Rhetorics of Authenticity and Professionalization: Problems in Early Twenty-First-Century Small Press Publishing

Abstract

This chapter investigates the push and pull of the paradoxical pressures experienced by poetry-centred small press publishers in the US since the rise of MFA programmes and the inclusion of small presses in the annual national AWP conference. More than ever, the pressures to retain a legacy of authenticity (tied up with notions of amateurism and an anti-commercial ethos) against injunctions to professionalize from funders and institutions place the small press in a double bind. This chapter argues that such professionalization comes with a price, both ethical and financial. Relying on Yankelevich’s 20-years’ experience as one of the founding editors of Ugly Duckling Presse and on data gathered from other small press publishers, this chapter investigates the specific impact of these pressures on small-press culture.