Our latest chapbook, David Russomano’s (Reasons for) Moving, is now available.
This is a remarkable debut. Of course we would say that, and while you might not trust us to be objective, you might believe the poet Wendy Cope when she calls it an “impressive and enjoyable collection”, or Eyewear Books’ Todd Swift when he describes David’s poetry as “at once exotic, historical, melancholy, and well-made”.
Convinced? You can order the chapbook here. It is available in print as well as in digital formats. All profits from chapbooks sales go to the author.
Want to hear more? See a short interview David about (Reasons for) Moving below.
How long did it take for you to bring this collection together?
I’ve been working on this collection off and on since about 2013. That was the first time that I submitted a manuscript focusing on ideas of place and travel. Eight of the poems in that early version of the chapbook survived in one form or another and made it into (Reasons for) Moving, but countless others were cut and the whole thing changed shape several times along the way.
How was the selection process?
As I mentioned above, the selection process was difficult and took years. The organising principles—place, travel, motion, stagnation—were pretty much there all along, but pieces that seemed central to the whole thing at first eventually fell by the wayside and/or were replaced by what I think are stronger or more relevant poems. Also, a lot of my poems take place abroad and I wanted to balance that out with some more domestic poems, but that slowed the process down.
Do you have a ‘typical’ writing process?
My writing is often very ‘reactionary’, by which I mean that it’s a direct reaction to some external stimuli. I always carry a pocket journal so that I can capture my reactions to things that I experience. Sometimes, one experience turns into a single poem. At other times, I pull various bits together after the fact and assemble them into something that’s considerably different from its constituent parts. Eventually, I type up bits from these pocket notebooks and then refine them through a series of drafts in a single word document. Whenever I’m about to make a significant edit, I copy what I’ve got, paste it below, and carry on. That way, I’m able to trace my work to some extent.
Can you say a little about the cover?
The cover artwork for (Reasons for) Moving is part of my ongoing exploration of the mathematical constant, pi (3.1415, etc.). In these pieces, I use the decimal places of pi as a generative constraint and let them determine the shape, colour, or pattern of the artwork. I’ve been trying to approach this process from different angles for nearly five years now. This particular piece recently appeared in Surbiton’s Museum of Futures as part of an exhibition put on by The Enemies Project.