Swanlike Stuff

Following on from our introduction to the literary delights of Forklift, Ohio and Smartish Pace, let’s take a gander at another journal that will soon be propped up adorably on our shelves: Ugly Duckling Presse’s 6×6 series.

Ugly Duckling Presse is a publishing collective run out of an old can factory in the heart of industrial Brooklyn. The press(e) focuses on emerging writers, “forgotten” authors, and work in translation, and they’ve published some very impressive titles, including Tomaž Šalamun’s Poker, which was a finalist for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation.

UDP

The press began in 1993 when college student Matvei Yankelevich and a friend pasted together a zine made up of collages and “ballpoint scrawl” and called it The Ugly Duckling. From this initial “beautiful mess,” the enterprise expanded and began to take shape as a collective of like-minded writers and artists. UDP is now a pretty big concern—they’ve published over 200 titles—but there’s still an irreverent, artisanal feel to all things Ducky. The press is still run by a volunteer collective, and its members still like to get their hands dirty; each and every book is handmade to some extent. Among UDP’s many projects, there’s the Eastern European Poets Series, the Lost Literature Series, the Cellar Series Podcasts (recordings of readings and discussions with UDP authors), and the poetry journal 6×6.

Ugly Duckling

6×6 was first published in 2000 and is edited by Yankelevich and friends. The journal comes out three times a year, and showcases mostly young(ish), new(ish) poets from at home and abroad, with at least one work in translation in each issue. And as the series’ title might suggest, each issue features six poets, with each poet given six pages. The journal is a pleasingly symmetrical 7” x 7”—I guess 6” x 6” would have been a wee bit cute?—and is bound with a handsome rubber band (I’m not the only person who admires the bands; a question regarding rubber band stockists appears in the Ugly Duckling FAQ). And in keeping with the theme of sixes, apparently the plan is to call a halt to the series after the 36th issue. I can’t promise Malvern Books will have every issue in stock—some are already sold out—but I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to offer you at least… six.