Litmus Press Feature, January 24, 2014
On Friday, January 24, at 7 p.m. Counterpath hosted E. Tracy Grinnell, HR Hegnauer, and j/j hastain for a talk and reading highlighting the work of Brooklyn-based Litmus Press, its annual journal Augfabe, and O Books.
About the Press
Dedicated to supporting innovative, cross-genre writing, Litmus Press publishes the work of translators, poets, and other writers, and organizes public events in their support. It encourages interaction between poets and visual artists by featuring contemporary artworks on the covers of their full-length books and in the pages of Aufgabe, its annual literary journal. By actualizing the potential linguistic, cultural and political benefits of international literary exchange, we aim to ensure that our poetic communities remain open-minded and vital. Litmus Press, Aufgabe, and O Books are all programs of Ether Sea Projects, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit literature and arts organization.
About the Readers
E Tracy Grinnell is the founding editor and director of Litmus Press. She is the author of Helen: A Fugue (Belladonna Elder Series #1, 2008), Some Clear Souvenir (O Books, 2006), and Music or Forgetting (O Books, 2001), as well as the limited edition chapbooks Mirrorly, A Window (flynpyntar press, 2009), Leukadia (Trafficker Press, 2008), Hell and Lower Evil (Lyre Lyre Pants on Fire, 2008), Humoresque (Blood Pudding/Dusie #3, 2008) Quadriga, a collaboration with Paul Foster Johnson (gong chapbooks, 2006), Of the Frame (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2004), and Harmonics (Melodeon Poetry Systems, 2000). Grinnell’s poetry has been translated into French, Serbian, and Portuguese. She has taught creative writing at Pratt Institute, Brown University, and in the Summer Writing Program at Naropa University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
HR Hegnauer is the author of the book Sir (Portable Press at Yo-yo Labs, forthcoming 2013), and the chapbook Sir (Portable Pressat Yo-yo Labs, 2011). She is a book designer and website designer specializing in working with independent publishers as well as individual artists and writers. HR has designed over 100 books and dozens of websites. She has been a guest lecturer at the University of Colorado and Naropa University. HR received her MFA in Writing & Poetics from Naropa University, where she has also taught in the Summer Writing Program. She’s a member of the feminist publishing collaborative Belladonna*, and the poets’ theater group GASP: Girls Assembling Something Perpetual, and she has performed her writing in New York, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, Boston, and Seattle, among other towns.
j/j hastain is the author of numerous cross-genre works previously published and forthcoming (a few of which are): prurient anarchic omnibus (Spuyten Duyvil), long past the presence of common (Say it with Stones), a womb-shaped wormhole (BlazeVox), treOOA (with Eileen Tabios/ Marsh Hawk Press). j/j’s writing has appeared in numerous journals including Trickhouse, Vlak, Big Bridge, EOAGH, Aufgabe, and others. j/j is currently in the process of curating an Anthology of Queer Nudes (Knives Spoons and Forks Press, 2013) and has helped curate (and participated in) two major Trans anthologies. j/j is an Elective Affinities participant, a member of Dusie kollektiv, writes for Lit Pub and is a regular contributor to Sous Les Paves. j/j currently writes creative reviews for Big Other, Jacket2, Horse Less Press, PANK and Emprise Review. j/j’s work appeared in a Queer-focused show at the Leslie-Lohman Annex in New York. In 2011 j/j’s book we in my Trans was nominated for the Stonewall Book Award and j/j’s book prurient anarchic omnibus was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.