Lab began with two questions: What sorts of projects might we publish that don’t fit inside a book? How do we bring new writers and readers to Graywolf Press?
It was also informed by an observation about events, particularly virtual events. Since 2020, we hosted and attended many events tied to a book’s publication. The conversations were often provocative and inspiring, and we wanted to do more with the energy they created. What would happen if we held the event before publishing?
We imagined gathering artists from different disciplines to discuss a theme. Those artists would suggest others they admired whose work related to the theme; we would then find ways to collaborate with these artists, who would in turn lead us to others.
This isn’t very different from what we already do; publishers (and other platforms and spaces) are led to new collaborators by past and current collaborators. But there was something interesting to us about making our process more visible and open-ended. The work of curation can seem precious, opaque. Sometimes it’s couched in the language of ownership or competition: “discovering” or “investing in” a particular artist. We wanted to try holding this work more lightly, making it more social.
One of the simple guiding principles of Lab is being in conversation. We’re interested in actual conversations between artists and in collaborative practices and in work that finds new ways to interact with its audience. But even the essays and stories that have a single name attached to them are the result of and an act of relation; every work of art is. We’re grateful to have you joining the conversation.
Graywolf Lab
interdisciplinary conversations and new writing from Graywolf Press