Janet Kuypers Scars/Chicago Poet, Editor, Publisher
Tell us about yourself-where you are from, education or lack of, family roots, some background.
I have lived in the Chicago area all of my life. My parents lived in Chicago, and my dad took over my grandfather’s construction company (makes sense, my Dutch family with its history of architecture and building). My parents then moved south and raised me in Palos (south of Chicago). I went to Carl Sandburg High School with honors, went to University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign (started as a computer science engineer, but switched to news/editorial Journalism with a minor in photography and specialty coursework in poetry). As a Dutch girl and a photographer, I love photographing buildings, and I love living in Chicago, having a great skyline, with beautiful architecture… I chose to live in Andersonville, but I mostly lived in Logan Square until after marrying my husband John, where we moved north to Gurnee. Even though we live up north now, I prefer to be in Chicago whenever I can.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Probably in the first year of college, where I was taking engineering calculus courses, but dealing with everything from exploring life to any traumas, I always chose to write things down.
How long have you been writing? Elaborate, not just yes, no.
How long have you been writing? Elaborate, not just yes, no.
The first poem I wrote was for a class when I was nine, and later it was published in READ magazine. I then wrote rhyming poetry for a few years, until I realized that you should not have to rhyme to tell something worthwhile to the world.
Have you always wanted to be a published writer? Elaborate, not just yes, no.
I designed chapbooks to give away a record stores and book stores in college, but after graduating I knew I couldn’t just print and give away my writing in stores, so I started submitting writing to other magazines (and being a nobody in the underground literary world, I was rejected a lot). I would get the magazines I submitted to, and saw editors who just rejected me published IN these magazines, so I thought… Wait a minute, I am a designer, and I can design a magazine (and maybe not be a literary "nobody". So, after I had started Scars Publications (http://scars.tv) and published my first book ("Hope Chest in the Attic", of poetry, prose and art), I decided to publish a new magazine: cc&d ("Children, Churches and Daddies" – the UN-religions, NON-family oriented literary and art magazine, http://scars.tv/ccd).
I designed chapbooks to give away a record stores and book stores in college, but after graduating I knew I couldn’t just print and give away my writing in stores, so I started submitting writing to other magazines (and being a nobody in the underground literary world, I was rejected a lot). I would get the magazines I submitted to, and saw editors who just rejected me published IN these magazines, so I thought… Wait a minute, I am a designer, and I can design a magazine (and maybe not be a literary "nobody". So, after I had started Scars Publications (http://scars.tv) and published my first book ("Hope Chest in the Attic", of poetry, prose and art), I decided to publish a new magazine: cc&d ("Children, Churches and Daddies" – the UN-religions, NON-family oriented literary and art magazine, http://scars.tv/ccd).
When do you write? When do you not?
If an idea comes into my head, I will work on it right away if I have the chance, but if life gets in the way, I may scribble a note down and work on something when I get the chance. Sometimes, since I run a regular Chicago poetry/performance art open mic (http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe), I may hear something that inspires me… I cannot devote time to an idea when I have to go to the stage regularly to call up open mic poets or monitor my video recording of features or open micas for our weekly podcast – so I may jot a note down so I can devote more time to the idea when I get the chance.
What resources online (include links and websites) help you most as a writer? What resources who you suggest for beginning writers? I consider this question important since all need new sources to help us find publishers, forums, etc.
What resources online (include links and websites) help you most as a writer? What resources who you suggest for beginning writers? I consider this question important since all need new sources to help us find publishers, forums, etc.
When I started, I used the Poet’s Market and Dustbooks publications, because when I started there was no real online world… U of I was one of the founders of Internet work when I went there -- and since I run my own magazine, I have no time to look for other magazines, and just post my magazine out anywhere I happen to find on the web.
Is being a writer/poet anything like you imagined it would be? Elaborate, not just yes, no.
"Being" a writer/poet? I never "imagined" it as anything, and for most people, being a writer/poet is not a full-time job. You have to WORK somewhere, to pay bills. Being a writer/poet is what you CHOOSE to do in your spare time.
Being a writer/poet DOES allow you to get your thoughts out there to the world (even if nobody reads it, you at least feel like you’ve done something with the thoughts racing through your mind).
Have you figured out a way of making money as a writer or poet? Elaborate, not just yes, no.
Since I run Scars Publications, it costs money (and TIME). I host the domain and all of the on line features for the two magazines I run there (cc&d, and its spin-off, "Down in the Dirt") as well as the audio/video work I publish there (since I also video record and broadcast all of my features and performances throughout Chicago or on the road). Book publishing (and the magazines are also 84 page perfect-bound books) costs time and money. Sometimes people pay for things that may come close to breaking even, but…
I also run the poetry open mic "the Café Gallery", and it costs me time and gas money for the work, so it is never a money-making venture, but the question becomes this: is it worth it to spend your time this way? Are you happy with your final product, even if you’re not living off the royalties? I have never submitted my writing to somewhere that would pay for my writing. Since I publish my own work most of the time through Scars Publications, publishing work costs ME money.
I jokingly say things like "cc&d s my baby" -- it’s approaching its 20 year anniversary issue, and I have kept that magazine running through everything in my life – including almost being killed in a car accident. After re-learning how to walk, and talk, and eat, I got out of the hospital and wanted to do something with cc&d, because THAT was my lifeline to the world.
I also run the poetry open mic "the Café Gallery", and it costs me time and gas money for the work, so it is never a money-making venture, but the question becomes this: is it worth it to spend your time this way? Are you happy with your final product, even if you’re not living off the royalties? I have never submitted my writing to somewhere that would pay for my writing. Since I publish my own work most of the time through Scars Publications, publishing work costs ME money.
I jokingly say things like "cc&d s my baby" -- it’s approaching its 20 year anniversary issue, and I have kept that magazine running through everything in my life – including almost being killed in a car accident. After re-learning how to walk, and talk, and eat, I got out of the hospital and wanted to do something with cc&d, because THAT was my lifeline to the world.
What inspires you to write and do you remember the exact moment you knew you wanted to be a writer?
Any strong feeling, the kinds of feelings you feel you cannot keep bottled up, those feeling may me want to write. When I get emotionally involved with anything (and trust me, I’m not the first to tell you that I’m an emotional person), often just "thinking" about something and letting it then go away is not an option.
For a writer, the decision of "becoming" a writer is not a choice. To me, it seems strange to consider the question of people who seriously "decide" to write poetry… I think on some levels it is something ingrained in your head, it is a part of who you are.
Who are notable authors who have influenced your writing?
In my schooling, I liked Ai’s "the Good Shepherd", and I loved the Carolyn Forche prose poem "the colonel" (I actually have small print laminated copies of both of those pieces in my wallet). And as a writer, I love Ayn Rand.
Do you follow a strict writing schedule or just write when the spirit hits you?
When you want to write, you will.
Though I have to say, sometimes you make a point (when you know you have the time for it) to dedicate yourself to writing things… This past year I have decided to start writing a poem for every element in the Periodic Table, and when we vacationed at Christmas, I decided to write, and wrote 8 pieces (when I am not inspired, I may think to write one every week or two).
Though I have to say, sometimes you make a point (when you know you have the time for it) to dedicate yourself to writing things… This past year I have decided to start writing a poem for every element in the Periodic Table, and when we vacationed at Christmas, I decided to write, and wrote 8 pieces (when I am not inspired, I may think to write one every week or two).
(I don’t know where this Periodic Table poetry idea came from, but you can do a lot with writing about both elements you know, like oxygen or hydrogen, as well as with elements even scientists can’t know much about, which allows for tons of literary creativity. When I write all of the elements into poems, they will become a book of "the Periodic Table of Poetry"; I only introduce new Periodic Table poems in readings at poetry features of mine. Everyone who hears it thinks it is a great idea; I just have to keep working on poems for my next feature in a few months… http://www.janetkuypers.com/kuypers/poems/periodic-table-of-poetry.htm)
What stimulates or motivates you to write: nature, human events, a little wine or vodka, or did I miss something?-this is a being honest with yourself question. Where/how do you find the most inspiration?
Because I usually write about feeling, usually brought on by other people, human events or one-on-one actions are what inspire me to write. Even with element poems, I often ascribe personality characteristics to elements, and think of someone I know to get emotions about the characteristics of an element across in a poem.
People deal with people most in their lives, so most of the time people’s actions inspire me to write. I mean, in the past I have written poems about environmentalism or nature, but often it is in light of what humans are doing to the environment.
What type of stories, poetry, and/or fiction do you like to read, imitate, or write?
Because I am the editor of two magazines (and listen to poets at my open mic), I have had no time in decades to think of finding other people’s stories to imitate. Besides, I would rather write in my own style.
If you had to choose, what would you say are the two best poems, flash fiction, or short stories you have ever written to this date? Would you like to share a link to those works-or send them the works themselves to my email? Send personal photo if available.
Well, one of the poems is a strong one, about dealing with a loved one who just died, called "Death Takes Many Forms". I wrote that a day or two after someone died, and I was on the other side of a country and could not even get in town for any funeral services.
Scars Publications printed its first book "Hope Chest in the Attic" through a local printer that I worked with in my first job. When I first started publishing annual collection books of cc&d writings, Internet printers did not really exist (the Internet barely existed), so I used printers for books. I have not dealt with formal printers like this since learning about printers like lulu circa 2005. (I would not deal with a printer that asks for money for publishing your book for you. I publish books; I should not pay someone else to do the work I do.) Well, one of the poems is a strong one, about dealing with a loved one who just died, called "Death Takes Many Forms". I wrote that a day or two after someone died, and I was on the other side of a country and could not even get in town for any funeral services.
Coming up with a second one, that is tough. I like older shorter poems like "the Burning" because they deal with acquaintance rape issues (as I worked as an acquaintance rape counselor and workshop facilitator for years and designed ads and brochures for the C.A.R.E. organization in Champaign IL,
…But more human interaction pieces like "Fantastic Car Crash" are good. I wrote this after driving around the country, 10 days before I was almost killed in that car accident while stopped at an intersection, http://www.janetkuypers.com/kuypers/poems/1998-1st-half/fantastic-car-crash.htm.
However, one short story, "crazy", should be on this list. "Crazy" is an exploration of women’s issues through the psychotic ramblings of a convicted killer, http://www.janetkuypers.com/kuypers/prose/1994/crazy.htm,
and when I performed it once as an impromptu feature, the host later said, "I think it’s one of the best features I’ve ever seen (Kuypers) do. Truly outstanding."
and when I performed it once as an impromptu feature, the host later said, "I think it’s one of the best features I’ve ever seen (Kuypers) do. Truly outstanding."
What’s your opinion on self-publishing as opposed to traditional publishing? Please list for our readers the publisher(s), POD (print on demand) or self publishing you use or have used. If use have used traditional publishers who are they? Give us a sense of your personal experience and attitudes toward them. Please understand there is a difference between POD publisher who request money to publish you i.e. iUniverse, etc and those like Lulu.com and CreateSpace.com where you publish yourself and edit yourself. How do you feel about traditional publishers?
Lulu is a great printer (and they allow magazines to be printed without an ISBN# if you have your own ISSN#, like I do for my magazines). Lulu also is the only printer I know that will also print spiral-bound books, which was perfect for getting my fourth book formally printed, when the first print run of "(woman.)" was a spiral-bound book and I wanted to preserve that for the printing of "(woman.)". Scars Publications also used to print annual wall calendars, but decided to change gears starting in 2012 and print annual date book calendars (where we place a poem on the left-hand page and a week of the calendar on the right-hand page), which for me personally has been great for 2012 and 2013.
The only real problem with Lulu is that it is primarily for U.S. sales, and CreateSpace is directly linked with http://www.amazon.com, which is great for people to find the book through Amazon (even though it costs more money for something to be purchased THROUGH Amazon, versus directly through the CreateSpace printer). CreateSpace can also sell their books to the U.K. and to continental Europe through the Amazon web sites (which is nice for a person who published collection books with people’s writing from the U.K. or Europe, like I do).
Are you trying anything new: video's on line, MP3 audio files, any particular writing forums that attract you? Please list their names, websites and links. (If you have any helpful, interesting sites, forums, where to find new publishers, etc. for writers-be sure to include the name and websites-I think this type of sharing helps us all)
I have never used forums, because I do not like to randomly post material up like that (in places where I get no genuine feedback or publishing rights)… Still, as an artist I try to get my writing out to the world in as many forms as I can. After doing regular performance art shows, I added PowerPoint displays of my photography and art reflecting my writing, videos on screens, accompanying music… Sometimes I would have one camera on my face so it could be instantly showing me on a nearby TV set. Poetry venue host Charlie Newman even nicknamed me the "Queen of Multimedia", and I think I do this because I want to make everything I do as memorable as it can be.
I have a YouTube page (http://www.youtube.com/ccandd96) and even have older longer videos on the Internet Archive (http://archive.org/search.php?query=janet%20kuypers) and I have videos on "Poetry Visualized" (http://www.poetryvisualized.com/media/2536/the_Janet_Kuypers_show_/, including its once-posted award-winning "Too Far" video). I started a twitter account so I could start generating twitter-length poems (http://twitter.com/janetkuypers), but now it is links to my YouTube page, and many video links go there too. My Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com.janetkuypers) always post links to videos, open mics and shows, and the banner on my page lists details on my next feature.
I publish books through Scars Publications, and I have read poetry and been interviewed on Chicago radio regularly. I used to post free mp3 files on line as well… But now I release many CDs (CD singles or performance art CDs or book audio CDs or compilation live CDs) for sale at online locations like iTunes or Amazon, eMusic, Nokia, Rhapsody, Sprint, T Mobile music and a ton more).
My most recent venture has been to get some of my poetry translated into other languages for book release. (I have transitions and worked on Serbian translation poetry with an American now living there, but I have not heard from them in 8 months, so I fear a book it currently stalled). People who know other languages ask me why I want my English poetry in other languages; English is the most common language in the world, and I am not sure what my answer is. I think I look for other ways for my poetry to be known -- and after all I have done, having my poetry translated into other languages in books sounds like a wonderfully enticing global step for my work to take.
By what methods or sources are you trying to market your works with? Do you find marketing your works for exposure easy or difficult? Please list their names, websites and links.
I do not usually try to market myself; I just do what I do. People can see my name everywhere if they look, and I think I got tired of looking for places to pay attention to me. I just do my own thing (and keep quite busy doing it).
I have a YouTube page (http://www.youtube.com/ccandd96) and even have older longer videos on the Internet Archive (http://archive.org/search.php?query=janet%20kuypers) and I have videos on "Poetry Visualized" (http://www.poetryvisualized.com/media/2536/the_Janet_Kuypers_show_/, including its once-posted award-winning "Too Far" video). I started a twitter account so I could start generating twitter-length poems (http://twitter.com/janetkuypers), but now it is links to my YouTube page, and many video links go there too. My Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com.janetkuypers) always post links to videos, open mics and shows, and the banner on my page lists details on my next feature.
I publish books through Scars Publications, and I have read poetry and been interviewed on Chicago radio regularly. I used to post free mp3 files on line as well… But now I release many CDs (CD singles or performance art CDs or book audio CDs or compilation live CDs) for sale at online locations like iTunes or Amazon, eMusic, Nokia, Rhapsody, Sprint, T Mobile music and a ton more).
My most recent venture has been to get some of my poetry translated into other languages for book release. (I have transitions and worked on Serbian translation poetry with an American now living there, but I have not heard from them in 8 months, so I fear a book it currently stalled). People who know other languages ask me why I want my English poetry in other languages; English is the most common language in the world, and I am not sure what my answer is. I think I look for other ways for my poetry to be known -- and after all I have done, having my poetry translated into other languages in books sounds like a wonderfully enticing global step for my work to take.
After seeing
some videos you have online, we saw that there were mostly poem readings –
though some include music accompanying your readings. Some videos were of you
singing, and I think there was one where you played the guitar. Do you regularly incorporate music into your
poetry? Or do you ever sing in your
performances?
It is funny that I started writing
early, but as I got older, I started singing all the time too. I sang in college in performances, and I got
an acoustic guitarist or two to join me in an acoustic alternative band (that
the guitarist named) “Mom’s Favorite Vase”. I sang at clubs in Chicago for years (mostly
covers), playing once at a political fundraiser with members of “Poi Dog
Pondering”, and once having the Grateful Dead cover Band “Uncle John’s Band”
open for us at an event in Chicago. Since
then I have sung (with my very talented guitarist husband John) in Chicago,
Pennsylvania and on a boat in the Pacific performing for people from the
States, Canada, Austria and Ecuador, and we did a show in Fairbanks, Alaska.
When it comes to my poetry and
music, I really DO try to make live poetry readings more than just readings. I find musicians while running Scars
Publications over the Internet, so I sometimes ask them to share their music
with my poem readings. Because of this I
have had musicians music with my poetry from the Nashville area, and a formal
musician from South Africa have given me hours upon hours of his music to mix
with my work (so I have released a few CDs of music with both of them).
After
that, I thanked him profusely, and told him that my goal is to make people
think.
We have
talked about your professional writing career, but not about how your personal
life reflects your writing. Tell us something about you personally, that the
world can see in your writing.
By what
methods or sources are you trying to market your works with? Do you find marketing your works for exposure
easy or difficult? Please list their
names, websites and links.
I do not usually try to market
myself; I just do what I do. People can see
my name everywhere if they look, and I think I got tired of looking for places
to pay attention to me. I just do my own
thing (and keep quite busy doing it).
Where can we
find your works? Feel free to show links
or websites.
For writing (other than http://www.janetkuypers.com/kuypers/writing.htm
or http://scars.tv/kuypers/writing.htm):
(And I borrowed a band member’s
guitar and started to learn how to play the guitar years ago, and then I was
almost killed in that near-fatal car accident, and that put a monkey-wrench in
things. My husband even bought me a Fender acoustic when we were engaged, but I
rely more on his playing the guitar now…)
It’s just nice to have music going
along with what moods I try to generate with my written word.
You have done
many poetry features and feature-length shows over the years. What was your
most memorable show, and why?
I did a few shows in Lake Villa that
were approaching an hour in length of my readings with music, but I also had multiple
videos, including one of videos of my drawing
the themes of the words in poems that accompanied my readings, as well as a
camera displaying me on another television screen. After the show “Sexism and
Other Stories”, a man complimented me on the show and told me that it made him
think. I told him I was a little worried
how men would perceive all of these poems, and if this show would easily anger
men. He told me that initially he felt
bothered by it, but then he asked himself why
these poems made him react this way. Then he considered how he called women
nicknames (as one of the poems mentions), and wondered if subconsciously people
were raised to think certain ways toward women. Then he reiterated that this
show really made him think.
I started life as an engineer, so I
am analytical. I like Ayn Rand philosophy, so I am logical. (As a rule, those two things don’t make for a
good poet.) However, that means I think
through every detail – and every emotion – in my life, and I examine all
possibilities when writing my work.
When it comes to that research I do
in life, remember that I am a journalist. I met my husband on the train going to work
one day (right after that accident where I nearly lost most everything in my life),
and I started asking HIM questions, because I wanted to learn about people.
I think after that car crash, I
wrote a lot more about death, and less about problems with relationships,
because I found the man for me – my husband John. Like I said, when I met him, I asked him
questions, and on our first date, half of what we talked about was philosophy.
When it comes to philosophy: I think most people don’t think about
important things throughout their life; they just get busy going through the
motions. (I suppose that’s why I seem to
reflect so much on emotions, and interactions with people, and I let it out in
writing so much.) For a number of years in cc&d I published
“the Boss Lady’s Editorial”... Throughout the 1990s I political and moral
essays (now in two ISBN# books of “the Boss Lady’s Editorials”), then I
published political essays (now in the ISBN# book “Adolph Hitler, O.J. Simpson
and U.S. Politics”). I’ve learned that
if you have something to say, sometimes poetry is not always the best forum for
expressing yourself.
With every experience I go through,
I gain new insights, until I’m driven to share these new ideas and experiences
with the world. And since I want to share this all with everyone, I want to use
every avenue I can to connect and give back to the world.
Editorial Note: In my opinion, in my small travels around the
poetry small press world, as of this time-Janet Kuypers, Scars; and Rick Lupert of Poetry Super Highway have
contributed more to the development of poetry exposure not only of their own
works but those of others than anyone I know.
In my opinion this lady has done as much for exposure for small press and poets as anyone I know.
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