I talk a lot about the exposure of process, and about the risk of making mistakes. For the 3rd issue of "Composite: Multiple Translations" I worked with a guest editor, Sholeh Wolpé, who curated the translations of a poem by Forough Farrokhzad. Unfortunately, in our process, I made some crucial mistakes, and so distributed perhaps 10 or 20 copies of the issue that have errors in Sholeh's translation on pages 12 and 13. At her request (and with great contrition and embarrassment) I withdraw that issue, and as soon as possible will correct the error (in the breaks between stanzas, and the loss of italics) and will reprint the issue.
What I learned here is that, having often acted as a maverick publisher, I had insufficient collaborative process. I proofread, edited, did layout, corrected typos, etc., putting in a lot of hard work. However, with a guest editor (and maybe, too, with all the poets in an issue) I should send proofs before I print, rather than rushing to print with my usual impulse towards quick execution, instant gratification, efficiency, and a short attention span.
As a seat-of-the-pants xerox zine, again, I'm not used to operating with that level of formalism. However, I find now, of course, that that's no excuse.
If I gave/sold you a copy of this zine, please email me your name and snail mail address, and I'll send you a new, correct version! (Destroy the old one.)
So, one problem appears to have been in file formats between computers and computer software.
But the other problem was in my lack of collaborative process. I'll try to be better about that.
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