Local Scene: The Saga of Ottawa Indie Print Culture Continues

The "ottawa small press book fair", spring edition, was held on Saturday, June 16th, 2007, the first of these events that I attended without participating or volunteering in. I suppose what always surprised me about this event was the stark whiteness of Jack Purcell's Room 203-- the vast expanse of pallor in the walls and tables broken by the riotously colourful people attempting to sell publications for the curious and cultured masses (reading off the papery page, after all, is becoming a rare delicacy, when confronted by the rising stars of computer and television screens). Old favourites, bedrocks of the Ottawa small press community, continued to preside over their quality goods-- such as Dusty Owl Press, and, of course, Bywords. There was the up-and-coming university crowd, with Carleton University's In/Words literary arts magazine on one side, and Ottawa University's The Puritan prose journal on the other. Even the faithful Brokenjaw Press, run by an indie hero of my youth, Joe Blades, had still set up shop at this semi-annual event. Yet, I can't help but wonder about the ottawa small press book fair, as to whether it's a dying breed, a valiant struggle against the mainstream publishing giants who gain the kind of cash flow that most indie publishers don't even realistically consider in their future. Perhaps I had only imagined the look of resignation and concern on span-o organizer and prolific poet rob mclennan's face and my overactive imagination may have fabricated the words "I haven't even broke even yet to pay this room" coming out of his mouth. One must remember that running your own small press is a lot like bohemians raising children-- not financially feasible, but you either do it out of a self-sacrificing, enduring love, or a mistake that you can no longer go back on.

So, is the event in danger? Is rob abandoning his small press fair progeny? A quick glance at his blog assuages some fears-- despite his imminent departure to Edmonton (the Prairies swallowing up another poet, but at least this time it isn't Vancouver again), he claims he'll continue organizing the ottawa small press book fair in spirit, and flying in to attend the fairs in the flesh. It's a relief to know that this bastion of Ottawa indie print culture isn't going to fold so easily. rob's even created a blog for other Canadian small press book fairs, as well as "zine" fairs, such as Toronto/Vancouver's Canzine and Montreal's Expozine.

For the uninitiated, one may wonder what all these differences are anyway-- zines? small press? even micropresses? One way to look at it is the print runs (i.e. the amount of copies made of one publication). Typically, small presses will have print runs in the hundreds for at least one of their publications, usually books. Micropresses have shorter runs, ranging from fifty to a hundred. Zines can range from ten to fifty copies, and they usually don't do print runs, it's more like "photocopy runs" or photocopy-on-demand. Another way to gauge the difference between the three is the budget. Zines can be done by virtually anyone who has access to a photocopier, pens, paper, staples, or sewing material. Micro presses can be accomplished usually by desktop publishing software, one's own printer, and a supply of fancy paper. Small presses may actually have the budget to go to printing presses and get professionally-bound books. There's still a lot of overlap between the three genres, of course, and who know? Perhaps by the time this article hits your computer screen, there may be more nifty or tiresome classifications of the independent publication scene to perplex or clarify an aspiring publisher or literati.

Through all this rambling, I've yet to actually consider or answer the question of whether small presses are a dying breed. Interest in them seems to wax and wane, but could eventually become a collector's item or nostalgic memory for the elite-- like vinyl records and Ataris. It's a speeding-bullet-paced world out there in big Canadian cities like Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, with steel and glass skyscrapers dominating a smog-filled horizon. The medium for expression in yesteryear can be an eccentric doodad in today's cutting edge local scenes. Yet millennia-old methods like painting and sculpture are even now still practiced, so who knows? Regardless if the method becomes antiquated, the message and the messengers will remain. Call me an old-fashioned bohemian all you want, but a demand for quality, independent, alternative, and non-corporately-stale art and expression isn't going to expire when there are those around to still appreciate it.

By: F.C. Estrella