Friday, March 31, 2017

Coming Soon! Unknown Message by Spencer Selby | Post-Asemic Press #002

This is a fantastic book of asemic writing from the great visual/verbal poet and film scholar Spencer Selby. There are no words in the text just beautiful asemic writing in infinite forms. Unknown Message is the second title to be released from Post-Asemic Press. It will be available in April of 2017.

Here is his bio: Born and raised in the Midwest, poet and artist Spencer Selby was educated at the University of Iowa. His experimental and visual poems are concerned with beauty, structure, and utility. Reviewing Selby’s poems for Slope, Amaranth Borsuk observed: “Their shifting ‘terrain of fabric’ is an open weave pierced with losses predicated by war and consumerism.… Selby's language remains rich and elusive, twisting both toward and away from the reader in a complex montage.”

Selby is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Twist of Address (2007), Task (1999), and Instar (1989). He also wrote the nonfiction reference guide Dark City: The Film Noir (1984). His work has been included in the anthologies Word Score Utterance Choreography (1998), Primary Trouble: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry (1996), and The Art of Practice: Forty-Five Contemporary Poets (1994).

Selby founded SINK Press in San Francisco in the early 1980s, organized the Canessa Park Reading Series from 1987 to 1993, and has served as co-editor of the visual poetry magazine Score. Since 1993, he has maintained “The List of Experimental Poetry/Art Magazines,” which he updates online at www.selbyslist.com.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Coming Soon! Works & Interviews by Michael Jacobson | Post-Asemic Press #001


Here is the official cover art for Works & Interviews. The book contains my asemic novella The Giant's Fence, my asemic hieroglyphic work Action Figures, A Headhunter's Tale, 8 interviews with  myself, THATplanet, and The Paranoia Machine. This will be the first title from Post-Asemic Press and it will drop in April 2017.

This book was a major learning experience for me. It is mainly about self-discovery and over coming mental obstacles. In Works & Interviews I have documented my travels through the psychic tundra of mental and spiritual disturbance. Some people pray, I make asemic writing. Almost everything in Works & Interviews is available for free online on various websites, but I think books are cool, and like vinyl records, they are fun to collect.

I am starting Post-Asemic Press because someone had to. Tim Gaze has his great imprint Asemic Editions, but I was looking to start something that would publish asemic works more often, and be distributed more widely. Thanks to print-on-demand technology and the internet, niche subjects like asemic writing are becoming increasingly easier to distribute into the real world. I love cyberspace as much as anyone, and asemic writing wouldn't be as popular as it is without the web, but there is something magical about physical books, and at this time, the press will not be making ebooks. 

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Me Reading The Paranoia Machine @ Asemic Translations: The Rain Taxi reading @ Minnesota Center for Book Arts

photo by Jon Davis

A new updated edition of my collection of asemic writing Works & Interviews will be published sometime in April. The book will have my asemic trans-symbolic novella The Giant's Fence, my asemic hieroglyphics Action Figures, A Headhunter's Tale, 8 interviews with myself, THATplanet, and The Paranoia Machine. This time the book will have a glossy silver/grey cover, and will be the first book put out by Post-Asemic Press.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Coming Soon, Actual Books of Asemic Writing!

I am starting this press to publish works of asemic writing. I have been curating The New Post-Literate for almost 10 years and needed a place to publish works by my friends and fellow travelers in the rapidly expanding world of asemic writing. My goal is to produce 4 or 5 books a year, all delightfully illegible, wordless, and abstract. My goal is to bring out quality affordable books in infinite editions by writers and artists whose work I admire. I want to create a new asemic genre that will command space in libraries and book stores. All works published by the press will be printed on demand through Createspace, and hopefully become available through other distribution channels in the future. This will be a diy labor of love. The press is based in Minneapolis, or anywhere on Earth where there is a wifi connection. Actual physical books will be coming soon! -- Michael Jacobson