Reprints, Reissues, Reimaginings
Most of Granary’s authors and artists are still alive and involved in the publication process. But the press has also made respectful room to celebrate writers of earlier moments and movements. They have published some of the poets we most associate with conceptualizing the relationship of poetry to the book: Edmond Jabès, Stéphane Mallarmé, and William Blake.
The press has also re-issued earlier publications, keeping poets of the New York School such as John Ashbery, Ted Berrigan, and Joe Brainard in print, publishing bibliographies of their work, and pairing them with new collaborators. Granary has published several artists associated with Piero Heliczer’s Dead Language Press.
These projects, especially when taken with the books about books, signal a productively self-interrogating component to Granary’s project. The press explores the work that small press publishers have done over the past century to foster creative and especially avant-garde work. As a complement to this focus, Steve Clay also works with artists to organize their own archives and to place them at research institutions that will make them available for researchers.