In the Dark

James Deahl is a partner in Mekler & Deahl, Publishers, and the author
of Under the Watchful Eye: Poetry and Discourse, Poetry Markets for
Canadians, and Mix Six.

In the Dark is part information kit for self-publishing poets and part
manifesto. As a source of information, it is comprehensive (areas
covered include ISBN registration, CCIP data, legal deposit, copyright,
listing in Canadian Books in Print, the Canada Council, and royalties).

As a manifesto, it tends to be a bit florid and simplistic. Although
most of the book is written by its editor, the major essay is by Tim
Landers, a poet from Nanaimo, British Columbia, who argues that there
are two poetry scenes: the establishment scene, dominated by professors
who dabble in poetry, and the street scene, consisting of
self-publishing “genuine” poets. In Landers’s black-and-white
view, on the one hand we have the universities, a moribund intellectual
establishment, a tyrannical hierarchy, creative-writing tribunals,
commercial publishers, the League of Canadian Poets (LCP), the Canada
Council, and dead poets. On the other hand, we have self-published
chapbooks, live poets, intellectual anarchy, and writing that is honest,
basic, primitive, and ephemeral. Oddly enough, editor Joe Blades
mentions, on more than one occasion, his position on the LCP’s
National Council.