We recently connected with Mychael Zulauf and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mychael, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I honestly don’t know. I think my immediate, gut response is yes, of course i wish i had started making /publishing books sooner. My press, akinoga press, would have that many more books out in the world, and i would be that farther along in the development of my editing and design skills. But, i think if i give the question any serious thought, the answer would be while i wish i could have started publishing books sooner, i don’t think i would have been ready/able to.

I started akinoga press pretty much directly after graduating from the University of Baltimore’s creative writing/publishing arts MFA program. The main reason i applied to UB in the first place was because the MFA had a publishing arts component: each graduating student not only writes their creative thesis, but also designs and publishes the book of said thesis. And there are classes (like book arts and typography) that we took along the way to better prepare us for what it would take to actually design and publish a book.

Before the program, i had only the vaguest sense of both the skills and the artistic ability necessary to design books. I was also a pretty crap editor, having only taken a handful of creative writing workshop classes. But ultimately, and perhaps more importantly, i lacked the confidence that i could actually become a publisher. It didn’t feel like something personally attainable; i mean sure, i had a general desire to become an editor, but to start a press and take on all of the roles and responsibility of running/staffing that press single-handedly? That thought literally never crossed my mind until maybe a month or so before i graduated from UB.

At the time, i was in the throes of printing and rubber stamping and binding and gluing all 65 copies of my thesis and somewhere in me, something settled. Or something came into focus. Or some vision of a potential self stepped out of the darkness of my subconscious and stood in the light of sudden understanding: i could do this. I could publish books. I could be a publisher. I helped edit 8 poetry manuscripts. I designed my thesis, uncovered the first sketches of an overall creative aesthetic. I could offer books to an albeit small corner of the world that otherwise may never have had the opportunity to be offered at all.

In one of the astounding confluences of my life, i think i started akinoga press at the exact right time for myself. Any earlier, and it would have folded due to frustrations that grew from my inexperience and ignorance; any later, and the fires necessary for my motivation and perseverance would have been mere embers.

I started the press exactly when it needed to be started, and in all honesty, i don’t believe i had a choice.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

So, like i said, i started akinoga press pretty much directly after graduating from the University of Baltimore’s creative writing/publishing arts MFA. And as such, i am the founder and essentially everything else for the press: i acquire manuscripts; do all of the editing, as well as the designs and layouts; personally bind the books that my authors want hand-bound; and do as much as of the PR/marketing as i’m able to. I think that alone sets me apart from other presses, even other small presses, and what i lack in reach/distribution, i make up for in beautiful, intentional, and experientially cohesive books.

I’m also willing to take a chance on just about anything, which has resulted in a fairly eclectic back catalogue. Granted, that back catalogue skews towards poetry (especially poetry chapbooks), but it’s honestly been pretty thrilling to challenge myself to tackle a project that is wildly outside of my usual wheelhouse. For example, the fully illustrated guide to urban foraging the press published a few years ago. Or the queer sensuella (sensual novella) that was published a few years before that. Or the collection of plays that is, still to this date, the longest book akinoga has ever published (over 300 pages).

And, honestly, that diversity of publications is what i think i’m the most proud of. I think it’s easy for a publishing house with a bunch of different editors working in a bunch of different divisions to have a wide spread of disparate publications, but i feel like it’s something of an accomplishment to have, comparatively, as much diversity from a micro-press run by a single person.

And, if nothing else, i am honored to be the home of work that is small, quiet, odd, easily-missed, and 100% needs to be read.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think at the top-most level, government funding. Offer grants, stipends, residencies, community funds, anything that would allow artists to be able to sustain themselves while they create. Making art takes loads of time and energy and attention, and to be able to uncouple yourself from all of the mental and emotional stress that comes from, best case scenario, working a 9-5 job would be a godsend. Think about how long you could maintain a creative state if you didn’t have to worry about bills and rising prices at the grocery.

Though, honestly, doing away with the capitalist/imperialist system that externally rules over, at the very least, the US and the capitalist/imperialist ethos that internally, at least in the West, rules over most of our ways of thinking/existing in the world, would probably be a bigger godsend. That’s probably the only way you could achieve a truly thriving creative ecosystem, since art would fundamentally no longer be reduced to a commodity and instead would be allowed to be just expression and exploration and experience.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Making connections, be it personally between artists/works of art, or facilitating connections for others. I love creating contemplative space for people, spaces that allow them to slow down or rest or ponder or zone out. That’s one of the wonderful things about creating space: people can fill it with whatever it is they need. And, the books the akinoga press publishes are the most tangible expression of that experience; they are handfuls of contemplative space that, at the very least, offer you a direct line of connection with whichever writer you happen to be reading.

It is a truly wondrous thing to hand someone a book that opens up their world, that changes the way they see or hear or experience their surroundings, that unlocks for them the vocabulary or imagery they’ve been yearning for to describe some aspect of their existence. To be the facilitator of someone gaining a deeper connection to themselves? I can’t think of a higher honor.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://akinogapress.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/akinogapress
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/mychael-zulauf
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/sopoetry