Scenes: Les Figues Press by Joel M. Weinbrot

Page 24 American Book Review SCENES Les Figues Press by Joel M. Weinbrot Les Figues is an independent, nonprofit, literary press, which began as a conversation among friends in Paris in 2004 and officially came to fruition in Los Angeles in 2005 under the auspices of its cofounders Teresa Carmody, Sara LaBorde, Pam Ore, and Vanessa Place. Originally located in Carmody and Place’s apartment in the Little Ethiopia area of Los Angeles, Les Figues has since relocated operations to a large basement in a house in the West Adams neighborhood, a 1,000 sq. ft. workspace which provides plenty of room for both books and people, including interns and volunteers who can work at KathyAcker’s desk. Les Figues’s signature project is its TrenchArt series, an annual effort to publish and curate a group of texts that explore similar aesthetic, formal, or content-related concerns. What is Les Figues’s Mission? In broad terms, Les Figues aims to create a space for an aesthetic dialogue between readers, writers, and artists, whatTeresa Carmody calls publication in conversation —this is the idea that drives the TrenchArt series. “Les Figues is a conceptual project by design,” says Carmody. “In a world where it’s increasingly easy to communicate but difficult to talk (because of polarization, mediums, business, inability to handle conflict, etc.), we wanted to find a way where writers /artists could sit down and have a conversation. We also wanted to place texts within this social and aesthetic conversation.” The TrenchArt series is a unique publishing model in that it makes experimental work more approachable to a larger audience by emphasizing textual interconnection and by incorporating supplemental materials (e.g., the author’s aesthetic and an introduction written by someone else altogether) into the publication structure. Each series includes five books: two works of poetry, two of prose, and one collection of aesthetic statements. The press works with participating artists/writers to draft their aesthetic statements, intended to elucidate both their particular aesthetic concerns, and in their collected form, to introduce readers to the series as a whole. What are Les Figues’s principal means of support ? Les Figues has a strong base of loyal readers, who support the press by becoming subscribing members. These readers receive books in the mail as they are published throughout the year. Many members give more than the base subscription amount—Les Figues couldn’t exist without their generosity. Given their mission of promoting aesthetic conversation, Les Figues organizes and attends events everywhere from Los Angeles to London. Support from writers and artists around the country, particularly in the smallpress community, such as Ugly Duckling Presse, Futurepoem, and Fiction Collective Two. The press has advocates in the more mainstream literary world, represented by writers such as Binnie Kirshenbaum, Judith Freeman, and the literary scholar and critic Terry Castle. The Los Angeles avant-garde community is also very supportive of its own, and Les Figues has benefited from ongoing area venues such asThe Smell, Betalevel, and High Energy Constructs, and events like the CalArts-sponsored experimental writing conferences at RedCat. What is an example of a particularly significant or characteristic undertaking, activity, or accomplishment of Les Figues? Les Figues is a feminist enterprise; one of their longest running projects is Mrs. Porter’s Salon, a women’s art salon. Participants present five minutes worth of some form of art—visual, literary, conceptual, their own work, or another’s—to create an aesthetic collage, which is then discussed as an independent art piece. The press is also working on a book of art theory by Juli Carson that will involve ten conceptual artists creating works to be theorized as part of their making. The articulated theory will be separately published, and the resulting art will be shown as an exhibition. What are the names of some of the writers and/ or works Les Figues is particularly proud to have supported? 1. Vanessa Place’s Dies. “Dies is a brilliant book,” says Carmody. “It really captures a suspended moment of modern consciousness, the overwhelming burden of being born into an English-speaking country, saddled with the Western cultural legacy of domination and colonization. And it’s all...