Brian C. Felder small press poetry archive

The Brian C. Felder small press poetry archive contains periodicals and anthologies in which Felder’s poems were published, his correspondence with editors, logs and indices of his publication and submission history, directories and publications about small press publishers from the early 1970s, and material related to the Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers (COSMEP).

The collection contains issues of 146 literary journals and magazines published between 1969 and 2021. The majority of the periodicals were published after 2000, and include Art:Mag (edited by Peter Magliocco), Shemom, The Pegasus Review, and WestWard Quarterly. Publications from the 1970s and 1980s include many Milwaukee-based alternative and countercultural publications, such as Ambrosia, edited by Eddie Silentwalker Hymes, Milwaukee Review, edited by Ralph Larsen, Milwaukee Road Review, founded by Todd McMahon, and Shore Review, edited by Kenn Kwint. The collection includes all four issues of The Bummer (1969-1971), as well as paste-ups of its interior layouts. Three poetry anthologies, and Felder’s own book of collection poems, Plain Big Words, are also included.

Felder maintained files of correspondence for most of his published poetry. These files contain submission letters, copies of the submitted poems, acceptance letters, and, in some cases, more extensive discussions about poetry and publishing with the magazines' editors.

Records of Felder’s poetry submissions -- both acceptances and rejections -- can be found in the indices and logs he maintained. A file labeled “Miscellaneous poetry correspondence worth preserving” contains a small number of rejection letters from 2006 to 2019.

COSMEP materials date from 1971 to 1975 and consist of newsletters, membership lists, The Whole COSMEP Catalog (1973), and letters from Richard Morris, a director of COSMEP and publisher of Camels Coming Press. Morris’s letters mostly concern COSMEP business and touch on the challenges of running the organization. An August 16, 1971, letter includes his thoughts on publishing unknown poets and poems that might offend readers.

The collection also contains issues of the Directory of Small Magazine/Press Editors and Publishers, the Directory of Little Magazines, Small Presses & Underground Newspapers, and Margins: A Review of Little Magazines and Small Press Books, edited by Tom Montag and Dave Buege.