The first in our series of Tomaž Šalamun's posthumous publications shipped this week, and I am immensely happy with the beauty of this edition. When Tomaž and I first started talking about his publication with Black Ocean, it was before he realized how sick he was. As his illness worsened, and we arranged to make Black Ocean a home for his writing beyond his own time with us, the weight of that responsibility really began to sink in. After Tomaž passed away, with multiple titles lined up over the next few years, I decided I wanted to publish them as a series that would honor the phenomenal impact he's had on contemporary poetry around the globe. I knew I wanted it to be special, and for a special project I needed a special designer--so I contacted Abby Haddican, whom we had already worked with on Privacy Policy: The Anthology of Surveillance Poetics. Abby picked up the assignment and ran with it; not only designing multiple covers along the same motif, but also creating a custom typeface to be used outside and within. To complement her design we added details like the gold foil stamp clothbound hardcover inside the dustjacket, and matching black-and-white headbands along the spine. It's this kind of loving attention to detail that keeps me passionate about publishing books. I hope you'll celebrate this new book with us, and welcome the future books from Tomaž Šalamun and Black Ocean every year for many years to come.
love,
Janaka
