Annette  -- I'm curious, where does the art come from?

Marek -- We all pitch in.  I hope you're not asking the existential question, but only about art in Agnieszka's Dowry.  But I'll play wiley and smart -- we all pitch in is a good answer to both questions. 

We also scour the land for artists, some unwittingly bumping into us via spam (their own).  We entice, entice... Ultimately, things glom.  For example, we are negotiating with a Japanese publisher for some cartoon art by a Japanese woman who is well known in Japan but not here -- as cover art for Issue 11.  Stay tuned! 

Annette -- And how are the themes chosen? 

Marek -- They aren't.  They just happen, a lot.  That's a Sue Vega quote.  I'm anticipating one of your questions down the line about being in love with artists.  And Bjork.  Mix.  Serve with ample Halldor Laxness in Magnus Magnusson's translation from the Icelandic. 

As you see from the peripatetic nature of the answer, things just happen, truly, often steered by nothing else than accrual of context. 

Annette -- So what do you hope the reader will take away from this? 

Marek -- Fun!  The reader must take fun and a sense of responsibility for both cohering and detecting coherence.  Fun, truly, in all manner of dimensions. 

Annette -- Would you be willing to take a Rorschach test? Just kidding! 

Marek -- Of course I would take it.  Here...  I see, I see... Iceland!  I think I have Iceland on the brain not coincidentally having spent 9 days in November touring the place in all manner of fancy microweather known as Icelandic winter.  I'm going back in April. 

Annette -- As an editor, what do you think of the plethora of self published books proliferating out there -- many of them available through Barnes and Noble -- and in your opinion, how does a writer's work benefit or suffer when self published? 

Marek -- Imagine your self-published book changing hands, being opened by Gwendolyn Brooks.  She peers intently after exclaiming, that's for me?!  Then she tells you she likes the poem she opened on.  How do you feel?  Would you feel any better if the book was a slick trade paperback?  Likely not.  If anything, the wearing experience of having a book happen would numb you some.  A root canal.  I know, I make books.  I'm a dentist.  (One consequence of adoring Sue and Bjork is that you start talking like an avatar of both.) 

Annette -- You've combined electronic publishing with print publishing in a unique and complementary way. What's next from A Small Garlic Press? 

Marek -- In all candidness, we just want to make ends meet.  It's quite a struggle to have katja in Seattle get her hands around the volume of our mail and be a mom to her year-old kid daughter Sophie.  And we insist on doing everything together on Agnieszka's Dowry.  So, long periods of nothingness punctuate our short scintillations as a team of editors.  We exhaust each
other and ourselves in 100-email marathons going through we regret, we regret.  I am convinced that the next thing from a Small Garlic Press is an impolite or nasty letter to some poor soul who just happened to be number 147 in 345 and they too want to be published.  And we make it easy, accepting around the clock, and in email.  In fact, if it weren't for katja's steel nerves and velvet glove as a polite human being, we would probably haven already seen an assassinated Marek.  I have a mouth on me. 

If we get through this year publishing 3 AgD chapbooks, I'll feel happy. 

Annette -- You mentioned something (on your website) about the text being available, soon, electronically. Care to elaborate? 

Marek -- Having a huge backlog does not put a damper on our rich fantasy life, you see.  We think we have it in us to innovate and get into e-books.  We are also forever toying with the idea of releasing all that we are on CD-ROM. Ah, the time, the time.  It just never happens. 

Annette -- What book (other than Agnieszka's Dowry of course -- *grin*), movie, music or play are you so wildly in love with right now that you feel compelled to recommend it to our readers? 

Marek -- I stole my own thunder (kids, don't try this at home) -- but I never cease to amaze myself with Jane Siberry, the independent musician and composer out of Toronto, or travel.  I think going places, as nearby as Grand Rapids, Michigan is to Chicago, and seeing new brick buildings or old brick buildings in new cities is eye-opening stuff.  Like David Byrne says in his film "True Stories", when you go to a new place he amazes himself with how the light looks, or the feel of the door handles, or stuff like that.  This is refreshing stuff in a mental sense.  Sitting at a keyboard editing mail nonstop IS the death of Usenet.  Getting out some is its rebirth.  I love aggregating new experiences and faces in real life -- and keeping old flames, like Jane Siberry, going, occasionally bursting with wonderment and ecstasy that someone else knows whom I am talking about.  Stuff like that.  Oh yes, everyone should listen to Bjork's "Homogenic", "Gling-Glo" and "Post" albums.  And go to Iceland! 

Annette -- Is there anything else you'd like to add? 

Marek -- This is fun, but it would be even more fun to do it over real tea in a real room.  But then, who would type it all in? I see! You are wiley and smart as well! 

Annette -- Isn't this the best interview you've ever had? ;) 

Marek -- It is true, I don't get to run off at the mouth on command often enough, and so I am likely to take each and every opportunity as the best. *laugh*