Pub Crawl: Caketrain

Pittsburgh locals Amanda Raczkowski & Joseph Reed have been publishing a really nice literary journal and press for the last seven years—an impressive run for any independent literary outfit, especially amidst the economic downturn that sacked so many of our beloved small houses.

What's more impressive is Caketrain's list of contributing authors, which includes Ravi Shankar, Matt Bell and Sue William Silverman. What's perhaps most impressive, to me, is that they have done it (and continue to do it) all within the bounds of matrimony.

RM: What are some of the dynamics of running a small press as a married couple? 

J: It feels strange to say as I think about it now, but it’s true: Amanda and I have basically been publishing together as long as we’ve known each other. The feelings we share about literature are what brought us together in the first place (we met when co-editing the student lit mag at University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg as undergraduates), and then we stayed together when school ended, and starting our own small press seemed like a natural progression and a good way to continue to champion the writing we love.

A: As with any type of collaborative project, there is compromise. We do our best to not allow Caketrain to affect our personal lives, but when you work on a project as much as we work on Caketrain, sometimes it becomes difficult. We were fortunate to have worked together previously and to already have an established work relationship. We also allow each other to focus on our strengths—Joe does amazing design and I am very good with the business and administrative tasks—which keeps our personal relationship safe from the stresses of a creative relationship.

J: When reading submissions we utilize a no-veto policy for acceptances—if one of us wants a piece in the issue, the other can’t obstruct that decision (but can attempt a persuasive case). We have it down to a science now: we each take the position of first reader in alternating months to give the other a break to focus on other aspects; first reader makes preliminary selections (usually whittling the month’s work to its most potent one to two percent) and passes them to the other for further discussion and commentary. With only two people, the workload can be large, but we wouldn’t have it any other way—the moment Caketrain stops reflecting the vision of the two of us as editors is the moment it becomes something other than Caketrain.

RM: What is your favorite chapbook and short story collection of the last year (and it can't be from Caketrain)?

J: M. Sarki’s "Zimble Zamble Zumble" works like a palette cleanser to the brain after a prolonged sift through the submissions folder, which you need to have when you’re us because open submissions is where the majority of your reading ends up happening.

A: I recently read Michael Kimball's “How Much of Us There Was.” It is a beautiful collection that immerses the reader in the emotional and mental state of the narrator. We published Kimball in our sixth issue and it was interesting to spend time with him in the space of a longer work.

RM: How do you foresee the marketplace for literary journals and magazines changing over the next ten years?

A: The marketplace for literary journals has changed a lot since we started in 2003. Sometimes we feel like dinosaurs; Caketrain should have ceased to exist by now and coming from the time when we started, that was a distinct possibility. In the next ten years there will probably an influx of boutique presses. The ease and abundance of social network and a strong web presence create a more hospitable environment for literary journals/endeavors.

J: I’m very curious to see what the role of the editor actually becomes ten years from now. Amanda’s correct that there seem to be more new small press imprints than ever right now, and more emerging all the time, but at this point, I feel a degree of uncertainty about whether writers will actually feel that they need editors or publishers or books anymore in ten years. I hope they do; in an era that ushers in this much unfettered creative production and expression and publication, the role of the curator and editor and reviewer is increasingly important, I think, if only as a means to map and sort and understand everything that’s going on. We really like the model we’re engaging in right now at Caketrain, which is to publish limited print editions of titles and then re-release those titles digitally for free once the print run has been exhausted, but that could certainly change. I suppose our readers will ultimately be the ones to let us know where we’re headed.

RM: Is there an aesthetic you go for at Caketrain? Perhaps some guidelines or questions you ask of a piece before you're willing to publish it?

J: For us, the innovation in writing comes at the ground floor of words. We don’t ever want the language to simply convey a meaning or message. News stories, street signs and instruction manuals do that. That’s not what we’re looking for in a piece of creative writing. Before I select a piece for inclusion in Caketrain, I read it and read it and read it again and again and assess the decisions that are being made on the level of the sentence and then on the level of the word. There, in the guts—that’s where the really exciting things are happening.

A: We like to describe the works we accept as "language monsters," but as much emphasis as we put on language, we also expect the work to be emotive.

RM: What's the best thing lovers of short prose and poetry can do to support smaller publishing houses like Caketrain?

J: We make the project easy to support by doing all we can to keep our books as affordable as possible—$6 to $8 per title. If you buy one and like it, tell someone. There are countless outlets for you to submit a review, write a blog entry, share your thoughts, engage, dive deep.

A: We do our best to lead by example and each month purchase several titles from independent presses. We love to receive books in the mail and to be able to support our counterparts is a great feeling.

Caketrain is a literary journal and press based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that publishes both poetry and short fiction. They can be reached at www.caketrain.org.

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