03/03/2026
Hello to Our Writ Large Tribe:
For years, we’ve been thinking of the right project to be our first foray into Kickstarter.
Finally, this weekend, our first Kickstarter pre-page went live and the campaign itself will launch on Thursday 3/5/26. Please bookmark it and be part of our little history.
As you know, we’ve always looking for new things to try, whether it’s an impossible literary summer festival or a drunken live critiques. One common thread in each of our new projects and experiments is this: we want to create things and spaces and systems that everyone could benefit from.
BIRTHDAYS EP
For the first project we are doing as a Kickstarter and as a vinyl record, we decided to use Chiwan’s upcoming book birthdays as our symbolic sacrificial lamb (we often experiment with Chiwan’s work before we even consider for our other authors to see if it works or if it’s disastrous).
He selected twelve poems/tracks from this sixth book of his, sequenced them in a way that makes the most narrative sense on a two-sided vinyl record that can hold only so much work on each side.
He recorded it on the Voice Memo app on his phone to give it that lofi homemade aesthetic. Our dear friend Melora Walters let us use her photo of a wolf for the record cover.
PRINT-ON-DEMAND VINYL
About a year and a half ago, we met two young Carnegie Mellon engineering students. They were presenting a machine they’ve been developing: a print-on-demand vinyl record printer. Their company was called Lead-In Record Co.
We instantly saw a potential for writers, especially poets, to have a new (old) media they could experiment with. Vinyl record printing has been too prohibitive both in cost and time, with months-long backlogs in manufacturing.
We met, talked, agreed to do this together.
GOALS & GOALS
Our goal for the Kickstarter is $2500. We hope we reach it so we can see this project through. Most of that money will be going to production and materials cost. If you’re an author or publisher, you understand that print-on-demand cost is higher per than bulk offset printing.
Which leads us to our bigger goal with this project. Our hope is that this will be another media format that poets will have access to—both to be able to sell and also to be able to experiment with.
Once again, the campaign launches this Wednesday (3/5/26). Let’s go on this ride together. Our first Kickstarter.
Yay!
Scan the QR code in the image or use the link in comments.
