2020:  An Anthology of Poetry with Drawings by Bill Liebeskind
Edited by Judith Bauer
Black Dog & One-Eyed Press

Judith Bauer is the publisher behind Black Dog & One-Eyed Press, a Parrsboro, Nova Scotia publisher of art catalogues and poetry books behind a gorgeous new anthology called 2020: An Anthology of Poetry with Drawings by Bill Liebeskind. The book features work from a hundred poets around the planet, framed around 250 sketches of people wearing masks by the New York City artist Bill Liebeskind, united by a year unlike any of its predecessors, one of shutdowns and fear, as well as mass displays of unity and support for healthcare workers and food retail workers.

Bauer generously answered our questions about this unique new collection.

Atlantic Books Today: The diversity of responses to the global pandemic, particularly from artists, is astounding. Can you talk a bit about your inspiration for doing a collection of poetry married with sketches by Bill Liebeskind, who incredibly has done more than 400 portrait sketches of people in masks since the start of the pandemic?

Judith Bauer: In 2019 Bill Liebeskind spent six weeks in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia working on his ongoing series TODAY. At the time, Bill had already created over 2,000 paintings in the series but the exhibition we hosted that summer  included only a small fraction of the paintings. Impressed and moved by his work we suggested that perhaps a book would be an effective way to showcase the paintings.

Bill did not jump at the idea but we made a connection and when he left, it was with the promise to return next summer. Of course nobody’s plans for 2020 went as expected but we kept in touch with email and phone calls and when the world went into lockdown, more frequent emails and phone calls.

A recurring theme was to discuss when the US to Canada border might reopen so Bill could return to Nova Scotia. Bill began teaching from home and writing his blog and posting his sketches each morning.

Summer 2020 passed, Bill dreamed of moving to Nova Scotia, the border did not reopen, Bill returned to the virtual classroom, and we all waited on tenterhooks for the promised vaccine. A few weeks into the new school year we were talking with Bill and again raised the idea of a book featuring work from his TODAY series along with an offer to publish it.

Instead Bill suggested a book featuring the mask drawings, maybe with poetry? Ugh, i thought, the drawings are great but all anyone seemed to discuss anymore was COVID-19 – COVID on the news, COVID in person, COVID online, COVID over dinner, COVID in the supermarket – COVID, COVID, COVID! It felt like too much.

After saying as much and my partner, harvey lev, echoing my thoughts and reiterating our previous offer, the conversation turned again to predictions about border reopenings. But the idea tickled at me and next time we spoke, i asked Bill which poet or poets he had in mind. After some back and forth we agreed to put out a wide call for poetry submissions and see what happens. Almost 400 submissions happened and a year in between and now we have this book.

ABT: What have you learned about the year of shutdowns from reading all those submissions?

JB: Whatever might be said and however often it is repeated, it is clear to me that we are not, in fact, all in this together. The same inequities that have always existed continue to exist throughout the pandemic.

COVID-19 is now on its way to being endemic so it can be hard to remember how frightened everyone was at the start but that was a scary time, especially in heavily populated areas and some of the large cities such as New York and Montreal. To experience lockdown and social distancing in rural Nova Scotia with fields and forests and empty beaches to roam is an absolute holiday compared to what city dwellers, especially those who live alone without even a dog to justify a walk, experience under lockdown; and lockdown in those cities is a paradise compared to what has been experienced in less affluent nations and by those with smaller safety nets, or no nets at all.

In Canada we had the emergency response benefit but how can you stop working for a year, let alone two, if you live in India or Uganda? The further into the pandemic we go, the more inequities remain. Wealthier nations have more and we continue to use it to help ourselves first even when that goes against our own best interest, such as with the current vaccine situation in which so many nations still have large unvaccinated populations while rich nations like Canada continue to hoard vaccines and have already been administering third doses.

We know that spread must be curtailed everywhere if we are to stem the proliferation of variants but largely we still choose short-term protection of few (us) over future and longer term protection of all (including them). We do the same with environmental matters. As a Canadian i feel ashamed and hang my head to think of it.

ABT: You’re currently doing a series of online launches, having done an IRL launch in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. While the tech doesn’t always measure up to real human gatherings, it allows people from all over the world to gather. What have these launches been like for you so far?

JB: The IRL launch was fabulous! The US – Canadian land border was finally open in both directions for the first time in 19 months so Bill came from NYC and there were readings from seven or eight poets. We passed a celebratory and convivial afternoon sharing words and getting to know each other.

The virtual launches have been more stressful as it is a new medium and platform for me with much to learn and juggle, and much to go wrong. That said, the online launches are tremendous fun; i am learning a new skill, and it is wonderful to virtually meet so many brilliant people whose work i have been reading and with whom i have been corresponding for almost a year.

Even more interesting are the conversations between the participating poets and to watch the germination of friendships. That it is possible to bring together people from across the globe in this way continues to delight and amaze me. We have been livestreaming the launches to Facebook and you can watch them on our page here https://www.facebook.com/artParrsboro/.

ABT: It’s an incredible diversity of poets in the collection, from the little known and little published to luminaries like George Elliott Clarke. Was that intentional or more of a happy surprise? 

JB: Probably more of a happy surprise although, in addition to the broad call for submissions, we sent personal invitations to many poets we love and some of these, like bill bissett, Marilyn Lerch, and George Elliott Clarke, are quite well known. When reading the submissions and making the initial selections, however, we did so without attribution. All the poems were printed without names or other identifiers and over some months were read through and notated and sorted into various piles. Notwithstanding some poets have an immediately recognizable style and biases do creep in, an effort was made to try and select based on the work rather than on the poet.

ABT: With the latest new highly contagious variant emerging, there’s still no end in sight for this pandemic. What’s next on your horizon in terms of creative and publishing work? Will it continue to relate to COVID-19?

JB: Is it possible for anything now NOT to relate to COVID-19? If yes, then probably not, for as happy as we are with this book, like most everyone else, we have had enough of COVID-19. Black Dog & One-Eyed Press does have a number of submissions waiting to be looked at but we have not yet found our next project.

2020:  An Anthology of Poetry with Drawings by Bill Liebeskind can be purchased directly from the publisher by emailing parrsboroart@gmail.com. Information about the book and launches can be found online here https://hmsnonesuch.com/black-dog-one-eyed-press/