What We’re Reading: 6 x 6

By now, you all know my obsessions. Handmade books are among them. Obviously the writing is of utmost importance, being the whole point of a book. However, when a book can combine the tactile, visual beauty of smart design and careful craft with exceptional literature…well, I’ll just stop myself there. Except to throw another good one your way.

6 x 6 is a quirky literary magazine with a letterpress cover, all held together by a rubber band looping around the spine. It’s square (6 x 6, to be exact), but for one die-cut corner. Each issue features 6 poets, usually trending towards contemporary avant-garde poetry. And each poet is given (yes, you guessed it) six pages in the issue. The little gem is published by Brooklyn-based Ugly Duckling Presse, a non-profit publisher whose self-proclaimed mission is “to produce artisanal and trade editions of new poetry, translation, experimental non-fiction, performance texts, and books by artists.”

Now enough about the magazine’s look. I just got 6 x 6 #23: WE WERE ALL GREAT IN THE OBSERVATORY, and the writing lives up to its binding. The six poets set up a series of abstract wordscapes and precise moments of discovery for the reader to work their way through. The wonderful poets are: Noelle Kocot, Maged Zaher, James Hart III, Aeron Kopriva, Geoffrey Hilsabeck, and a translation of Croatian poet Miloš Djurdjević by Tomislav Kuzmanović. I gravitated towards Aeron Kopriva’s work the first time through, being on my prose kick and all. Kopriva takes a more conversational, witty approach to prose, with a refreshing sprinkling of humour. His progression of numbered poems felt like one long internal conversation that I wish I could have with myself. Yet every time I read the issue, I find something else that pulls me in, head first.

What are you drawn to when you pick up a book? Do you drool over letterpress, quality paper, and hand bindings like myself? Or would you take it on the back of a receipt, as long as the writing was great?

P.S. For all you writers out there – if this sounds like your thang, submit!