Photos courtesy of Dan Wonderly [WonderlyImaging]

In my last column, I featured a group of poets trying to kickstart their way to literary benevolence by way of crowd-funding platform Kickstarter.

No sooner had I published my column than I heard of a local poet and all-around artistic sensation hoping to publish his first book by the same means. “Kickstarter fatigue?” I posited in my last column. On the contrary—Alexander Norelli says Kickstarter is really just beginning to blossom, particularly for literature lovers like himself.

For Norelli, there’s no shame in self—or group—publishing. Not to mention the end result is so much more than just a book—there is also an incredible sense of ongoing community and support.

“I’ve never really tried very hard to get published, mainly because I never wanted to write anything but my own poems,” says Norelli. “I never had much luck getting them published. Now I feel is the time to make a book of it—it’s an intuitive feeling.”

He adds: “2013 sounds like a good year to start out on an adventure.” (We hear you, Norelli.)

Those entrenched in the literary world know there’s a certain stigma surrounding self-publishing, but Norelli is quick to dismiss that.

“My great grandfather did a lot of self-publishing so I never saw it as being a low-brow thing, it was more a way to get your ideas into the world,” he says.

“There is talk about self-published books not having the same editorial process and so the work can’t possibly be as ‘good.’  This is a myth, it’s my belief that good vs. bad in poetry is the wrong question, I think it should be interesting vs. dull.”

A major part of the process for Norelli has been learning the logistical aspects of publishing beyond putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

“The tools that exist today are amazing and make the process accessible to anyone willing to take on a little debt to learn a new skill,” he explains. “Some elitists might fret ‘now everyone can write a book’ but I don’t see any harm in self-publishing, it’s a liberating challenge–like running a marathon.”

Prior to launching his campaign, Norelli did briefly toy with the idea of funding the project himself.

“I remember hearing a story about Spike Lee funding Do the Right Thing with 26 credit cards and was inspired to just take the risk and go for it. I was thinking I would just put it all on a credit card with the hope it paid off somehow.”

But he kept going back to Kickstarter, and what the platform represented to him.

“I just didn’t see much poetry being done through it, and most that I did see was journals and group projects. I didn’t really see any poets trying to get their own books published– though it took me a while to realize that was in fact an opportunity and not an impediment.”

He adds: “I really like the inclusive aspect of it.”

“Doing a Kickstarter helps get people to believe in you, because you really do have to put yourself out there. Making a video made me really nervous, but in the end I just laid it all out there. We are still very early in the age of Kickstarter—few technologies are as empowering to people wanting to realize their dreams.”

Norelli draws inspiration from many sources, but, while times have certainly changed in the publishing world,  he was encouraged to learn Leaves of Grass was initially self-published by Whitman.

“Leaves of Grass wasn’t published by some big publishing house pre-vetted by the greatest poets of his time,” explains Norelli. “It was a risk, a huge one…not only was he a poet he was an entrepreneur, shamelessly so, which I think is truly venerable.”

Some writers have luck with publishing houses, he explains, but Norelli has never been fond of the process.

“I never really liked the set-up of sending your work out for approval and resting all your hopes and dreams on someone else’s judgment—months of anticipation to have some young reader go, ‘boy does this suck!’”

“While a complex editorial process might heighten what is already there, half obscured, it won’t ever put into something what isn’t there in quality to start.”

If anything, Norelli points out, self-published books occasionally suffer from poor design choices. He hopes with his newfound skills he will be able to create “the whole package.”

His advice? “The more you learn to do yourself, the more empowered you will be, and the less expensive the process.”

If his book gets funded, Norelli plans to distribute them himself as “[he’s] always had a thing for the mail.”

“Distributing the books is something I really am looking forward to, not only because I like the mail, but because I look forward to sending the book out to people who are interested in what I am doing,” he says.

And New York City has certainly played a role in shaping the local poet’s process as well: “The loneliness you find here is unlike any other place. Here, loneliness is just another color in your palette. Writing requires more than a bit of solitariness to get done, at least in New York you don’t seem like a recluse because you are holed up in your studio for weeks or months.”

“New York normalizes the habits of the artist and allows them to get work done,” he adds. “Here it seems you are in the thick of the ferment.”

Ultimately, Norelli hopes and believes Kickstarter, and whatever similarly positive, artist-friendly platforms crop up in its wake, will help push the boundaries of what is currently being done in literature.

“Kickstarter is just a means, it is not an end in itself,” he says. “While the many editorial levels in traditional publishing houses can help bring out the best of a work, I would not say they are conducive to trying new things, or testing anything established to make sure what is taken for granted deserves to be.”

–Arnold Schwarzenegger has a memoir titled Total Recall

–There is legitimately a magazine called “Modern Drunkard”

–Cormac McCarthy has appeared on “Oprah”

– “The Oprah Effect” refers to skyrocketing sales of books which have been featured by Oprah, leaving some publishers in serious distress over the now-defunct show

–The Strand bookstore near Union Square allegedly has 18 miles of books

–The number of American adults reading literature is the highest it’s been since 2002 

–J.K Rowling is wealthier than the Queen of England (OK–not really a surprise to anyone)

–According to scholars, Walt Whitman rarely left his room 

–Tom Wolfe is notoriously bad at writing sex scenes (read — and shudder — at your own risk)

–This letter from Kurt Vonnegut to a friend about to start teaching at the University of Iowa

–Political speech-writing is shockingly literary (shades of Chekhov anyone?) 

–The average American audience averages about a seventh-grade reading level

–Dissection on Display: Cadavers, Anatomists, and Public Spectacle by Christine Quigley is a book devoted to dissection as entertainment

Photo Credit: Patricia Voulgaris

Robert Warner has been the master printer for 17 years at Bowne & Co Stationers, a modestly sized stationery store and printing press that is part of the South Street Seaport Museum.

This piece of New York City history stands on cobble stoned sidewalks, giving New Yorkers and tourists alike a little taste of the 19th century, with its hand-cranked printing presses. Back when printers were tradesmen, not machines hooked up to computers, press printing was a skill and a trade essential to Downtown, which has always been a printing, publishing and finance district.

What does Bowne & Co offer the Downtown community?

This community that’s down here is unlike any other community. There’s a school and then there’s all these businesses and then there’s all these old buildings, which some people have inhabited and restored—there is a whole sense of renewal and community in this part of the city. This is where New York begins. 

We have to learn from our history, preserve it and actually embrace a neighborhood so many people have passed through, like [Herman] Melville and [Walt] Whitman and Joseph Mitchell.

What do people expect when they walk in or pass it by?

When people enter the shop, oftentimes they say, “Oh, it reminds me of the way my grandparents’ house smells.” And I’ll ask, “Well, were they printers?” and they say, “No, it’s the wood.” I’m so used to the smell of the wood after 17 years that I barely notice it.

[When I first started here] I just loved walking in and smelling the ink and the oils. There were two women in the back printing and there was a sense of industry and tradition. I want to continue to convey that. I like people to have an experience when they visit here that they wouldn’t have in any other store.

Why does printing matter?

This neighborhood was the printing and publishing district for many, many years. And as much as we’d like to think that we’re a paperless society, we still rely on paper now. Ink on paper is all the more beautiful when it’s letterpressed because it leaves a kiss on the paper and an impression on the page.

I am a firm believer that humans need the human touch, which is what Bowne & Co. Stationers does. You can buy a handmade $3 card here—why spend $4.50 at a Duane Reade on a glossy American Greetings card?

Photo Credit: Patricia Voulgaris

Do you have any letterpress workshops coming up to get some people coming in? You have to pass on the printing tradition eventually, right?

Occasionally I do workshops. The next one will be letterpress collage, and I’d like to do it weekly. Workshops sound so serious, like you have to work. I just want people to experience paper and composition. It’s not really playtime either, it’s an assemblage, but people don’t really know the word assemblage.

I could consider the next generation, take on an intern, pass on my knowledge. I’ll do what I can, but being here, unlocking the door and having normal business hours, people know and depend on me to come here. I’m not expecting millions of people—I don’t know if I want a global network. I think Downtown is enough.

What’s the appeal of an antiquated letterpress, especially in this technological age where everything is on a screen?

[The letterpress] is hand-operated and hand set, so every letter is an individual body of type. You can print 500 copies from one letterpress and 200 of them might be very similar, but the beauty of it is that they’re never going to be exactly the same. It’s the difference between something that is hand-embroidered and something that is machinemade.

What’s beautiful about printing on letterpress is the ability of the viewer to actually see a hand process. I think more and more, the way the public views a computer screen or a tablet, people long to actually feel paper and run their finger across it. I know that the Kindle is very important because people are reading it and it’s accessible, but I’ve noticed that when people pick up paper or books, they run their finger across it and you see them taking it in. People will always hunger for something that has a texture to it.

Bowne & Co. Stationers, 211 Water St. (betw. Fulton & Beekman Sts.), 212-748-8651