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The Editors

Andrew Brown, Dennis Campbell and Chris Perkowski
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Andrew Brown: I write about the printing industry for a monthly magazine called 'Print Solutions.' I've also written and edited trade publications for the commercial, residential and automotive glass industries, and the student financial aid industry. I'm a graduate of Lycoming College, Williamsport, Pa. and George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. For the past five years, I've lived and worked in the Washington, D.C. Metro area, but I was born and raised in Lancaster, Pa.

During my career, I've been fortunate to meet and work with an excellent group of writers, editors, designers, printers and publishing-industry professionals. Many of the individuals I interview are entrepreneurs who abandoned successful careers to become small-business owners. Even if it's on a smaller scale, their urge to devote time and energy to starting something new inspires me to be a part of Red Morning Press. I'm also inspired by the breadth and depth of talented poets whose work goes unpublished for lack of willing outlets. To share their gifts with a larger readership is the cornerstone of my decision to work for the Press.

My reading habits run the gamut, as all good editors' and writers' should, but here are some books I've read lately: Michael Chabon’s 'Wonderboys'; David Sedaris’ 'Naked'; Lauren Weisberger’s 'The Devil Wears Prada'; and Robert Ludlum’s 'The Jansen Directive.' Living poets I admire include Eleni Sikelianos, Sam Witt and Spencer Short.

(You can contact Andrew at andy@redmorningpress.com)

Dennis Campbell: I have spent the last ten years split between retail jobs, corporate writing and marketing jobs, and an MFA program in poetry. One of the central reasons that I am drawn to poetry shares in common my reason for loving punk rock music. The idea of freedom of creation, creating whether the markets have a desire to sell that creation, is immensely appealing. Where else can an artistic endeavor be driven by the love of doing it? Poetry--in part due to its limited readership--gives the writer the opportunity to try the daring, attempt the new, and truly speak to, against and within a tradition. If only a thousand people are listening, why not be adventurous, why not risk? As a writer of
poetry and a person who enjoys the ongoing dialogue between writers and poems, I thought it was important to add something to the discussion. Red Morning Press is the opportunity to do just that. Rather than just listen to and read what existed, I wanted to help authors join the conversation.

While I certainly am drawn to certain types of poetry, I wanted to start a press that didn’t constrain itself to a poetic vogue or an attempt to unseat that vogue. I am drawn to the dissonance in conversation, the mixing of ideas and ideals. While I love the poetry of Mina Loy, Paul Celan, George Oppens and Forrest Gander, I cannot live without the counterpoints to those authors. I want Red Morning Press to evolve into a varied and dissonant conversation--from the lyric to the impenetrable, the traditional to the upsetting.

I have been helped through life by artists who have stepped from the slipstream of corporate tastemakers to create something new. Independent record companies taught me that if you enjoyed music that you only heard locally you didn’t have to wait for the major labels to put it out. You could do it yourself. And that's what this press is, an opportunity to do it ourselves.

(You can contact Dennis at dennis@redmorningpress.com)

Chris Perkowski: I'm a newly minted lawyer practicing here in DC (I do transactional work in the community development industry -- captivating, no?). Before I went to law school, I got an MFA in poetry alongside my fellow editors and then spent a year as an entertainment writer for America Online. How I ended up a lawyer remains unclear to me, though I've come to suspect that it involves my father and some sort of hypnotism.

My reasons for helping to start Red Morning Press are simple: I want to stay involved with the writing community, and I'd like to help some of the many writers who deserve exposure to see their work in print. My literary tastes are all over the place, but my desert-island picks would be Berryman's "Dream Songs," Cheever's "The Swimmer," C.D. Wright's "Deepstep Come Shining," Annie Proulx's "Close Range," William Maxwell's "So Long, See You Tomorrow," and Louise Gluck's "The Wild Iris."

(You can contact Chris at chris@redmorningpress.com)