New Lit on the Block :: Postcard
Who doesn’t love getting a postcard in the mail? Especially one with contemporary art and poetry and no pithy guilt about not being somewhere else. Postcard is the brainchild of Editor-in-Chief and Designer David Wojciechowski who was initially interested in making broadsides but fell in love with the smaller, more economical postcard.
“I thought it was a funky idea for a literary magazine to be printed in that form,” Wojciechowski says. “Then I began thinking about the postcards, the poems, being sent through the mail. I loved the idea of people sending a poem to a friend—not just a link to a poem, but a physical object they can tape over their desk or wherever they need it. I also have this image in my head of a mail carrier stopping to read a poem; that image kind of motivated me to keep going with the idea.”
For Readers
Postcard is only available through purchasing each pack, which comes as a limited print edition of postcards twice each year. “Readers will receive 10 beautiful poems by at least 10 wonderfully talented poets,” Wojciechowski explains. “The work is a mix of verse and prose poems; direct and experimental; narrative and suggestive; weird and heartbreaking. They can also expect 10 abstract images inspired by the poems.”
“I have had a few people ask me about the visual style of the postcards: where it came from, what inspired it, how does it work,” Wojciechowski adds. “More than anything I’m trying to capture the feeling I get from the poem. If a poem feels quiet, I want the art to feel a little quiet. If the poem is experimental, I want the art to look a little different.
“I also try to pick out an image or object and abstract it. For instance, in Donna Vorreyer’s poem ‘Siesta,’ there’s a honeycomb and a beekeeper and a ‘honey-voiced song’ and cymbals and beats. I tried to get a beehive and vibrations into the image for her poem. What I love though is that everyone has their interpretations of how they see the connection between the art and the poems.”
There has already been one issue released (sold out) featuring poets Kelli Russell Agodon, Jared Beloff, Lauren Camp, Christopher Citro, Denise Duhamel, Alban Fischer, Dustin Nightingale, Tom Snarsky, Leah Umansky, Donna Vorreyer, and Mary Zhou.
For Writers
For writers interested in contributing to the publication, Wojciechowski is currently the sole editor, but his credentials speak to his expertise, having worked as an editor for Salt Hill and as founder and editor of NightBlock with Erin Mullikin. “I have a lot of experience in the small press world,” Wojciechowski adds, “working as a freelance cover and interior designer for presses and magazines such as Pleiades, Split/Lip, and Deep Vellum. Outside of magazines, I’ve been reading and writing poetry since high school and earned my MFA in 2013.”
Writers can submit works via email during two open submission periods: August 1–November 30 and February 1–May 31. Wojciechowski reads every submission with a response time of three months – “usually sooner,” he says. “This isn’t so hard since submissions are limited to one poem per contributor and no feedback is provided.”
Advice: Run the Numbers Then Do It
Reflecting on this unique start-up and the lessons it presented, Wojciechowski says, “I learned not to underestimate myself. Initially, I was unsure about starting this magazine. It was a financial and time commitment I wasn’t sure I should take on, and I did not know how people would respond to it. But, almost from the beginning, the poetry community came through and seemed very excited. The first issue sold out in ten days, which I never could have imagined.
“I guess the lesson I learned is to take a chance. Do some planning (I ran so many numbers before even purchasing the domain), and if you feel like it could be something, don’t sit on it, just give it a shot. I had the idea at the beginning of August, and by mid-December, I was holding the first issue in my hand.”
Future Issues and Collections
Still so fresh and new, Wojciechowski is already planning out Postcard’s future. “The number one goal is to keep going, issue-by-issue,” he says. “I’m going to increase the print run for issue 2 after the response to issue 1. Recently I thought about doing one-off postcards in between issues where the proceeds could be donated to a charity. One thing I would love to do is, in a few years when I have five issues completed, print a full-color book that collects those 50 postcards. Each spread would have the poem and the art it inspired. I don’t know how possible that will be money-wise, but as someone who loves to design books, it’s a dream.”
