has done. RG is currently very poetry-focused and a much smaller operation than Metatron. Each season of RG publications feels like a small batch of poetry brewed in a living room and deeply influenced by fluctuations in local weather as we bring the poets together with a cover design artist. We certainly owe our existence to the bright light Metatron emits.