A CHAT WITH BJORN AND GRACE: PRESENTING THE DVERSE ANTHOLOGY CHIAROSCURO

This week, we are chatting with Bjorn Rudberg and Mary Grace Guevera, of dVerse Poets Pub, about the recent publication of their beautiful anthology, "Chiaroscuro". It truly is a thing of beauty, and we wanted to find out what the process of putting it together was like for them. Let's dive in.

Available here

Sherry: Hi, Bjorn and Grace. First, we must congratulate you on your beautiful anthology, Chiaroscuro. It truly is a thing of beauty! You and your team did a marvelous job.

Take us back to the beginning. When did the idea of an anthology occur to you?

Bjorn: I think the idea was there from the beginning. dVerse has published two anthologies before, but with external publishers. We wanted to have full control this time, but at the same time we were scared of the amount of work. After discussing back and forth we decided to bring in the whole team to help us with the work.

Grace:    Bjorn and I talked in 2016 about doing an Anthology, where the dVerse team would be responsible from beginning until the end.  We didn't have any experience in this, but there are several self-publishing platforms where we can explore and learn on the job. This time around, as main editors, we would have a hand in selecting, editing and publishing an Anthology by the dVerse team.

Björn: It was a joint decision, and we brought in the team and discussed how to share the workload. Each prompt was treated as a submission, and we tried to select the best poems each week instead of having a big submission event.

Grace:   This is not work by one person, but a team.   Bjorn and I have not thought of doing this project by ourselves as it can be overwhelming, as we have seen in the past.  We decided to involve the team right from the beginning so the load is lighter, so to speak.

Leaf with Dewdrops by Michelle Beauchamp

Sherry: Considering each prompt a submission sounds like a good idea. Did either of you have any idea of the amount of work involved?

Grace: We knew it will take a lot of work but we didn't realize it would take longer. It was our first time to do the editing and finally putting it altogether in a printable form.  The editing part took longer as we got in touch with the poets and they had to agree to the changes we recommended.

Björn: I agree, the amount of work involved in editing and contacting all the poets took a lot more time than we thought.

Grace:  Also we took the self-publishing route, which proved to be a learning curve for Bjorn and I.   Bjorn took a lot of time learning the CreateSpace of Amazon and it did prove to be a good platform to meet our needs.  We had poets from all over the world, and we wanted to ensure that the printed copy would be accessbile whether you are in Asia or Austrailia.    We were happy with Amazon's reach and delivery part of our printed copy.

Bjorn: I actually enjoyed learning the tricks and trade of self-publishing and as for myself I will probably use it again when I finally write my own book.

Sherry: I am blown away by the access to markets self-publishing has these days. Especially the access to Amazon. Chioroscuro can be ordered directly from Amazon here.

What was your process in putting it together?

Bjorn: Ha... we actually announced that from now on each submission will be treated as a submission for the Anthology, but still many were surprised when they were contacted. To have many small submissions instead of one giant one was a good one. We also wanted to reward the poets who are active in the community.

Leaves by Kim Russell

Grace: We decided that we didn't want a call to submissions, one time, and read like 300+ poems from several poets.   We didn't have the time to read so many poems on top of our regular weekly hostings. So we planned with the dVerse team, to select and read as we go along, week to week, with various poetry prompts.  

We announced the Anthology project last July 2016 with our 5th anniversary celebration. We stretched the timeline to over 4 to 5 months, as we selected, voted and compiled poems. Bjorn and I decided on the title, theme, and way we would arrange the poems as we started reviewing the compiled poems.  

The initial work was made easy, with the dVerse team helping with the prompts and selecting the poems. But at the end of the process, Bjorn and I made the final decision of being inclusive to those actively participating in our dVerse prompts. At the end, we invited over 100 poets to be part of our Anthology project.

Sherry: It is wonderfully inclusive! 

Grace:   The whole dVerse team helped us with the selection and finally the editing of the material.  It was important to have a different set of eyes, as it was really tiring to see the same material over and over again.  I could not anymore see where and what the changes are and needed to be.

Björn: I also want to extend a big thank to the team for the effort in the selecting and editing of the poems. Even if we wanted to leave them as close as possible to the original, we needed to format and correct typos — and confirm with the poets.  The team who helped us are:   Kim M. Russell, Victoria Slotto, Gayle Walters Rose, Lillian Hallberg, Frank Hubeny, Walter Wojtanik, Toni Spencer, De Jackson, Michelle Beauchamp and Paul John Dear.   

Sherry: You had a wonderful team! The artistic photos on the cover and throughout the book are  beautiful. Did people submit these along with their poems?

Sunflower by Michelle Beauchamp

Bjorn / Grace:   We were lucky to have in our dVerse team, not only poets, but amazing photographers as well.  We chose, for the book cover, the stunning photo from the photography collection by Paul John Dear.  The black and white photos are from Michelle Beauchamp, Kim M. Russell and Candace Kubinar.

Sherry: When it came to the selection process, was that difficult?

Bjorn / Grace: Yes, there are some outstanding poets in our group. It was definitely hard to select which poems went into the Anthology.

Some prompts proved easier to select from; sometimes we were awed by all the great entries. Sometimes it was hard.

Sherry: Were there moments when the workload seemed overwhelming and you wondered if you would ever complete the project?

Bjorn: Ha... yes, I have to say that, especially when we were in the middle of it all and we were editing. Also the formatting took a lot of time. I remember when I just had to start all over because Word simply wouldn’t do what I wanted. But I’m so grateful that Grace pushed us all. At the end it proved easy, we wanted it ready for Christmas.

Grace:    Yes, when the editing took forever, I thought it would never be finished.  But putting a deadline on the work pushes you to complete it. I told Bjorn that we need to see this project done by end of 2017, and we worked to finish it.   

Sherry: What did it feel like when you finally held the finished copy in your hands?

Bjorn: I remember when holding the first proof in my hand and seeing what a great book it would be. The color and the matte finish really made this a pleasant book to hold and to flip through, seeing and remembering all the poems and the poets. I imagine we could just get together one day and read our poems to each other.

Grace:  Sweet and very grateful for everyone's efforts in putting it together. We hope we can pull off another one in the near future.

Sherry: Congratulations to you and the team for producing a truly beautiful book! It is outstanding! I would like to commend you on the huge time commitment and effort involved in producing the anthology, as well as keeping a large community like dVerse afloat. On behalf of all of us who enjoy all of the features and prompts, and the wonderful community of dVerse, a very big thank you for a job well done!

There you have it, my friends, the amount of work that goes into putting together an anthology. With a wonderful result, in this case! Do come back and see who we talk to next. Who knows? It might be you!