Maureen Alsop's recent release Later, Knives and Trees is featured on Augury Books Website. Augury, an independent press based in New York City, published Alsop's Mantic in 2013. Read the full text here.
BLOG - Negative Capability Press
An interview with Megan Cary
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Megan Cary
SW: Megan, I want to start in the beginning – that beginning when I was introduced to Claire Evangelista. John Chambers, and I had just finished editing the poems for Whatever Remembers Us: An Anthology of Alabama Literature, and I had a few pictures that my son Jason had taken when we stopped in Montgomery on returning from a trip. I had asked Claire who might design this book and she told me about you.
Whatever Remembers Us Cover, 2007
You were finishing your undergraduate studies at the University of South Alabama. Claire said: “Megan Cary is creative and talented and great to work with. You will work well together" – and indeed that came to pass. We’ve been editing and publishing together now for over seven years.
Was this anthology your first nationally designed book? And what were your thoughts about this adventure?
MC: Yes it was. Actually, because I was an undergraduate design student at the time, it was really my first “official” design job ever for an actual client. I was very excited and nervous. I wanted to do well and create something beautiful that you, the authors and the readers would be pleased with.
SW: Since that auspicious beginning, you have been an integral part of Negative Capability. Thanks to Claire and to Fate, Wyre, or Providence – and especially my gratitude to you Megan. And thank you for designing our fabulous website. But let’s introduce a backstory. Tell us about your interest in art and about you chose art as a career.
MC: For me, there has never really been any other option than art. My earliest memories are sitting with my grandfather at his desk and drawing with him. He was a pastor by trade, but he was also an amazing artist and would spend hours teaching me to draw animals and people while he worked on his sermons.
Megan, age 3, and her grandfather, Rev. Noah E. Johns
In addition to his lessons, my mother enrolled me in art classes through the Community Activities program from a very early age. In fact, I was too young for the more advanced courses but I looked older and was past the point of stick figures. We may or may not have stretched the truth a bit to get me in the better classes.
Computers, from an early age, also fascinated me. I got my first Apple computer around the age of four. I was using a rudimentary form of design software, “Print Shop,” all through my youth, making signs and banners. I guess if you think about it a certain way, I’ve always been a designer. It was a natural career choice, to combine both my love of computers and art when I graduated from high school.
SW: What did you do after your graduation from the University of South Alabama?
MC: After I graduated, I was lucky enough to immediately get a job with Crown Products, a national supplier of promotional products. I was a designer in their marketing department and created ads, catalogs, websites, managed their social media, and even tried my hand at designing bags and drink-ware. I eventually became a Senior Creative with the company before leaving. I will forever be grateful for the opportunities they provided to me; it was a great learning experience, and I made some wonderful friends.
SW: What I always love is stories – the way certain things happen. One of my special memories is the publication of Alexis Saunders' two books, especially the last one when you and I drove to Tampa, Florida to put the book in Alexis' hands. Alexis was a talented young writer who turned to poetry after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. She had given up her job in editing in New York City and returned home to Florida. Alexis’s mother and I had been good friends and travelled the nine months of pregnancy together; we went to the same doctor and delivered our babies within a month of each other. Alexis and my twin sons played together until my move to Mobile, Alabama when the children were two. Stephanie, Alexis’s mother and I kept up with each other through the years – and when Alexis was diagnosed with a glioblastoma, she asked if she could participate in my poetry class blog. She was a dedicated and passionate participant – and I asked Alexis if we could publish her poetry book. We ended up publishing two before Alexis passed away. I was impressed, Megan, with your compassion – and the way you shared my vision of making Negative Capability more than just a means of getting a book into print – namely that of making Negative Capability a home-place for authors, a place where publishing is a shared experience of mutual respect and love.
MC: Thank you Sue, Alexis meant a lot to me. All of the authors I design for do, even though they may not realize it. But Alexis will always have a special place in my heart. She was so strong, compassionate and loving – and extremely talented. I think of her and her family often and miss her very much.
Alexis Saunders
Obituary - Alexis Morgan Saunders (Died March 7, 2010)
Saunders, Alexis Morgan, 34, passed away in the loving arms of her mother on March 7, 2010 after battling brain cancer for almost five years. Alexis was born in Tampa and graduated from Berkeley Preparatory School in 1993 and Vanderbilt University in 1997…read the full obituary
SW: And so you're off to Graduate School. What has your MFA meant to you?
MC: It meant a great deal to me. I was accepted to Savannah College of Art and Design’s graduate program, which was both exciting and daunting. SCAD is a top-ranked design school, which means that the professors and students expect nothing short than the best of out of each other. There were a lot of tears, sleepless nights, and times I questioned my abilities. In the end though, I came out a better designer because I was surrounded and challenged by peers just as passionate about design as I was.
SW: And now you are an Assistant Professor at the University of Mobile. What do you teach? You said you love teaching. Talk a bit about that.
MC: I have always loved learning. The pursuit of knowledge is incredibly important to me, and I realized that I wanted to share that enthusiasm with others. I have been tasked with creating the graphic design program in the Art Department at the University of Mobile. I primarily teach design related classes, though a drawing or painting may be thrown in every once in awhile, which I enjoy.
The best part is that I get to sit down with my students every day, just as my grandfather sat down with me, and share what I’ve learned. I love the University of Mobile because our small classes allow me to give individual attention to each and every student and because of that, we are building a small but mighty community of passionate, talented future designers.
SW: Your book covers, Megan, are amazing. In fact, you have been called a genius. What are two or three of your favorite covers – and what about their evolution?
Thank you, but I think genius might be overstating it a bit. I will say that I believe the fact that I’m an avid reader and I always read the work before I design, gives the covers I make more meaning and impact. It’s hard to pick two of my favorite covers. But if I had to narrow it down, the first would be for Barry Mark’s Sounding.
Sounding cover, 2012
Barry wanted to include a picture of his daughter, who died in a tragic automobile accident and a photograph of a sculpture she had made for him. I struggled with how to incorporate these two in a harmonious manner. After much thought, I realized that what the cover needed was exactly the opposite. It needed to be fractured and broken, like the author’s world after his daughter passed away. What I created was raw and, to be frank, uncomfortable. I was very apprehensive sending it to both you and Barry. I was very relieved when the feedback was positive.
My most recent favorite cover is for Rob Gray’s Jesus Walks the Southland. Rob’s book touches on some sensitive topics in the South – religion, race and politics. Rob had a lot of ideas that he shared with me for the cover, one in particular was the idea of having a Jesus-like figure walking down a country road. I tried this several times and again, it was almost too comfortable for such powerfully questioning material. I merged this idea with the idea of baptism, renewal, purification and transformation. I think it worked well.
Jesus Walks the Southland cover, 2014
SW: Anything I haven’t asked that you would like to mention?
MC: Just that I would like to thank you Sue, for the opportunity that you have given me. Over the last seven years I’ve had a chance to design over twenty books for the press and gain invaluable knowledge about the publishing industry. Also, I’ve made a wonderful friend.
What Others Say about Negative Capability Press
/Maureen Alsop
Thank YOU for the privilege!!! It's an honor to be among your authors and high quality publications. The cadre of writers you support and the high quality books you produce are top shelf! Elegant. Beautiful publications with an eye for detail. The production support has been phenomenal and increasingly generous at every turn. Your press is an exemplary example of what a small press can be at it's very highest potential: a shared vision in supporting the integrity and evolution of literary arts. Ingenious!
John Brugaletta
My book's title, With My Head Rising out of the Water, was a piece of prophecy. The book was not just put together, it was assisted at its birth by two expert midwives, Sue Brannan Walker and Hena Skelton. I gave them the text, and they turned that into a physical book with a cover to dazzle the eye of a browser on Amazon and with pages to carry the reader along on handsome paper and a tasteful typeface.
I wish all my publishing experiences were as happy as this one.
John Chambers
When two of my poems were published in Negative Capability, Vol. XIV, 1994, I was in joy. Later, Negative Capability Press published my A Taste of Wine and Gentian (2000), Collage (2006), andSuite for Stefano and Luisa-Gatta (2012), and I thought that was an unbelievable achievement. Then I was honored when Sue Brannan Walker asked me to co-edit Whatever Remembers Us: An Anthology of Alabama Poetry (2007).
Working with Negative Capability has been a grand experience! I extend my eternal thanks to Sue Brannan Walker and Negative Capability Press!
Diane Garden
Publishing my book Measure to Movements: Poems on Artworks was a challenging task, as the press needed to keep costs down to make the book affordable, but at the same time obtain top- notch photocopies of the art. Sue Walker and Megan, the graphic arts editor, spent a lot of time and effort to obtain these results, which they accomplished. I am forever grateful to them.
Robert Gray
Working with Sue Walker and Megan Cary is quite awesome. I've been humbled and honored to have had three books published by Negative Capability Press. Megan Cary is the best cover designer anywhere. Sheer genius!
Melissa Dickson Jackson
My Medusa collection, Sweet Aegis, began as a private passion, but upon hearing a few of the poems it became one Sue Walker and Negative Capability Press shared. With Negative Capability's support and encouragement, it grew into a book length collection, found a physical form, and was celebrated by writers, editors, and poet-peers. That it exists at all is due to the generosity and foresight of Sue Walker. For that I am ever grateful and ever humbled. To be part of this amazing 35-year journey of one of our country's most enduring small presses is an honor indeed. My hat, my hand, and my love to Sue Walker and her essential, inspiring, and beautiful Negative Capability.
Barry Marks
Challenging yet respectful. Prompt. Caring. Willing to work, creative, committed to excellence, and possessing the talent to push the poet and the work to their full potential.
(At the risk of being precious) Positively capable.
My work is better for having been published by Negative Capability and I can think of no higher praise to give a publisher.
I give Sue Walker and her talented staff my unqualified recommendation. And I thank them.
Clela Reed
While going through the publishing process with Negative Capability, I was reminded often that it was a cooperative venture, that my opinions and preferences mattered. And Sue Walker and her staff were true to their word--even when my wishes may have caused added effort and time. I'm very pleased with the finished product of "our" book!
Sue Scalf
My experience with Negative Capability Press goes back a long way. Sue Walker first published a poem of mine in the same magazine in which she published a poem by our President, Jimmy Carter.
Since then Negative Capability Press has published "Bearing the Print," a full-length collection and "To Stitch a Summer Sky" which encouraged me with a first prize chapbook award, judged by Mary Moran. Both publications were beautifully produced, with striking covers, and both were thoroughly professional and polished presentations. I have always felt the warmth of Sue Walker's personal kindness, love of and support of poets and poetry. Thank you, Sue, for your years of devotion to our chosen art form. I count you a friend and I cannot say enough about all you have done for poets and poetry. Through your efforts and through you, your work, and your boundless and positive energy, your press has received national attention and brought honor to our state.
Pat Schneider
In one sense, my acceptance for publication by Negative Capability Press was the most important of my life, because it was my first acceptance by an established and respected national literary magazine. Just as we can never forget a first love, a writer can never forget a first important publication. [Insert comic element here if you want it — see below] Over the years, Sue Walker accepted more poems and finally published my first autobiographical book, Wake Up Laughing: A Spiritual Autobiography. From the first poem and always, I consider publication by Negative Capability Press to be a joy and an honor.
Pat Schneider, author, ten books including Writing Alone and With Others and How the Light Gets In, both from Oxford University Press.
(Comic and personal addition, if desired, may be inserted:)
[The poem was about one of my daughters. When I told her it would be published, she said the equivalent of “Over my dead body!!” So I had the miserable task of telling the editor that I could not publish the poem after all. To which Sue Walker, the editor, replied, “Oh, I understand! I have two sons! Just send me another poem!” That generosity, combined with an intense care about literary excellence, is a constant with Walker, and with Negative Capability Press.]
I met Sue Walker on a soccer field in Massachusetts. We were introduced by an extraordinary poet and mutual friend, Leo Connellan. I was very unsure of myself as a poet and Sue's interest in publishing my poetry gave me the courage and confidence I needed to put together a manuscript for a book. Without her encouragement, I don't know if I could have ever allowed myself to take the time needed to compile Devil's Lane (Negative Capability Press, 1996). I was working full time as a Professor at Southern Connecticut State University and raising three sons. I felt a constant sense of guilt because I worked rather than staying at home and being a full time mother. So I had great difficulty in allowing myself to do anything that was not strictly work related. I needed to write poetry for emotional reasons but I did not submit much of it for publication because it was too time consuming. In addition to publishing Devil's Lane, Sue also nominated it for a Pulitzer Prize and helped me get reviews in numerous national journals like Chelsea, Quarterly West, Cimarron Review, Puerto del Sol and Birmingham Poetry Review. As a result of my poetry publications, I was named the Connecticut State University Distinguished Professor in 1998, a title I still hold today. The positive critical response to Devil's Lane also enabled me to win the 2000 Faculty Scholar Award from Southern Connecticut State University. This award and the interest in my poems gave me inspiration for new poems and also helped me get grants that supported my writing. In 2000, I was fortunate enough to have Sue Walker publish Fair Haven. The title poem in the collection had won the Ann Stanford Poetry Prize from University of Southern California. The judge was Marge Piercy. Fair Haven was reviewed in 31national literary journals including The Literary Review, Rattle, The Briar Cliff Review, The South Carolina Review, The Chariton Review and Blueline. I continue to write and teach poetry writing full time at SCSU where I was named The Faculty Scholar in 2005 and 2008. I am the only faculty member who has won the award 3 times. Without sons who played soccer, without Leo Connellan, Sue Walker and I might have never met. It's very possible that my life would have been very different because without Sue's confidence in me and my poetry, I suspect I might have become discouraged and never tried to publish my poems. There is no way to say thank you for the gift of so many years filled with friendships with other poets, the opportunity to edit Connecticut Review for many years because I was a poet and the privilege of teaching gifted poetry students for 45 years. Because of her generosity as an editor, her talent as a poet and author, Sue has helped countless others like me find their voice and help keep the creative spirit alive in a world that threatens to drown out song.