Mystery Island Interview
with 12 Gauge Press Publisher

Gary Aposhian

by Bradley Mason Hamlin


HAMLIN: Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?

APOSHIAN: No, never liked those pinko faggots, always telling folks what they can and can't read, what they can and can't write. You know the deal. I do like vodka though and they made the good stuff, so I guess they weren't all that bad. Are there any commies left anywhere? We should go to war with them if there are.

HAMLIN: For the chumps that ain't hip: What is 12 Gauge Press?

APOSHIAN: 12 Gauge Press is small publishing house located in San Clemente, California. Our primary focus is on perfect bound books of poetry and also on special limited editions of poetry.  We started out in 1989 as FreeThought Publications in Sacramento and primarily published the chaos poets in the midtown Sac area--people like you, Kennedy, Gene Black, Ted Finn, Rebecca Morrison and a handful of other peripheral lunatics.  In '93 we moved south to San Clemente and the beach and reorganized the press with 12 Gauge as the flagship publisher and FreeThought becoming a vehicle for self financed authors or people who want to pay to have small runs of their own work published.

We started out doing the FreeThought retrospectives/poetry reviews, a funky tabloid newsprint job. From there we began doing special signed limited edition broadsides and booklets. Soon after the creation of 12 Gauge Press, we began with chapbooks. In early 2002 I left my job in the electronics distribution industry, bought some printing and binding equipment, and started making real perfect bound books. No third party labor, all in house, from the recruiting of authors, to the layout, to the printing, binding and finishing.

We've put out 5 perfect bound books so far from an anthology of northern California poets (Chekovski, Winans, Nicosia, Hamlin) to individual books of poetry. With the reviews, broadsides, chapbooks and perfect bounds we have over 45 titles in our catalog. We have distribution with SPD and BAKER & Taylor and have just gotten the Madsen book on the shelves at Borders books.

Some of the more recognizable poets we have published include, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Anne Waldman, Charles Plymell, A.D. Winans, Linda King, Neeli Cherkovski, Gerald Locklin, Ann Menebroker, and our latest big name Michael Madsen of Reservoir Dogs fame.

HAMLIN: Did poetry die with Charles Bukowski?

APOSHIAN: Absolutely not. Although we dig Bukowski, he is not the be all and end all of poetry. There are plenty of unrecognized writers out there just as good or better than anything getting onto print. I think Victor Thorn made a good point of that in his Mystery Island interview. There are also a great group of small press and alternative writers gaining a ton of momentum right now, poets like Plymell, Cherkovski, Nicosia, Winans, Locklin, Denander, and yourself.

There is a movement happening right now akin to the mimeo revolution involving Levy, Wagner, Blazek, and others (including Buk and Cherkovski with "Man The Humping Guns"). These guys were the MEAT poets and were grinding out hundreds of little publications and mailing them all over the country and the world. Now we have the desktop revolution. It is faster, more professional, allows for far more creativity and is accessible to everyone. There is a new breed of publisher out there now. Houses like Bottle Of Smoke, Black Shark Press, and others that are doing exactly what Levy and crew did but much wider, deeper and more efficiently. It's guerrila publishing at its finest and is enhanced a thousand fold by the internet. I believe we are on the verge of a new poetry revolution.

HAMLIN: Tell us one of those drunk/poet/publisher stories ...

APOSHIAN:

with the constant betrayal
of life at your back
it all comes down to this

for every angry fix
of television
religion
dope
sex
money
it all comes down to this

as buildings fall and madmen laugh
it all comes down to this

after the drinking
the fighting
the fucking
it all comes down to this

when the big fish eat the little fish
and the hyena laughs madly at the night
it all comes down to this

after the whores,
the connections,
& bill collectors
come screaming for pieces of your blood stained salary
it all comes down to this

when the end draws close
and the differences between us grow small
it all comes down to this

when all the hemingway’s of the world
release the safety catch
it all comes down to this

as the umbilicus is cut and new lungs draw air
it all comes down to this

after 20 years of bad marriage
bad luck
bad manners
bad habits
it all comes down to this

for every lunatic
with the dawning realization
that he is truly the illegitimate son of man
it all comes down to this

after giving half of your existence
to the suits and ties
licking up scraps and acting grateful
it all comes down to this

for every bullet
in every gun
in every punk's shaking hand
it all comes down to this

wearing bukowski's plaid shirt
a six pack of miller
a half dozen bong hits
and disc one of chet baker, the last great concert
it all comes down to this

when dharma stands before you
it all comes down to this.

HAMLIN: Do you believe in time travel?

APOSHIAN: It's probable. but who has the fucking machine?

HAMLIN: Who do you look up to as a publisher?

APOSHIAN: John Martin, hands down my idol. However, there are other deities in my pantheon of publishing gods: Charles Plymell (Cherry Valley Editions), A.D. Winans (2nd coming), d.a. levy (7 Flowers Press and others), Marvin Malone (Wormwood Review), and Jon and Louise Webb (Loujon Press).

HAMLIN: What do you as a human being want to share with other human beings?

APOSHIAN: Three things:

A. There are two things in life worth pursuit, love and knowledge. Any activity or action not grounded in either of the two is a waste of time.

B. Go with your gut.

c. Buy my books.


END



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