Fox Chase Review And Reading Series
10 Questions for Russell Streur
Interview by g emil reutter
GER: Books on Blog is an interesting venture in that you publish ebooks without using the standard formats such as kindle or nook. The presentation is simply outstanding within the confines of a blog format. How did this project come to fruition?
RS: A friend of the Saloon, Michael H. Brownstein, spent a recent summer in Viet Nam teaching English to university students. One of the lessons Michael taught revolved around the poems In Bed by Jeff Flemming and The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams. Then he had the students write their own poems, in English. Afterwards he asked me if the Saloon would be interested in publishing the poems. The results and the whole story were way too big and fun for a post, and deserved something more permanent. The Saloon at the time included a concept for special editions titled The Eye of the Needle, and that’s where the collection was placed, First Poems from Viet Nam at http://theeyeoftheneedlevietnam.blogspot.com/
Something in producing First Poems with Michael reminded me of a couple collections issued by City Lights in the Pocket Poets series, Red Cats (1968) and Nine Dutch Poets (1982). So I was sitting three stools from the end of the bar at the local joint one afternoon with my son Morgen and I brought up the subject of publishing electronic chapbooks at the Saloon in a serial mode. His encouragement tipped me from the consideration of the series into the actual doing of it. Darryl Price was the first Saloonatic to take the Saloon up on the project. The newest issue, Number 42 in the series, is authored by that remarkable woman who runs Propaganda Press, Leah Angstman. The whole series is linked here: http://booksonblogtm.blogspot.com/
During his time in Viet Nam, Michael became aware of the terrible environmental and human damage done by the US military with its Agent Orange bombings. He is committed to helping right those wrongs and has a couple sites highlighting the issue. The home of his effort can be found here: http://www.projectagentorange.com/ and there is a companion poetry site here: http://projectagentorange.com/wordpress/.
Russell Streur is a born-again dissident residing in Johns Creek, Georgia. His work has been published in Europe, certain islands and the United States. He operates the world’s original on-line poetry bar, The Camel Saloon, catering to dromedaries, malcontents and jewels of the world at http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/; and the curator of The Bactrian Room, a journal for bactrians, ghosts and travelers on the Long Silk Road with a story to tell at http://bactrianroom.blogspot.com/. He co-founded Poets Democracy in 2010 with Christi Kochifos Caceres and is the author of The Muse of Many Names, The Petition to Free Zhu Yufu, and other works.