Happenstance

I’m going to use the words of the wonderful Helena Nelson to describe the starting of HappenStance. I can’t do better:

"If I had another life, and was choosing the name of my imprint again, I wouldn’t go for ‘HappenStance Press’. Before I tell you why, I’ll explain how the name HappenStance first came about. Back in 2005 I was thinking a lot about poetry publishing, turning half an idea over and over in my head. I was on holiday, and on holiday I sleep deeply and I dream.

So I had a vivid dream in which I had set up a poetry publishing imprint called ‘Happenstance’. Next day I wrote my sister an unusually long letter. I told her about my dream. I’m going to go ahead with it, I said. I’m really going to do this. I was excited.

But was ‘Happenstance’ the right name? I liked the sound of the word, but not its connotations. I wanted an operation that was deliberate, carefully planned. The more I thought about it, the more I kept remembering W H. Auden’s ‘poetry makes nothing happen.’

My press could reverse that, Mr Auden, I thought. It could make poetry happen. And I could take a stance on the way it happened.

But it wasn’t just happenstance. It had to be HappenStance. The second half of the word had to be capitalised and italicised because that … was the whole point. And so I began

There was, however, so much I didn’t know. So much.

For example, I failed to see that I was the only person who would ever care about that distinctive detail: the capital S, the italicised Stance.

For everybody else it would just be Happenstance Press (there are at least two bands with the same name, as well as a Rachael Yamagata album and a brand of footwear, not to mention a dozen or so novels).

At first I used to remind people about getting the format of ‘HappenStance’ right. Especially my own poets. Most of them cocked it up, and still do. I’ve stopped reminding them. I see it wrong in bios everywhere, in books, in magazines. Reviewers of HappenStance books almost invariably write ‘Happenstance’ (why should they care?).

And then, worst of all, I was forced to get it wrong myself. That’s because in some online software, the heading styles won’t accept a mixture of regular and italic font. Often, it’s one or the other, unless you save the heading as a graphic, and you can only usually do that in banners. Sigh.

So some of the headings on the HappenStance website have the Stance italicised. Others don’t. I expect if I forked out enough money it’s all fixable, but the circumstance of HappenStance has never been lucrative and the website mostly uses freeware. This is poetry, after all.

I see new presses popping up all the time, and the imprint names always interest me. When ignitionpress sprang into existence, I chuckled hollowly. All one lowercase word, right? Two words squashed together. Bold font for the first word only? Ha! Asking for trouble.

Anyway, such is life. All I’m saying is: if I had my time again, I’d keep it simple. A nice regular font; a word with a pleasing shape and sound. That would do. Be easy to remember. Be easy to spell. Be easy to fit inside a URL. But ‘HappenStance’ is the name I did choose, eighteen years ago. I have completed my main phase now, the determination to make books happen. I’m on my last titles, and although this ‘way of happening’, the poetry thing, sits central to my life, I won’t make many more publications. Oct 23."

In March 2016 she published her own guide to getting poems published. It’s title is ‘How (not) to get your Poetry Published’. It’s described thus: This frank and funny guide by award-winning poet and publisher Helena Nelson makes sense of the whole business. From getting work into poetry magazines to placing a pamphlet or book with a publisher, she offers detailed ideas and practical suggestions for getting it right.

Here are a few of the don’ts:

Don’t: Present your poems in italic or bold font.
Don’t: Centre all your poems.
Don’t: Offer to pay for publication of your poems.
Don’t: Expect too much if your track record of publications is all local to where you live—you need to penetrate a wide geographical area if possible.
Don’t: Send more poems than the submission guidelines invite.
Don’t: Tell the publisher by what date you would like her to reply to your submission.

There are a lot of do’s as well. Invaluable advice. Get the book.

Her HappenStance Press also produced themed Anthologies. This poem was published in Blame Montezuma!: An Assortment of Chocolate Poems 2014. A book for serious chocolate addicts. Here, in poetic form, is chocolate’s history, desire, joy, and darkest despair.

After 3 pints on New Year’s Eve

sometimes
the harder the resolution
the easier it is
while merely saying
I might eat less
70% dark chocolate
made with the finest Trinitario
cocoa beans for an intense taste and
certified to Soil Association standards
for organic food and farming
has me scouring cupboards

and seconds later
the Oxford English
a promise is a promise
a resolution’s a separation of components
a proposal to a meeting
a resolution is the removing of doubt
so if there’s doubt
then I’m removing it
by making a resolution not to…
I like to think that’s reason.

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.