A Common Pornography_ A Memoir - Kevin Sampsell [60]
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Future Tense Books
A Timeline of My Micropress
1990: I make my first chapbook of poetry at the age of twenty-three while living in Spokane, Washington. I title it Words of Eternal Chaos and use the image of an old-fashioned telephone for the cover art. On the back, I decide to put Future Tense Press. Not knowing much about small-press publishing or zines at that time, I am more inspired by independent record labels such as Sub Pop and K Records.
1991: Using a friend’s employee discount at Kinko’s (and an electric typewriter), I produce three more chapbooks of my poetry (mostly sold at open mics at Auntie’s Bookstore) before moving to Fort Smith, Arkansas.
1992: I decide to return to the Northwest and choose Portland, Oregon, as my new home. I start reading around town at open mics (Café Lena, Jiffy Squid) and meet other writers to publish. I buy an espresso cart business with my Arkansas girlfriend, and we call it Espresso Happening in tribute to my favorite band, Beat Happening.
“Using a friend’s employee discount at Kinko’s (and an electric typewriter), I produce three more chapbooks of my poetry.
1993: After the death of River Phoenix, a few friends and I write some poems to celebrate the young actor’s life. We turn it into a small zine called Dead Star. For the next couple of years we make issues for John Candy, Charles Bukowski, John Wayne Gacy, and Elizabeth Montgomery. It’s the thing I get the most mail about during this time.
I also get my first computer and P.O. box.
1994: I self-publish my first paperback, How to Lose Your Mind with the Lights On, a collection of poems, collages, and stories—128 pages, 500 copies. It is dedicated to my son, Zach, who is born in July.
Another paperback release, by performance artist Drew Pisarra, comes out a few months later.
1995: At a local café called Umbra Penumbra, I start the Future Tense reading series for writers I publish and other friends.
1996: My first stab at a themed collection, The Diner Anthology, is released as a chapbook and includes an array of ’90s small-press stars.
1997: I publish a collection of poems, Jesus Christ: Live and In the Flesh, by “queen of the small press,” Lyn Lifshin.
My life becomes a shambles after I split with my son’s mom. On a somewhat related note, I become unspoken enemies with writer Jim Goad when my homewrecker girlfriend starts dating him.
I begin working at Powell’s as “Christmas help” and become events coordinator less than a year later.
I get married to writer and performer Ritah Parrish at a pajama party reading at a tiki bar. Many people don’t believe it’s real, but we stay married for five years.
(Note to reader: Someday, when I write another memoir, it will probably start in 1997.)
“I get married to writer and performer Ritah Parrish at a pajama party reading at a tiki bar. Many people don’t believe it’s real, but we stay married for five years.
1998: The first Future Tense website is launched. It’s a big, garish yellow thing with a grenade on its front page. It eventually gets made over, with a sleek black and white design.
We win our first Oregon Literary Arts fellowship.
1999: A chapbook (Holes) by legendary rock writer Richard Meltzer is released. It consists of a funny essay on golf and a section of poems.
2000: Our first novel, Meat Won’t Pay My Light Bill by artist and bartender Kurt Eisenlohr, is released. Because of its size (240 pages), I can only afford to print 300 copies. The book goes out of print quickly until being republished in 2008 by another press. (Kurt’s connection to Future Tense remains: his art adorns our website.)
Jemiah Jefferson’s chapbook of stories, St*rf*ck*ng, is released. She goes on to write several acclaimed vampire novels.
Business-wise, I finally decide to make some kind of letterhead.
2001: We publish Please Don’t Kill the Freshman by Zoe Trope, a girl I discover in an eighth-grade after-school writing class I taught in 1999. The 44-page book, a diary of her first year in high school,