Forward thinking

It’s probably safe to say that you’re aware of a few places on campus where you can find the writing of fellow Portland State students—hell, you’re reading one such publication right now.

The clamorous refrain of “Print is dead!” has become so ubiquitous as to be cliche, and though it’s continually been disproven, the phrase does address a vital concern in the publishing world: In a market fractured and ultimately transformed by new media, how do you reach your readers?

That is one of the questions that PSU’s graduate publishing program and its student-run publishing house, Ooligan Press, hope to anwer with this Thursday’s event, the debut installment of the Transmit Culture: A Series of Conversations about Publishing lecture series.

Transmit Culture seeks to address an overall stagnation in readership by cultivating an awareness of the present state of the publishing industry and looking forward to new ideas and solutions in publishing and marketing.

Doors will open for the series’ first guest, former McSweeney’s co-publisher Eli Horowitz, at 6:30 p.m. An opening reception inviting guests to mingle and enjoy refreshments will be followed by the discussion at 7:30 p.m.

Ooligan Press graduate students Sarah Soards and Lorna Nakell are confident that Horowitz’s involvement exemplifies the department’s commitment to forward thinking.Horowitz’s conversation with PSU writing professor and acclaimed nonfiction author Paul Collins will feature a freeform structure to allow a wide variety topics to emerge.

“It’s basically going to be a Q-and-A between Ian and Paul about what they’ve done and how the publishing world is changing,” Soards said. “And, to be honest, we’re not really sure what’s going to be talked about, and that’s really exciting. It’s going to be a big surprise.”

“And then it’s going to be opened up to the audience to ask questions,” Nakell added, highlighting the point of the series. After the event, the audience will be able to apply the concepts to their own work.

Nakell conceived of the series after noticing a lack of communication between readers, the industry and even her classmates in other departments at PSU. She saw an opportunity to get people into the classroom to share and discuss alternative methods—an idea that the department eventually threw its weight behind.

“We needed to connect more to the community, and see how the publishing world [is] changing,” Nakell said. “And to…get feedback on our publishing practices.”

Publishing students eagerly anticipate Horowitz’s arrival since his answers and insights may provide clues about the next era of publishing, which students can then apply to their own career choices.

“The exciting thing about Eli is that he’s gone from a pretty structured publishing house to…his own company with [fellow ex-McSweeney’s employees Chris Ying and Russell Quinn],” Soards said. “So that’ll be something really important, seeing Eli’s transference from something so structured to something that he’s completely built up from the ground. How we can take some of those elements that he’s put into his company and adopt them as our own?”

Horowitz spent eight years at McSweeney’s, the acclaimed San Francisco-based publishing house founded by publishing cult icon Dave Eggers, where he was a managing editor and then publisher.

The experience gave Horowitz a familiarity with the industry few ever have a chance at, as well as opportunities to work with literary stars like Michael Chabon and Nick Hornby. Now, Horowitz applies that knowledge to his own digital publishing firm, Ying, Horowitz & Quinn, which experiments with technological storytelling.

His involvement in the event comes at a time when Ooligan Press students, as well as many other publishing houses, are examining their own processes for new media and other emerging types of communication. Has it become so important to take back control of the presses?

“Publishing is shaping the way we look at things right now, the way we think and speak,” Nakell said. And for every tidbit of added understanding, more questions arise for publishers.

“How do we deal with this new wave of communication? And how do we still be a part of it and also grow and transform, while still being true to our mission statement and still…making these innovative pieces of art?” Soards asked.

Soards and Nakell are aware, of course, that most of these quandaries won’t be answered in a single evening, but the discussion and questions posed at the event are vital and well worth hashing out.

After all, if publishing can really shape lives, as Nakell says, I’d sure like to know the answer to Soards’ question.

“How do we move forward?”