by Stefanie Freele
Ever since reading Gogol's "The Overcoat" (many, many years ago), Brant Goble has been an ardent short fiction fan, and this interest caused him to found Loosey Goosey Press LLC (publisher of Gander Press Review) in 2007. When not pursuing his dream of becoming a billionaire publisher/media tycoon (much like Ted Turner, but with more land) or editing GPR, Brant is a dedicated amateur didgeridoo player, bassist, and electronics repairman (emphasis on amateur in all cases). He earned (at great expense) a Journeyman's Certificate of Recording Engineering from the Musicians Institute and acquired a handful of ridiculously unprofitable titles from educational institutions, certifying bodies, and government agencies throughout the country, absolutely none of which had anything to do with writing or editing. Either hardheaded or masochistic, Brant is adding yet one more entry to his already desultory resume by pursuing an MAE in Adult Education at Western Kentucky University. He hopes to live long enough to repay all of his student loans (but isn't counting on it).
How does it feel to release the inaugural edition of your first literary magazine? Congratulations!
It's a relief more than anything else. If you had asked me two months ago if I'd be able to pull this off (getting GPR to press), I probably would have told you to "Let me get back to you on that." As someone who's pretty far removed from the literary scene (and more a reader than a writer), I knew starting a literary magazine would be a great deal of work for me and that I had much to learn, but I didn't realize just how much. I'm grateful (in a way) for my initial ignorance. Had I known exactly what I was getting into, I might never have started GPR.
In your editors note, you speak of being inspired to start your own magazine after reviewing an online magazine. Can you share the magazine's name and what traits you found admirable?
Last May I was cogitating in front of my computer (not as dirty an act as it sounds), and I decided to Google "literary review." The first site I found was the Istanbul Literary Review, and it inspired me immediately. I think what I appreciated most about ILR was that it was (and is) a collaborative global effort that appeared to stand on its own two feet, without any institutional backing or advantage of geography (i.e., being near a literary center). Starting (and running) a magazine must be tremendous work for anyone, but I think having the backing of a rich university (and I know they must be rich; I just paid my tuition) would make the task easier. Universities can provide grants, technical staff, artists, and scantily clad coeds who live only to fulfill the All Important Editor's every desire (okay, so maybe I'm fantasizing at this point). (Jokes aside, I realize that schools can be incredibly stingy with their faculty).
Still, I think having backing (other than the editor's much-used-and-abused Visa) might be an advantage, and I've always admired the underdog, the outsider, and the oddball (probably because I'm a bit of all three). Mississippi Review, Blackbird, and CrossConnect--these are all great publications (and school-backed ones at that) that also inspired me early on with their high quality and highly diverse content and their generosity in making their content freely available. (Mississippi Review provides free access to its archives, but not its current issue).
You also mention that after reviewing other magazines, you wanted to create one that "suited you better." What were you looking for that you didn't find? And in turn, what does Gander Press Review have that is unusual?
After I visited quite a few literary websites, I noticed three recurring and significant (to me) problems. First, most of them displayed each contribution on a single, scrollable page--not a major problem with shorter works, but I found reading longer works this way to be a real headache.
Second, I noticed that few of the freely available magazines could be downloaded and read offline. Sure, readers could access the stories one-by-one, but they couldn't (easily) download an entire edition onto a flash drive and read it at the office while pretending to work (without leaving a trail on the company network).
Third, I simply didn't like the aesthetics of many of the websites I visited. The layout, the organization, and the graphic feel (or lack thereof) of many literary websites just didn't seem all that wonderful.
We (my co-editor, Faith Goble, and I) addressed all of these problems by designing GPR as a book and then releasing it as a series of PDFs. Text layout, organization, offline access, and file security--all of these problems that were really bothering us essentially disappeared when we started working with PDFs.
The print edition of GPR (which I hope everyone who reads this interview will buy) was created with the illustrated magazines and books of a previous era in mind, not with the intent to copy them, but with the goal of producing a respectful (and humorous) homage. I have to credit Faith for her wonderful illustrations and design work. Without her efforts, GPR would be a very different bird.
I'm a publisher as well as an editor, so I'd like to make (or at least not lose a terrible amount of) money from GPR, so I've restricted some of GPR's file permissions. If you want to read GPR on paper, you'll need to buy a copy. I'm also pretty protective of GPR's contributors' rights, but I wanted to make GPR accessible to as many people as possible. The use of restricted PDFs seemed to be a good compromise.
The title. Where did the title come from?
When I decided to establish a publishing house last year, I had no idea what to call it, but never being a humble man, I decided to name it after one of my three dearest friends--me, myself, and I. Loosey Goosey Press is a play on my namesake, the Brant Goose (branta bernicla), with which I share both a name and a host of characteristics (small, salt-loving, and shy but surprisingly talkative--you probably guessed the last one already).
Gander Press Review was a further play on that theme. I actually bought ganderpress.com (and a slew of other domain names) long before I set up GPR. Tacking Review onto the domain was easy enough, and I didn't particularly want to name my magazine the Rootin' Tootin' Review (although, in retrospect, RTR is pretty memorable as well).
For this first issue you solicited authors to submit. How was that experience and will you continue to do so or open up the magazines for general submissions?
I doubt GPR will ever contain less than 50% solicited material. It's just too hard to get great material without soliciting. I've been pleasantly surprised by the generosity of established authors in responding to solicitation, and I'm is going to continue to capitalize on that generosity as long as I can (or at least until people start wanting, God forbid, money for their hard work).
That much said, GPR is already accepting unsolicited submissions, and I hope that the next edition will include about 25% unsolicited material.
Are you working on the next issue yet, or still lounging about admiring that gorgeous first issue?
Gorgeous--why, it's been literally days since a woman called me that. (Oh wait, you were referring to the magazine.)
Other than reviewing unsolicited material, I've not started work on the Spring/Summer edition.
And as for lounging, I've been doing as much of it as I can while trying to hammer out my thesis and get wider distribution GPR (both of which have proven to be pretty time consuming).
Any plans for themes, artwork, contests?
I'm going to hold a cover design contest for the Spring/Summer edition that will open...as soon as I put together the rules. I really don't know what we'll give the winner, but I suspect he/she will receive at least a copy of GPR and one of our (now famous) virtual pats on the back.
As for themes, geese will, of course, be central to every issue, but I plan on being flexible. For the Spring/Summer issue, GPR will have a summer theme--geese at the pool, geese at the barbecue (being served cocktails, rather than being served with cocktails), or geese at the beach. Everything is still very much at the conceptual stage at this point.
You also own Loosey Goosey press. What does the future hold for Loosey Goosey?
I'd like to add more titles, particularly short fiction (possibly in the form of an anthology or two), and I'd like to publish some freestanding books of poetry. At some point in time, I'd be very interested in editing/publishing collections of photographs (other people's work--I'm not a photographer), but I don't know if I'll ever have the expertise (or the money) to undertake something that ambitious.
I can't really start any new projects until January (when I finish grad school). GPR (and Loosey Goosey Press) should have better distribution by then, and I know I'll be able to use this to my (and my authors') advantage.
Gander Press Review is currently accepting print and electronic submissions of unsolicited poems and short stories of less than 500 or 5,000 words, respectively. For more information on submitting to GPR (or about the upcoming cover art contest), please visit the Gander Press Review website.
