A Common Pornography: A Memoir

Read on 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 (Cafe 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 cafe 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, becomes a local sensation and is bought by Harper Tempest. An expanded version of her book comes out in 2003. The chapbook is the bestselling title I’ve ever published.

“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 chapbook is the bestselling title I’ve ever published.

2002: Another Future Tense release, Grosse Pointe Girl by Sarah Grace McCandless, a book edited by Ritah (who also has two books released on Future Tense), is bought by Simon & Schuster.

Ritah and I get divorced.

The first version of A Common Pornography comes out. I start corresponding with a girl named Barb, who reads parts of the book on the McSweeney’s website.

2003: Barb moves from Los Angeles to Portland, and romance blooms. She moves into “Future Tense Headquarters.”

Haiku Inferno—a “performance group” consisting of me, Barb (a.k.a. Frayn Masters), Elizabeth Miller, and Frank D’Andrea—debuts and performs at various events for the next several years. A book (copublished by Future Tense and Portland’s Crack Press) comes out five years later.

Controversial sex writer Susannah Breslin’s book, You’re a Bad Man, Aren’t You?, comes out in a limited paperback release and quickly sells out.

Happy Ending by Mike Topp, our first New York writer, is released.

We also win our second Literary Arts fellowship this year.

2004: I bravely try my hand at a special fold-out chapbook, a collection of dirty poems by Shane Allison called Black Fag. It’s a tricky production (and maybe not entirely successful due to my folding), but it becomes a hit among queer poetry fans.

2005: I team up with legendary San Francisco publisher Manic D Press to start a paperback imprint through them, simply called the Future Tense series. An anthology, The Insomniac Reader, is the first release.

2006: Fast Forward: Confessions of a Porn Screenwriter by Playboy writer and Believer editor Eric Spitznagel is the second book copublished with Manic D Press.

A chapbook by Tao Lin is scheduled for summer before I pull the plug on the project due to editing concerns. The resulting ballyhoo is discussed heatedly on lit blogs for the rest of the year before Tao moves on to Melville House (we’ve since become friendly again).

2007: Dahlia Season by Myriam Gurba, the third book through Manic D Press, wins the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction.

Elizabeth Ellen’s debut, Before You She Was a Pit Bull, comes out to the delight of short story fans.

After many years of e-mailing about it, Partial List of People to Bleach, a chapbook by Gary Lutz (who is probably my favorite writer ever), is released.

Also after many years, we finally unveil a logo: a long stapler image.

“After many years, we finally unveil a logo: a long stapler image.

2008: After many years of criticizing the shoddy print-on-demand industry, I realize that