Mike Young

Mike Young (1986-) was born in Oroville, CA, a town famous for its giant dam, its meth, and now its school hostage situation. He went to undergrad at Southern Oregon University and is currently in the Poets and Writers MFA program at University of Massachusetts-Amherst. With Kyle Peterson he co-edits a free literary and cultural magazine called NOÖ Journal. Mike is also starting a new small press called Magic Helicopter Press. His blog is Dragonfly on a Dog Chain.

Publication Questions:

1) What projects are you currently on? (Include issue #s, books, chapbooks, broadsides, special projects, print and web).

Over at NOÖ, we just released our seventh issue, which included a redesign of the print magazine that we're slobberingly excited about, like girls with new dollhouses. Or me with a new dollhouse. I liked dollhouses.

Along with NOÖ, I am working on starting a small press called Magic Helicopter Press. That will involve plenty of things, but the first thing it will involve is the release of an online book by Sean Kilpatrick sometime in November.

2) What has been your biggest challenge as a poetry publisher/editor?

Money, quite honestly. We release NOÖ as a free magazine, which is basically the point of the whole affair: we want to attract and hook new readers in places where contemporary literature isn't exactly abundant. To not be free wouldn't make any sense for us, like if you saw a turtle working as a line cook at Denny's. You would be suspicious and hurt. But staying free means scrounging for generosity and paying out of our own pockets, both pretty tough operations.

3) Do you regret any paths you have followed as a publisher/editor?

Hmm. I regret individual incidents or mistakes, but I shouldn't really—you learn how your knees work by skinning them up, etc. I suppose I sometimes wonder what would happen if NOÖ weren't bound by its aesthetic and logistic (32 pages, black and white, saddle stitched, looks like a 'zine) constraints. But that's sort of like wondering what would happen if the sonnet you're writing weren't a sonnet. I can always do other things elsewhere, which is why I'm starting Magic Helicopter.

4) Name one poet who has not appeared in your publication which you would love to have included and why.

Only one? Actually, Andrew Michael Roberts is on the top of my list right now. My friend Chris gave me his chapbook "Give Up." I need to email him. I am very behind on my emails.

5) Who is the designer of your web site and how much input do you have in the design of the web site and the other design elements including covers for books, etc.?

I design NOÖ's website, and I work with my co-editor Kyle on covers, designs, etc. We have fairly similar tastes and a sane give-and-take approach.

6) What recognitions have you received as a publisher/editor?

As far as formal awards go, we haven't won anything yet or whatever. But I'm not sure that's particularly important to me. What's much more important and much more cool is to witness how many people go out of their way to say nice things: we were just mentioned on Bookslut, we were included in a French university class about online literature, we were invited to someone else's AWP panel (whose proposal then got rejected, but still). And even beyond all that, the many people who leave comments on pieces or email us to say they liked something—that kind of thing really encourages us and fuels the whole project.

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

I really couldn't presume to say. Kyle and I want to keep doing NOÖ for a long time. But I'm young enough that 5 years time could portend a ton of shit: New York, Iceland, a marketing firm, a teaching job in South Alabama, an odd respiratory disease, a cute cat, a surprisingly limber girlfriend, a CPR certificate, a patent for a revolutionary new punctuation mark somewhere between an asterisk and an interrobang, a truck driving gig in Alaska, a claw: etc. Any of these possibilities could affect my publishing. But I would like to keep working with NOÖ and make Magic Helicopter something big and snazzy.

8) What are some of your other interests?

Beyond writing or beyond publishing? Since this is not a live interview, I am not sure why I asked you that. I'll presume beyond writing. So, other interests: music, especially country music and Swedish pop. Tennis. Cheap blazers. Greek food. Music is probably the biggest one, the performance and intake thereof.

9) What is your favorite poem as of today and why?

God, that's hard. Frank Stanford's "The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You" is certainly one I can't forget. "The Blue Terrence" by Terrence Hayes is another. "To You" by Kenneth Koch—let's go with those three and call it even. As for why? Unabashed lack of restraint and imagination that pours electric sweet and sour sauce over every word.

10) Recommend a poetry book, blog or web site to our audience (not from one of your press) and why.

Everybody already reads Clay Banes's blog EYEBALL HATRED because it's the most useful blog in the poetry world and probably the rest of the world. But I'm going to recommend it anyway. Elisa Gabbert's "Thank You For Sending the Engine" (Kitchen Press) is still my favorite new chapbook, even though I think it came out last year. And Juked is a terrific online magazine. Maybe if I thought about it some more I could come up with super obscure choices that made me look really cool, but yeah: those three.

11) What is the most exciting aspect of being a poetry publisher/editor?

When that issue comes out or that book is there in your hands, and then the emails of thumbs up and hooray start rolling in and you feel like you're actually doing something graceful with your sorry life.

12) Leave us with a recipe for poetry.

"I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life." — Frank O'Hara.