An interview with Mychael Zulauf

Could you briefly describe your press's history?

While akinoga press officially started in 2013 as means for showcasing some of my book arts projects, it really began in earnest in 2014, after I graduated from the University of Baltimore's MFA program. I was honestly just looking for an excuse to continue working with writers I admired from the various MFA cohorts, and I figured that expanding the scope of the press would be the easiest way to achieve that (which proved to be true, and then some). Since then, I've published six poetry chapbooks, a collection of experimental non-fiction, and a debut full-length collection of poetry. With the publishing of said full-length poetry collection, akinoga can now be considered an international micro-press, and I've even had the honor of exhibiting at AWP, along with a number of local/regional book and lit fests.

How would you characterize the work you publish?

I feel like everything akinoga press has published so far could fall into one of the following categorizes: quiet, small, odd, easily-missed, or 100% needs to be read. Although, I'm also really enamored with the idea of the press being a home for work that authors aren't entirely sure what to do with; I'd like to lean into that a bit more in the years to come. I feel like those are the works that contain the most space for and benefit the most from experimentation/a general attitude of "oh, let's see where this goes." And, while I really love the more traditional design/ layout style and hand-binding of chapbooks, I'd really love to get back to doing weirder book arts stuff.

Who is your audience, and in what ways are you trying to reach them?

I think a huge chunk of akinoga's audience are folks who are book arts savvy. There's something really special about thumbing through a book that's been put together by hand, and I greatly enjoy when someone who feels the same way walks off with one of my books. I think the other main component of the press' audience is active poetry readers. While (at least ostensibly) comparatively small as a group compared to readers of other genres, they are unbelievably loyal; I've had a number of return customers show up when I'm at a fest and some that even seem to seek me out.

Speaking of, my main means of audience connection (at least for now) are festival appearances. I've been pretty good with the local circuit, but I'm in the process of expanding out regionally (I have my sights on some across the US and internationally, too).

My recent addition to the small press section of Poets and Writers also seems to be getting a good bit of attention but mostly from authors looking to submit manuscripts.

What is your role in the publishing scene?

I am honestly still trying to figure that out. I feel like I'm in the middle of a lot of different things: I have published books that are fairly standard in their design and layout, yet hand-bound; I've published collections experimental in content but not in appearance; I've published a chapbook that is one longish poem as an accordion fold, which is an odd choice of binding, but not pushing any boundaries as to the concept of what a book is. It feels like a little bit of not-quite everything?

I would like to think at least one of akinoga's roles is adding to the hand-bound/book arts tradition of small publishing, and, if I'm allowed to be a bit more abstract, I think a major role of the press is giving a physical form to work that may otherwise have never been published…though, that could probably be said of any press.

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