Newspapers / St. Andrews University Student … / May 13, 1983, edition 1 / Page 5
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Bayes Discusses His Career, “The Review ” Ron Bayes, writer-in- residence at St. Andrews col lege and executive editor of the “St. Andrews Review,” has been writting and editing for well over half his life. In spired by a high school fascina tion with William Butler Yeats, Dylan Thomas and T.S. Eliot, Bayes decided on his lifelong vocation while he was enrolled at Eastern Oregon State. While at Eastern Oregan State, Bayes was the editor of the school’s literary magazine, newspaper and annual. It was through these experiences that Bayes felt that he sould pursue a career in English and education. After graduation from Eastern Oregon, Bayes serv ed a brief military stint in Iceland then went to the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied for his doc torate under a Woodrow Wilson National Scholar ship. After Pennsylvania, Bayes returned to his alma mater to teach Journalism. It was dur ing this time that Bayes became seriously interested in literary magazines. While teaching, Bayes doubled as advisor to the same magazine he edited a few years earlier. In his stay at Eastern Oregon State Bayes became an associate of the Black Moun tain school of writers and Carolyn Kizer, a renowned poet and frequent con tributor to the “Review.” Bayes has been at St. An drews since 1969. He found ed the “Review” in 1970, and the St. Andrews’ Writer’s Forum a few years later. Besides being the chief editor for the “Review” Bayes is also affiliated with several other literary magazines around the world. He is a foreign editor for “Subterranean’s” magazine based in Japan and is the consulting editor to the “West Coast Review based in Canada. He is also on the advisory board of South Carolina Arts Council and has held the same positon in North Carolina. The “Review”, which is Bayes’s main project, has received several grants from the National Endowments for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council and Coordinating Council for Literary Magazines, which is ® autonomous subcommittee of the National Endowments for the Arts. Bayes, who is the author 0 thirteen books, has won several awards. He won the KoMoake-Chuan Prize, which 's the North Carolina poetry and has just recently awarded the Diploma of Merit by the Italian Academy for his contribu tions to modern poetry. Ron Bayes “If we had a paid editor and paid staff we could put out a quality magazine every ihonth and still turn away good people.” Lide: How did the “Review” get started? Bayes: I came to St. Andrews in the spring of 1968 from Oregon where I had edited a couple of magazines, so I had some experience in the field. When I came to St. An drews Dean Davidson and Dr. White, who has the head of the English Department, shared the fact that some of the faculty had been dream ing about an eclectic magazine that would not be a window on St. Andrews, but rather provide St. andrews with a window on the world, in the eclectic sense. They also wanted the magazine to be of wide interest to the general readership as well as the St. Andrews community. Lide: What about financing the project? Bayes: We could not get col lege funding so it took as long as an elephant in its pregnancy to see it come about. It finally came about when the Dean’s office put up 50 percent of the funds and the development office put up the remaining 50 per cent. With those funds we were able to finance the 'magazine for the first two years. It has been totally financially independent since then; relying on its ability to get federal and/or state funds and the kindness of in- divdual financial con tributors. Lide: Tell me about the early issues? Bayes: The first issue is dated 1970, but it took 18 to 20 months to gather material for it. The issue is a collector’s item which was published on Ezra Pound’s birthday and is totally devoted to Pound. It has material contributed from major Pound scholars from all over the world. We figured that it was the best way tostart because you have to have something distinctive to gain any credibility in the beginning. The second issue came out on Buckminster Fuller’s 70th birthday and contained one third of this book “Intuition”. The next two issues were devoted to Carolyn Kizer and Yukio Mishmia, but after that each issue became less exclusively .centered around one person. Once we were an established magazine we were able togo out and encourage more and more young talent. Lide: Do you have any problems in getting new material to publish? Bayes: If we had a paid editor and paid staff we could put out a quality magazine every month and still turn away good people. Lide: What is the main pro blem with editing aliterary magazine? Bayes: The problem with editing a literary magazine is that when you find several good young writers and they have difficulties getting their materials published,you (the editor) feel a certain sense of obligation. That is how magazines get a good stable of writers. It is totally a mat ter of the heart rather than the scientific, but then you get schizophrenic because then you think of all the other young writers who haven’t had a chance to publish yet. Lide: Is it easier to find quality material now that students are shying away from English-related degrees? Bayes: I think it has its up and downs. Right now it seems that short story writers are depressed. Most magazine editors tell me that, and I know that it-is true for the “Review”. Even though we plead for short stories, we just don’t get enough to balance our magazine. Lide: who are some of the more prestigious writers today? Bayes: Well, in drama and fiction,Romulus Linney is one of my favorites to follow and keep up on. Johnathan Williams is finally being recognized as the ma jor poet that he is after spen ding 30 years in the vineyards. James Merrill is someone I have always ad mired and I fully expect him to win the Nobel Prize within my lifetime. They are some big names, but they are not household words. Lide: What are some of the keys to running a successful small printing house? Bayes: You get an editor or two with support from some friends who are willing to put out a little elbow grease, and then if you get the money and a pound of spiritual flesh from the editor and staff, then that’s when you have it. You must have friends and confidants in order to sur vive. That is survival and you can’t do that with a bunch of prima donnas. Lide: With the rising printing costs and the cutbacks in federal grants and en dowments, is it difficult for a small literary magazine toget started and establish itself? Bayes: Yes, the average life of a literary magazine in the U.S. is 2 years, and we have survived since 1970, so that speaks for itself. We are go ing to have to rely on the private sector now like never before. We haven’t received a federal grant for 3 years now. The state has continued to be most helpful and subscriptions have held steady, but that still won’t be enough. Lide: Who are some of the more successful small houses? Bayes: In the west the “Nor thwest Review” has been go ing on for several years now. The “Colorado Quarterly” is a fine magazine and the “Ohio Review” is a hard one to beat. Of course “Poetry Chicago,” which was found ed by Harriet Monroe and had Ezra Pound as the poetry editor, has a great amount of prestige. Down in the south, to ad dress your question to this area, the main magazine presses are the Georgia University Press and the Louisiana State Universiy Press, which is first and foremost in the nation in poetry. Lide: What are the main pro blems in running a small publishing house? Bayes: Most of it comes down to financial. We have no trouble getting material at all. The big problem lies in funding the printers. We have no paid editor or staff and everyone involved has at least 12 other professional projects going on, so it s energy. Money first, then energy. They are related. Lide: How will the advent of computers and technology affect the smaller publishers? Bayes: It may destroy everything but trash unless there is a hardcore set of believers in there. I happen to think there will be a hard core set of believers. Right now I happen to believe it is a threat. I think that within 5 to 10 years human ingenuity will turn from a threat to a promise. As computers get more inexpensive and prin ting gets more expensive the business of public readings will become more important. Newspaper and magazine reviews of poets will also become more important, because in the computer age we may find that if we don’t know the name of a poet we may not know which keys to punch in order to find that poet. Eventually, we might find a whole little book flash in front of our eyes when computers became less ex pensive than printing. Lide: Do you think the big ger houses will eventually take over and make the smallprinting houses ob- soletf" Bayes: I think the big houses are printing all the trash they can get to sell to all the peo ple at the supermarkets, and the wealthier houses sell the hardbacks at bookstores. I don’t think they give a damn about quality. Lide: So you are saying the difference between the smaller houses and the bigger publishers is the quality of the materials they print? Bayes: I think the difference is greed. The big presses are run by greed. There are ex ceptions like Athaniem, New Direction, North Point and Knoff. I don’t want to say that all big houses are greedy, but 1 would say that 99 percent of them are. Lide: Even though there is an abundance of good writers, isn’t it difficult to keep the budget in the black? Bayes: We stagger along, but we’re usually somewhat in the red. We make no profit, we lose money every time we mail a copy. If costs us ap proximately $7 a copy because printing costs have gotten so high. Lide: What changes have been made in the “Review” to make things run smoother? Bayes: Things have never gotten smoother. It’s as tough, or tougher, as it has ever been. They’re tougher now in the sense that when we started out we did things by invitation only and then we began exploring. When you find a little vein of talent it’s one thing, but when you find a motherlode of talent it is almost overwhelming because you have to restrict and Umit and it has to be ar bitrary and that is unfair. We all have to be the bad guy even within our own cons ciences. The one thing we need to do is to do the best we can within our limited resources and 1 think all “presses of conscience” would agree to that.
St. Andrews University Student Newspaper
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May 13, 1983, edition 1
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