conceptual

I think that the kind of work you can encounter in micro-press publishing is where it’s at. Sure, it may not fit perfectly on your bookshelf, that accounting of one’s intelligence… but it is where poetry is most free, and so obviously, best.

Over time, The Blasted Tree has increasingly featured odd and eccentric content that just doesn’t seem to belong elsewhere, projects that beg for an out-of-the-box take on publication format or materials.

in my opinion, the small press gift economy is one that fosters good will within the community. we look to each other as our first readers, our first editors—with a sense of trust and generosity.

We’re boundlessly creative working with everything at our disposal to make great art. And that art can take the form of a website, or a cover, or a search engine marketing campaign (I have this dream of flooding all search pages with flarfy search ads!)…I mean, it’s fitting for poetry. It’s part of our art that we cannot find the precise words to encapsulate all of ourselves.

So now we go about a more traditional way of raising money that seems to be working very well. These traditional methods included an online campaign and a direct mailing to donors and friends of the press. In the direct mailings we sent a letter informing people of who we are, what we do and how we plan on utilizing this funding. We told them how their donations would actually help worthy poets get a book published and into the world. Initially I had my doubts about how well this would work out based upon the cost of the program, however it was the most successful campaign we have ever had.