Frank Stanford Chapbook Assignment
I visited the University of Arkansas Libraries’ Special Collections to view Frank Stanford’s first edition books one afternoon during the Frank Stanford Literary Conference . I took some pictures and shared some Power Point slides with creative writing students at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Students wrote short responses about differences between Stanford’s first editions and the reprints for homework. The next class meeting we had a discussion that inspired a creative writing assignment: a chapbook.
The Singing Knives
Lost Roads Press reissued The Singing Knives in 2008. The jacket shows a photo by Susan Banks, who became a photographer at age sixty. “The Banks image, pastoral yet shadowy, fits with Frank Stanford’s poetry,” one student wrote. I couldn’t put it better. The book’s title and the author’s name appear as bold white print on the cover’s lower right quadrant. The book feels slick and its size is a tad smaller than the first edition.
The Mill Mountain Press published the first edition of The Singing Knives, a blue chapbook that has a cloth-like texture, in 1971. Across the top of its cover the title and author’s name appear as skinny black print. Original artwork — a two color print — adorns the book cover. A self portrait drawing of Frank Stanford that is not attributed to anyone* appears on the frontispiece. Students got a kick out of the bio on the first edition’s last page; for one thing, it shows Stanford’s birth year as 1949 instead of 1948.
Both editions include the same acknowledgements for publications in which individual poems previously were published. One student felt driven to ask about publishing poetry after seeing the acknowledgements page. We discussed different avenues of publication that poets use and we searched online for where Frank Stanford sent his poems.
You
The re-release of You by Lost Roads Press is a lot like their copy of The Singing Knives, size-wise, feel-wise, and look-wise. The newer copy of You also showcases a Susan Banks photo. A couple students’ responses linked the horse image to a scene in Stanford’s movie, It Wasn’t A Dream: It Was A Flood.
In contrast, the first edition of You uses a photo of a woman on a bed. The photo is accredited to Richard Albertine. One student read Albertine’s Wikipedia page and asked about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), where Albertine went to graduate school. Students seemed surprised that M.I.T. offers art and literature studies.
Assignment
In class the students and I discussed similarities and differences between editions. The books brought us to new names, i.e. Banks and Albertine, and inspired discussions about reading, writing, publishing, going to graduate school and making books. Through these class discussions about Stanford’s The Singing Knives and You, CSUN students then went on to create their own chapbooks, using various modes of artistic expression.
The chapbook assignment:
- design an original cover
- introduce the writing (no length requirement)
- make a table of contents
- write or type twenty-pages of poetry or prose
- include a short bio (no length requirement)
Students took their chapbooks home before the semester ended. They were made of wood, fabric, paper, cardboard, construction paper, even bottle tops sewn together with wire that held micro written stories inside them. A few alternative creations were allowed. For example, a deejay made a spoken word mix that he played on two turntables and a film major showed a gorgeous, almost five minute film (made with her smartphone) in which she read an Emily Dickinson poem, a Frank Stanford poem, a Richard Jackson poem, and an original poem while she walked around campus— I wish I could get a hold of that student’s film. Everyone shared their work during a class reading. Here are, with their permission, a few examples of student made chapbooks, inspired by our study of Frank Stanford’s work:
Chapbooks are a useful teaching tool, but they can inspire creativity in all people. By creating a chapbook, we learn about the history of poetry and book making and we find new ways to express ourselves. This kind of creative exercise helps us step outside of the digital world and tap back into our physical experience for a while.
*Artworks in other first editions, i.g. Shade, Ladies From Hell, Field Talk, and Arkansas Bench Stone, are attributed to Ginny Crouch Stanford.
Related Links:
Frank Stanford: In His Own Words
Frank Stanford: In Leenus Orth’s Words
The Art Of Imitation In Poetry Between Pablo Neruda & Frank Stanford
Frank Stanford’s The Battle Field Where The Moon Says I Love You Notes
Frank Stanford’s The Battle Field Where The Moon Says I Love You Outline
Conversation About The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You Pt. 1
Conversation About The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You Pt. 2
