Every Sunday night, writers, artists, photographers and others dedicated to creating a literary magazine from Kalamazoo gather at The Strutt.
In the soft light of the dark paneled downtown bar, they talk about how the current issue is going, brainstorm solutions if something is not coming together, and build each new edition piece-by-piece as they create a showcase for the area's emerging and established artists.
Not content to be one more literary magazine on the newsstand,
Asylum Lake has a mission.
"We’re here to help artists get out of the basement," says poetry editor Rose Swartz. She explains a visiting friend who met a number of local artists was perplexed by their attitude: "They’re so darn proud of being hermits. What’s up with that?" was the question the guest posed.
"We’re the bridge between the established and the not-yet-established artist, the ones who are unsure of how to the next step to establish himself," Joe Costello says. Costello and Swartz share poetry editor responsibilities for Asylum Lake.
As street team member Calvin Green puts it, Asylum Lake provides a channel for local talent. "It takes information and channels it in a way that comes together so that we get out what we give; it's reciprocal. And it’s gorgeous."
The editors say over the past year they’ve seen the development of an informal network through their work.
"Every time another artist finds out about another group through Asylum Lake and goes off an makes another connection, that’s a milestone," Editor in Chief Nicholas Hampton says.
The meetings at The Strutt are where it begins. They’re a place to talk over the merits of certain work, to discuss what’s going wrong and the easiest way to fix it. As part of the process, the meetings also offer critique that helps those involved grow.
Supple is the word Costello uses to describe Asylum Lake and the process that creates it. Think of something that bends or moves easily and gracefully, something flexible.
"Every issue comes with it’s own unique challenges," Costello says. But it comes together, it develops structure, by first letting it be supple. "You have to allow that to happen."
Swartz says interviews for the poetry section, for example, are done in a casual way that sheds light on the poet’s work by going beyond the poems and letting the conversation go where it wants to.
Regular features in each edition typically include music, fashion, poetry, food, fiction, visual arts and movies. Most sections have two editors. Often a graphic novel is featured.
A recent issue featured the surreal artwork of Ian Dickerson, poetry from local writer and national award winner Nancy Eimers, Dante’s rings of hell reinterpreted through McDonald’s golden arches by food editor Matt Dumas, an interview with Rosie Ferocious of the Killamazoo Derby Darlins by AM Jackson and a spread on the transformation that comes with tattoos by Joe Costello.
"A Brief Conversation With A Time Traveling Robot About the Future" tells the tale of a 9 year old who learns the future from a robot in exchange for cigarettes, by Benjamin David Hooper. Josh Boardman’s story "Dream of Fish" creates a dream world of circling wolves and a girl in a dress of "sequin scales." In "One Man’s Junk", by Edward Rogge, two characters search through what appears to be an apocalypse-era junk yard till one decides: "Some things are not lost; they were never meant to be found."
Asylum Lake celebrates its one year anniversary Dec. 2 at
The Strutt, 773 West Michigan Ave. The event that gets under way at 9 p.m. will be hosted by Double Phelix and feature bands including Elk Welcome, Aaron Young and His Nightjars, and Lasso.
The party also celebrates the arrival of a new edition, the sixth, which includes works from notable authors such as Denise Miller of Fire and National Book Award finalist Bonnie Jo Campbell.
Bucking conventional wisdom that print is dead, a proposition that riles its editors, Asylum Lake now is only available in paper. Editors recently learned the publication is being sold in a bookstore in Detroit by someone who apparently visited Kalamazoo, purchased copies and took them for their customers. In the coming year, the publication will not only increase its print distribution, it expects to develop a website. It already has spun off a
printing business.
Certain aspects of the publication still are developing. "I don’t think we know what it’s all about yet. It’s an evolution," says Hampton.
"We try really hard to seek out established and not-established artists" to provide a venue not otherwise available, Costello says.
Whether the content continues to be contributed only by Michiganders is under debate.
The editors agree, however, that safe is not something they want to be. An example is a poem on a foot fetish that's underlying message is about acceptance made it into the pages of Asylum Lake. A haunting piece on rape from the rapist’s perspective so far has not.
The publication wants to be for the open-minded and people who want to open their minds.
"If you walk into a store and pick it up it expands your range of discovery," says art director Brittany Bauman.
And while the publication does not avoid the raw, the editor also does not want it to be dark.
"It’s supposed to be fun to read; to make you happy," Hampton says.
"That’s why we meet at a bar, to drink beer and talk ideas," says Bauman.
Kathy Jennings is the Editor of Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave. She is a freelance writer and editor.
All of those who work on Asylum Lake also have day jobs or are in school. Some of those who make Asylum Lake possible and their backgrounds: Visual Art Editor Brittany Bauman sends the texts that gets everyone rounded up each week and keeps the books in addition to designing each edition of the publication. She attended Rochester Institute of Technology for advertising photography and Kalamazoo Valley Community College for graphic design. Poetry Editor Joe Costello, a telecommunications and information graduate is now pursuing his master’s in English at Western Michigan University. Editor, founder and poet Nicolas James Hampton, attended Michigan State University and has been published 13 times in the past two years. Prose Editor Brishen Miller has a degree in theater from WMU and is a director at Fancy Pants Theater downtown Kalamazoo. Poetry Editor Rose Swartz has a bachelor’s degree in English and a BFA in photography from WMU and an MFA in Poetry from Arizona State University. Street team member, responsible for getting the word out about Asylum Lake, Calvin Green.
Photos by Erik Holladay.
Jeremy Quentin, left, and Joe Costello of Asylum Lake Magazine.
Jeremy Quentin is a contributing writer to Asylum Lake.
Asylum Lake Poetry Editor Joe Costello.