Before I moved to New York, I e-mailed some of my old editors at Wave Books where I used to intern and asked them if there were any poetry circles they could recommend to me in New York. They told me about Ugly Duckling Presse which is much like their sister publisher on the East Coast. I had been casually e-mailing the editors there back and forth since moving to New York about volunteering/interning/working/just plain getting involved. Finally our schedules aligned, and I volunteered to come in and bind books.
They are stationed in an amazing building in Brooklyn that houses artist lofts and coffeeshops. I wish I had taken a picture of the actual office, because it was incredible. Books everywhere, large art murals, posters, boxes and boxes of poetry.
I had also never bound a book before. Unlike Wave Books, Ugly Duckling Presse binds and prints most of their books themselves. They are beautiful. As is customary payment for volunteering for anything in the poetry world, I was sent home with my arms full of gorgeous poetry books which I am ashamed to admit I have yet to read through. I was in charge of Awling (i.e. poking three holes in the center of a stack of copy). It was a fun afternoon with a bunch of strangers who all love poetry. I met some amazing people with amazing stories. We bounced back and forth poets we liked and had a pun off!
It made me crave poetry, to get back into that scene. It really is a scene. If you go to enough events, you start running into the same people all the time, and I miss having writers and readers to talk to and discuss and share new discoveries with.
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