ABOUT LIGHT AND DUST @ GRIST

The last thirty years of literary history has been a period of freedom and diversity such as the world has never seen. The purpose of Light and Dust @ Grist is to reflect that diversity and freedom and to make some of the results as accessible as possible through an electronic BBS. As this collection grows, there should be something of interest for nearly every reader. If you look at an entry and don't find it of interest, try something else: there's probably something in this collection that will speak to you in a meaningful way. Whatever your interests, you are urged to check out work with which you are not familiar as well as work that you know. In addition to classics of the past 30 years, this collection includes work by people who have published little, but who have new and original things to say.

I began publishing books and magazines in 1966. I continued this under the Membrane Press imprint until 1990, when I changed the name of the press to Light and Dust. I set up an electronic Light and Dust archive under the sponsorship of Spunk Press in May of 1994. The backbone of Light and Dust @ Grist and Light and Dust @ Spunk is work by poets I first published on paper. Though some work appears in both the Spunk and Grist collections, the former is primarily an archive tailored to the needs of an on-line collective. Light and Dust @ Grist is more flexible, responsive, and oriented toward new work.

Electronic publishing is now in its first phase. Despite the claims of pundits of all sorts, no one knows where it will go from here. 50 years from now it may very well be the norm -- a type of publishing that has acquired qualities impossible or unthought of in print. Those of us now involved in electronic publishing and reading are taking part in what may be one of the most important revolutions in communications in history, a watershed comparable to the advent of printing from movable types. On whatever level each of us may participates, we will contribute to whatever the medium becomes.

I hope you find something you're looking for in Light and Dust @ Grist -- but even more, I hope you find something new, something you would find nowhere else, in this constantly changing collection of poetry.

If you have comments, questions, complaints or other communications, send them to me at karlyoung@grist.com or karlyoung@delphi.com.

Good reading!