Unknown Diversity: Little Magazines and Small Presses of the West, 1960–1980

K I R K R O B E R T S O N Fallon, Nevada Unknown Diversity: Little Magazines and Small Presses of the West, 1960-1980 “It concerned me that one reason why it is easier to ‘sum up’ a literature fifty years after its own time is that most of it gets lost and does not have to be dealt w ith.. . . ” Len Fulton, Small Press Record of Books, 1972 . . to remind the archivists of the eighties where to look to explain the seventies — everything is spelled out in the little mags of the sixties.” Marvin Malone, Vagabond, 1974 For the purposes of this brief, selective overview, I will concentrate on presses and magazines issued from Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Cali­ fornia, which has the largest concentration of alternative publishing activity, is not included here and neither is Texas. The sheer number of presses and mags located in those two states would require more space than is available; readers may consult the most recent edition of The Inter­ national Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses, which contains a regional index, for comprehensive listings. As I started pulling things from this area off my shelves, I was struck by the diverse activity that had gone on here over the past twenty years. 126 Western American Literature There were finely printed letterpress mags and books (The Outsider, Graywolf , Copper Canyon); “crude” mimeo editions (Grande Ronde Review, T h e ); tabloids (Litmus, Northwest Passage); those of regional emphasis (Ahsahta, blitz) and those of international emphasis (Tooth of T im e); those devoted to special groups or localities (Suntracks, Valley Grape­ vine) ; those devoted to the more traditional poetries (Inscape, Poetry Northwest); and those devoted to more experimental work (West Coast Poetry Review) ; those desiring to stay small in size and format (Margarine Maypole Orangutang Express) and those producing “trade books” with over a hundred titles in print (Peregrine Sm ith); those coming and going with a single issue or publication (Poetry Taos, Oriental Blue Streak) and those that have managed to survive for ten or twenty years (universityaffiliated mags/presses, obviously, tend to survive longer than independent ones). Who was keeping track of all this? The few university libraries that do actively collect such material do so only for their immediate geograph­ ical areas, or specialize even further by categories (e.g., the University of Wisconsin-Madison probably has the largest collection of little mags; Uni­ versity of San Francisco collects western fine printing, etc.). As the stacks of publications increased I became convinced that some kind of record of the literary activity of this region had to be begun— listings in Len Fulton’s International Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses are helpful but come and go, and no cumulative record is kept; once a mag or press ceases publication it is dropped. I have chosen to focus on independent publishing activity, although several academically affiliated journals and presses (i.e., Northwest Re­ view) whose primary commitment is to publish new creative work (as opposed to criticism and/or commentary) are also included. I have tried to be selective in identifying those literary mags and presses active during the past two decades but sources are in short supply (as indicated by the unfortunate terseness of some of the listings), especially in regard to the mags/presses of the 1960s. I am indebted here to Marvin Malone, editor of The Wormwood Review, for useful information of magazines of that period. The listings which follow are chronological (year mag/press was founded or issued its first publication) within state. An asterisk (*) indi­ cates that it is still active. What follows, then, is a working list. A beginning. An attempt to identify and document the literary publishing activity of these western Kirk Robertson 127 states in the period 1960-1980; an attempt to keep some of what happened from getting lost. ARIZONA *Arizona Quarterly, University of Arizona, Tucson, ca. 1944-date. Awards annual prizes for outstanding contributions. Eclectic and highlyregarded . Edited by Albert F. Gegenheimer. Blue Moon News, Blue Moon Press, Tucson, 1972-80; publications include Do Not Go Gentle — Poetry and Prose...