compost:
Dear Evelyn Hampton, While we are not personally acquainted, we are very fond of your work and are piecing together a book project of which we would love for you to be a part. The description of our project is as follows: We are putting together a collection of blurbs for books that do not exist. The idea is to ask writers, theorists, and text-makers whom we admire to imagine that they've just read the most amazing book they've ever encountered and are now going to write a short promotional blurb for the back cover. These will be compiled as the Official Catalog of the Library of Potential Literature. The phrase 'potential literature' is, of course, highly associated with the Oulipo group. We're choosing to use it here because, as the Oulipo says, their project properly is to think of forms and potential books, not necessarily to bring them into being. Literature is potential literature when it is that shimmering non-work of total possibility. The Catalog will be a series of descriptive fragments that together evoke a library of wonderful--maybe even impossible--books; books that, in spite or even because of their non-existence, excite and fascinate. Each paragraph will be the promise of the unopened book in the moment before reading. Please let us know if this seems like something to which you would like to contribute. We don't need any text from you right away, but it would be really helpful to know whether or not you are interested. As for the details of the project: Willows Wept Press has agreed to release the compilation of blurbs as a small limited edition book. The tentative release date is for next fall and we are hoping to have all of our texts compiled by the end of July (though we can be somewhat flexible about that). Also, in case you are wondering, some of the other writers who have agreed to participate include Brian Evenson, Blake Butler, Vanessa Place, Marjorie Perloff, Diane Williams, Warren Motte, and Alexandra Chasin. Please let us know if you have any questions or ideas. Best, Ben Segal and Erinrose Mager benbensegal@gmail.com erinrose.mager@gmail.com
outcome:
