Checking In With Featherproof

I had the chance to attend a part of the New York reading from the Featherproof Books/Hobart Journal “Dollar Store” reading tour this summer. Fictionauter Amelia Grey brought the house up, Hobart editor Aaron Burch took his shirt off for poetry and my always writerly favorite crush Blake Butler was beautiful. (These were just some of our Fictionauters around, and yes, everyone seemed to be checking their various internetting via telephone… the great Shya Scanlon and I threw back way too much beer and more laughter).

I asked Zach, co-editor and head excellent at Featherproof to answer some questions for us about Featherproof’s Fictionaut Group and Featherproof in general over email recently and it was lovely to hear from him, he’s what one might call “good people.”

Q (Nicolle Elizabeth): Tell people who you people are again? What is Featherproof? (Benefactors love us, talk sweetly. I said “you people” ha, I slay me.)

A: Well,  I just rewrote the ‘about’ paragraph on our website for the first time in our 4.7 years, so maybe it’s best to let it serve:

Featherproof Books is an indie publisher dedicated to doing whatever we want. This might take the form of publishing an idiosyncratic novel, design book, or something in between. We love paper, but we’re not afraid of computers. Our free downloadable mini-books are an invitation to all ten fingers to take part in the book-making process. We also have an experiment in attention span: the TripleQuick Fiction iPhone app. No matter the medium, we see our authors as creative partners involved in every step of publication. We make our own fun.

Q: What can we expect from Featherproof this year upcoming?

A: Lots of stuff. A remix ebook of Blake Butler’s Scorch Atlas. The Awful Possibilities by Christian TeBordo is goodbananas. Really really excited to show the world Daddy’s by Lindsay Hunter. It’s like a brain grope. A couple other books that I have to keep secret for now. Though it ain’t easy. The iPhone app. More parties. Less stress, bigger living.

Q: How has the Fictionaut Featherproof group been beneficial to Featherproof if at all?

A: Sure. It’s made us feel really great. We are joiners. Everybody should join. We were really excited to join the Featherproof group, for example. It made a party in our browser window.

Q: Has it been fun, we hope?

A: If ain’t fun, we don’t do it.

Q: How has Featherproof been using the Fictionaut group in general? Workshopping? Networking? High fiving? Cosmic support in general?

A: We’ve been using it to gather a secret army. (Group members: await further instruction.) We have another group, for the iPhone, called TripleQuick. Our hawk-eye editor Mary Hamilton is scouring that one, so if you’re early and awesome, she might take notice of you there. You have to be less than 333 words, though.

Q: Is the Fictionaut group indicative of Featherproof as a whole is so how if not how come?

A: I had a really hard time with statistics class, so I’m afraid I’d fail this question. But if I had to guess I’d say mostly +/- 7%

Q: Anything else here. Recipes, phone numbers, marriage proposals.

A: How about Elizabeth Crane’s haiku for Featherproof:

Jonathan and Zach
Print mini-books, maxi-books,
and me. Dig them now

Nicolle Elizabeth checks in with Fictionaut Groups every Friday.