[this article published on Jacket2]
An introduction to the Subtext Reading Series audio collection at PennSound
The Subtext reading series was a collaborative effort by Seattle-area writers and readers interested in new writing. July 2009 marked the fifteenth anniversary of the Subtext reading series. Each month Subtext paired established and emerging writers from around the country with a Pacific Northwest writer and put them in front of a Seattle audience.
The core group of curators for Subtext were: Laynie Browne, Jeanne Heuving, Herb Levy, Ezra Mark, Bryant Mason, Robert Mittenthal, and Nico Vassilakis. This core expanded when C.E. Putnam moved to town, and contracted when Herb and Laynie and C.E. left town. In addition, we had a number of guest curators including (apologies if I’ve forgotten folks): Curtis Bonney, Daniel Comiskey, Joe Donahue, Kreg Hasegawa, Drew Kunz, Will Owen, and Lou Rowan.
In large part, the Subtext Reading Series came out of a poetry reading group which had started in the late 1980s from a small core of writers & friends who were interested in contemporary poetics. Sometimes connections were made randomly, for example, on a Metro bus, someone was discovered reading a Clark Coolidge book, & at a party someone quoted a Basil Bunting quip (“always carry a corkscrew and the wine shall provide itself”). Hard to say if these connections are more or less fragile than what gets established today via social media.
After a few years, more than half of the reading group went north to attend the “Recovery of the Public World” conference in honor of Robin Blaser’s 70th birthday in Vancouver. We returned full of energy - and combining with others in the community, we decided to start a regular reading series, with a focus on presenting poets from out of town. It was clear that if we wanted to hear the new writers we were excited about, no one else was going to bring them to town. This was pre-internet, and there was little exposure in Seattle to the various alternative poetries flourishing at that time in US/Canada. I had been going up to Vancouver for literary events for a number of years, so this was an opportunity to get Kootenay School poets I knew and loved to read in the US.
We came up with what turned out to be a sustainable format for the series. Two person readings, once per month, on the same day, for example, the 3rd Thursday, at the same venue. One local writer, and one from out of town. Regardless of what was raised via donations at the door, we would pay the readers a nominal fixed amount, plus a small travel stipend for the visitor. We had no budget and no funding, so we focused primarily on the west coast, & tried to coordinate with writers who were traveling thru the Northwest.
Jeanne Heuving was periodically able to secure funding to bring more established writers to the Bothell campus of University of Washington, and as part of their paid visits to the university, they would give public readings at Subtext. Happily, after many years, Jeanne was able to launch an on-going MFA graduate program in Creative Writing & Poetics at University of Washington Bothell.
We had good luck finding venues to host/cosponsor the readings. Starting at what was one of the very first internet cafes in the US, the Speakeasy Cafe. This became a dynamic community space, a three-ring circus of activity. Happy insanity served daily. Around the time of a fire at Speakeasy, which closed the cafe, we moved to the Richard Hugo House, and after surviving a number of management changes there, and thanks to Steve Peters of Nonsequitur, we were able to be part of the opening of the Wayward Music Series at Chapel Performance Space.
Over 15 years, approximately 180 readings were captured on early Sony digital and DAT tape recorders by Herb Levy and Bryant Mason, respectively. Unfortunately, this is only about half of the events that occurred. The original media had to be converted to current digital formats, and then adjusted to improve sound quality. Thanks to Bryant Mason for work on the audio improvements and filtering. Final editing and organization of data by Robert Mittenthal.
Thanks to Robert Mittenthal, a vast collection of Subtext audio recordings, is now available on PennSound, here.
Link to Subtext’s historical blog with descriptions of
all readings, here.
Link to short Subtext YouTube videos from a very old anniversary group reading,
not otherwise part of the audio archive, here.
There are readings in archive from these writers:
Aaron Shurin
Aaron Vidaver
Adriana Grant
Alan Halsey
Alicia Cohen
Anselm Berrigan
Anselm Hollo
April DeNonno
Belle Randall
Bernadette Meyer
Bethany Ides
Brandon Shimoda
Brenda Iijima
Brett Ralph
Brian Carpenter
Brian Evenson
Bryant Mason
Buck Downs
Cathleen Shattuck
CE Putnam
Charles Alexander
Charles Altieri
Chris Mann
Chris Stroffolino
Christian Bok
Christine Deavel
Christine Stewart
Christopher DeLaurenti
Craig Van Riper
Curtis Bonney
Dan Farrell
Dan Raphael
Daniel Comiskey
Danika Dinsmore
Danny Snelson
David Abel
David Bromige
David Buuck
David Matlin
David McAleavy
Deborah Meadows
Diana George
Dodie Bellamy
Don Mee Choi
Donato Mancini
Donna Stonecipher
Dorothy Trujillo Lusk
Doug Nufer
Drew Gardner
Drew Kunz
Ed Foster
Ed Roberson
Eric Baus
Ethan Fugate
Ezra Mark
Fred Wah
Gerald Burns
Geraldine Monk
Hank Lazar
Interrupture
Jacqueline Turner
Jacqueline Waters
Janet Rodney
Janet Sarbanes
Jean Day
Jeanne Heuving
Jeff Derksen
Jim Jones
Jocelyn Saidenberg
Joe Keppler
Joe Safdie
Joel Felix
John Olson
Jonathan Brannen
Joseph Bradshaw
Joseph Donahue
Joseph Zitt
Judy Radul
Jules Boykoff
JW Marshall
Kaia Sand
Karen Weiser
kari edwards
Kathryn MacLeod
Kerri Sonnenberg
Kevin Killian
Kreg Hasegawa
Laura Feldman
Laura Moriarty
Laynie Browne
Leonard Schwartz
Leslie Scalapino
Lidia Yuknavitch
Lindsay Hill
Lisa Jarnot
Lisa Robertson
Lou Rowan
Lucy Corin
Maged Zaher
Mark Tardi
Martha Ronk
Martin Corless Smith
Mary Burger
Mary Margaret Sloan
Maryrose Larkin
Matthew Stadler
Maxine Chernoff
Meg McHutchison
Meredith Quartermain
Michael Cross
Mickey O'Connor
Mike Katell
Myung Mi Kim
Nancy Shaw
Nathaniel Tarn
Nico Vassilakis
Noemie Maxwell
Norma Cole
Paul Hoover
Peter Culley
Peter O'Leary
Peter Quartermain
Philip Good
Rae Armantrout
Rebecca Brown
Rhoda Rosenfeld
Rob Fitterman
Robert Mittenthal
Roberta Olson
Robin Blaser
Ron Silliman
Ron Starr
Rusty Morrison
Sarah Mangold
School Seattle
Shin Yu Pai
Sianne Ngai
Stacey Levine
Stacy Szymaszek
Steve McCaffery
Steven Farmer
Steven Shaviro
Susan Clark
Susan Landers
Susan Schultz
Tom Raworth
Will Owen
William Fox
Zhang Er
