On the evening of May 24th, Justin Million from Bird, Buried Press presented three authors from Beautiful Outlaw Press at a Show and Tell Poetry Series hosted at Take Cover Books. 

Founded by Mark Goldstein, Beautiful Outlaw is an independent, award-winning publishing and design house operating out of the historic Cabbagetown neighbourhood in Toronto. As a self-proclaimed inclusive press, Beautiful Outlaw aims to “serve a diverse community of makers,” with their primary focus being the “creation and dissemination of works of literary merit,” as their website reads.

With regrets from author Phil Hall, authors Chris Turnbull, Mark Goldstein, and Jaclyn Piudik read from their new books— all published through Beautiful Outlaw—in an evening that saw the small room in Take Cover come together in laughter and community. 

Million began the evening with an opening statement from Beautiful Outlaw’s website, remarking on the importance of independent presses. 

“The importance of the small press has never been more acute,” he read. “In an age of accelerated corporate consolidation, along with continued attacks against independent booksellers, a healthy community of independent presses is key to the ongoing publication and dissemination of new and important works.”

The location of this event could not have been more symbolic. Take Cover Books, which operates in East City, is an independent bookstore that serves as a vital organ in the Peterborough-Nogojiwanong art community. With concerts held in the store, in addition to the newly launched Take Cover Film Club and a constant rotation of literary events, Take Cover Books represents the essential need for independent media that Million spoke about in his opening words.

Speaking first, Turnbull read from her upcoming poetry book cipher. A collection of poetry broken into three parts, cipher explores how language coincides with humans’ fluctuating relationship with nature, and wanders this constant exploration of ecological disasters that begs the question “what corporeal landscapes are left to us to explore and experience?”

Turnbull did a fragmented reading in which she jumped between poems in one long, continuous rendition of the collection. Her effortless transition between narratives was as captivating as it was adventurous. I caught up with her after her reading to inquire about the artistic choice to do a fragmented reading from her upcoming collection.

“I get sick of reading it,” she confessed. “When I read it, I just think of it as an interior poem. So today, I decided to say what I could scan or what I could try to say, but I haven’t always done that.”

Turnbull continued by stating that the poems could be read in any order, and choosing them was just a matter of re-reading the collection and seeing what worked sonically, and how she wanted to organize the pacing for this reading. 

Goldstein read next from his upcoming work titled Paul Celan: Thricelandium. As the author of five previous literary works and a famed translator, Goldstein’s latest release translates the poetry of German poet and Holocaust survivor, Paul Celan. 

Published for the first time together in German and English, Thricelandium houses the poems “Atemkristall”, “Eingedunkelt”, and “Schwarzmaut” that documents Celan’s battle with mental health during the last decade of his life before he drowned himself in the river Seine in 1970.

“This has been a decades-long project for myself and for the press,” Goldstein said, and began his reading by sharing that his introduction to the translation depicts the triptych of the interior works that form “a reaffirmation, a capitulation, and finally a resignation.” 

His draw to Celan’s works stemmed from the loss of his sister, who also struggled with mental health until she passed at age 35. Goldstein said he found parallels between the author’s work and his own late sister.  

The poems which Goldstein translated were written by Celan while he was hospitalized for a psychotic break—which he would be continuously in and out of before his death after numerous attempts to kill his wife, Giselle Celan-Lestrange.

“The death which you denied me, I carry it out,” Goldstein read—a particular line which stood out to me during his reading.

Jaclyn Piudik—who also read a translation of Celan’s works—is a professor at the University of Toronto teaching creative and academic writing, and the winner of the New York Times fellowship for creative writing and the Alice M. Sellers Award from the Academy of American Poets.

Reading from her translation titled The Dark Oar which marks the first English translation from Celan’s French self-translation from the original German, Piudik carries poems which spanned the career of Celan—many of which were translated in correspondence with his wife before her death in 1991.

She detailed that Celan originally translated the poems within The Dark Oar into French since his wife “didn’t know German very well.”

Piudik began by reading chronologically from Celan’s earlier work, transitioning between poems until close to the author’s death in both French and English.

“It was an incredible experience to enter into his world, into his mind and his use of language,” Piudik said after her reading when asked about her experience translating these poems into English. 

“It’s interesting to look at some of Mark’s translations [from German-English] to my translations [from German-French-English] and see how they are different,” she continued, stating that the constraints in languages offers a unique experience in translating foreign works of literature.

In conversation around the importance of independent media, Piudik confessed that Toronto’s literary community felt “a little bit fragmented” and observed that here in Peterborough, the community seems to “support each other” in a way not often seen in the larger cities. 

Goldstein also echoed Piudik’s statement about a fragmented literary scene when I caught up with him after the readings, saying it “oftentimes feel fractious, and sometimes oppositional.” 

In our conversation, Goldstein also remarked about his experience founding Beautiful Outlaw and his intention behind creating the house.

“As a writer first and publisher second, I felt there were strains of creative writing that were underrepresented,” he said, and remarked on the collapse of Small Press Distribution in addition to the big five publishing houses attempting to downsize to four, leaving him feeling lucky now more than ever to be independent. 

“The thing that was striking from the start was how to make the books I wanted without possibly being stuck,” he said.

Goldstein remarked on his relationship with the independent printing house, Coach House Books—where The Dark Oar among several other Beautiful Outlaw books are printed—stating that the support of independent outlets is vital to the lifeline of small houses’ success.

“I keep turning to them because I feel that the independent press, and the micro press, and the small press—it's almost like Coach House is a locus for those independent operators,” he said.

Piudik also shared Goldstein’s sentiments, stating that working with off-shore big printing houses is “not the same experience” as working with Beautiful Outlaw and Coach House Books. 

The notion from Goldstein that Coach House Books serves as a “locus” for independent operators rings especially true for the Trent community, as Trent University’s anthology of student writing, Chickenscratch, was also printed at Coach House Books.

To support your local independent bookstore, head to takecoverbooks.ca for more information on upcoming events.

‍Visit Beautifuloutlaw.com to purchase the upcoming releases.

Videos courtesy of Mark Goldstein from Beautiful Outlaw Press.