Recorded on Thursday, June 23, 2022
In this episode of our ongoing series of talks with publishers of small presses, I speak with Kirby of Knife Fork Book about their poetic origins, both the press and the bookstore in Toronto, their publications and plans, including the inaugural FERTILE 2022, a festival of new and inventive works that will take place in August with KFB, The Blasted Tree and Gap Riot Press. We discuss the origins of KFB, the beauty of the chapbook, the strength and drive of queers to organize great things, the KFB subscription service, the design and publication process and the importance of looking after each other.
Poetry Is Queer will be launched at the Black Eagle on July 13. More about PiQ
The Great Escape Bookstore, KFB East
Capital Espresso, Midnight Mass, KFB West
KFB SUBSCRIPTION SERIES of New + Inventive Ideas
Donate to support KFB on Patreon
Note of Praise
My praise for Knife Fork Book has to begin with the enthusiasm and energy of Kirby. Not only have they created a press that publishes strong and captivating work under the name Knife Fork Book, they also run KFB, the bookstore and its various services. Knife Fork Book offers subscriptions that include poetry by other publishers, a brilliant and supportive initiative and they even secured space for the store within other bookstores and businesses. There’s something delightfully co-operative about Knife Fork Book. And in the case of the work that is published by KFB: from the playfulness and sexual candour of Jennifer Lovegrove’s The Tinder Sonnets to the minimal lyricism of Ralph Kolewe’s the Wild Fox and the delightful and visceral writing and art in the Not Your Best anthologies, I feel like I’ve entered a world I can live and breathe in with Knife Fork Books. On top of all that they do with Knife Fork Book, Kirby, the instigator of all this love, community and delight offers their poetry up as an example of good works: sexy as fuck, unflinching, heartful with a generous dollop of humour. Visit KnifeForkBook.com for a sense of the energy, beauty, joy and community of Knife Fork Book. There are big photos of smiling poets, lush colourful covers of chapbooks, statements by Kirby, a history of accomplishments and new terrain. We need Knife Fork Book and Kirby in every god damn province in Canada and beyond. They bring the joy.
Thanks to Kirby for being on the show, Charles Earl for processing, Jennifer Pederson for the intro and outro and all of you for listening and sharing the episodes.
Stay tuned for episodes with Hem Press, EthelZine Press, Hesterglock Press, above/ground press, Beir Bua in the rest of the year.