{"id":74950,"date":"2026-06-29T14:41:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T18:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/?p=74950"},"modified":"2026-07-30T12:37:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:37:46","slug":"q-a-with-rebecca-kosick-and-ken-mikolowski-on-the-alternative-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/2026\/06\/29\/q-a-with-rebecca-kosick-and-ken-mikolowski-on-the-alternative-press\/","title":{"rendered":"July 26: Dispatches from the Avant-Garage: Rebecca Kosick and Ken Mikolowski on the Alternative Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dispatches from the Avant-Garage: Rebecca Kosick and Ken Mikolowski on the Alternative Press<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rebecca Kosick and Ken Mikolowski will discuss the history and legacy of the Alternative Press, along with a look at local artist presses currently working today at Book Beat on Sunday, July 26<\/strong>, from 5-7 PM<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

During the second hour we will take a break and open a discussion with other small local presses working today. Among those attending is Daniel Eller who has published fine press photobooks and is producing a series: The Ledger Photo Journal <\/a>coming out in the fall.<\/p>\n

Brea Harris is a poet and creator of Intersectional Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zan de Pery was a former student of Ken Mikolowski and founder of Keith LLC Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mikolowski and Kosick will have a second appearance at MOCAD on Thursday, July 30<\/strong>. Kosick\u2019s new book,Dispatches from the Avant-Garage: The Alternative Press<\/em><\/strong>, recently published by Wayne State University Press, offers a detailed look at the Detroit-born letterpress project founded by Ken and Ann Mikolowski and its wide-ranging network of poets, artists, and correspondents.<\/p>\n

\"\"Questions were sent to Kosick and Mikolowski by email about the Press\u2019s origins, its relationship to Detroit and Grindstone City, its connections to Mail Art and intermedia, and its continuing relevance for independent publishing today. Their responses appear below, with Kosick\u2019s answers first.<\/p>\n

Signed copies of Dispatches from the Avant-Garage<\/em><\/strong> are now available in store or online through the Backroom Gallery<\/a>. Illustrations are from Mail Art and postcards found at the Ann and Ken Mikolowski Alternative Press archive<\/a> at the University of Michigan Special Collections.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Cay Bahnmiller and Gordon Newton, Mail Art envelope to Ann Mikolowski<\/p><\/div>\n

Origins, Place and Production<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the Hatcher talk and in the book, you mention the Artists Workshop as Ken’s inspiration for starting the Alternative Press. He also mentioned how he tried to give away poems in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts before he began mailing the poems. Ken briefly mentions the Waldrops as a letterpress inspiration. Maybe I missed it in the book, but I was wondering: at what point did Ann and Ken decide their letterpress was going to be a mail project?<\/p>\n

It became a mail operation fairly early on. I believe the more formalized subscription packets started in 1971, but before that, Ken and Ann would mail prints around the country for free, including to bookstores. At the same time, they were also giving them away to friends, collaborators, and unsuspecting museum-goers outside the DIA.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ken mentions that Ray Johnson was a visitor to Grindstone City. Was he also a subscriber to the Alternative Press? Was Ken aware of Correspondence Art before he began AP?<\/p>\n

Yes, Ray Johnson visited Grindstone City and afterward made a print for the Alternative Press entitled \u201cPeter Beard\u2019s Silhouette Surrounded by Ten Michigans for the Alternative Press Tenth Anniversary\u201d (1979). The archive has subscription records for some of the years of the Press\u2019s operation, and I don\u2019t see Ray Johnson listed as a subscriber for those particular years, but there are records of his correspondence with Ken and Ann. For instance, there is a letter he writes to Ann after his visit to Grindstone City, where he thanks her for a small grindstone she had given him. He writes that he is going to take the grindstone to the deafblind sculptor, Christopher Cook, with Johnson saying he was planning a performance for the blind. In another case, Ken and Ann Mikolowski\u2019s names appear on a 1987 flyer of Johnson\u2019s that was sent out to his correspondents with the label The New York Correspondence Academy Detroit May 23-June 4 1987. So, the Mikolowskis had an ongoing collaboration with Johnson that spanned many years and was productive for all parties.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ken and Ann were both involved with Mail and Correspondence Art, though as Ken says in the interview included in the book, this was somewhat independent of the Alternative Press. That said, I see the Alternative Press as overlapping significantly with these movements, which also had their heyday around the 1970s. All were driven by an approach that cultivated aesthetic collaboration at-a-distance and operated outside of established institutions like galleries or mainstream publishing. But I also reflect a bit in the book on the ways the Alternative Press differed from Mail and Correspondence Art, for instance through their emphasis on letterpress, and through the editorial framework that Ann and Ken oversaw. Still, there is much common ground, and the Alternative Press is really remarkable in its embrace of these practices from the perspective of poetry, especially.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Ann and Ken Mikolowki with Gordon Newton<\/p><\/div>\n

Ken and Ann worked out of both Detroit and Grindstone City. How did these locations help shape the content, production, and ethos of the press?<\/p>\n

These locations impacted the Press substantially. Both places gave them space to work, which is essential to letterpress publishing. In Detroit, this took the form of a basement in a large house, and in Grindstone, the ground floor of an old general store. To do letterpress, you need enough room to house the printing presses themselves, but also everything that goes along with them\u2014enormous cases of type, ink, rollers, paper, and so on. Having the right kinds of spaces gave them the ability to run the Press at home and to work around all their other commitments, like raising a family, working as an artist and poet, commuting, being generous friends, and generally living their lives. In Detroit, particularly, their house also became an important meeting place for artists and poets in the city, and for those visiting Detroit from around the country who would stay with them on their travels. These social elements of their environments show up in the Alternative Press too, which is a project that grew out of, and showcases, the Mikolowskis\u2019 community and the artistic friendships the couple maintained over the years of the Press\u2019s operation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Gordon Newton, Alternative Press postcard<\/p><\/div>\n

Your book makes clear that Ann Mikolowski was the typesetter and designer for the press. Her personality and aesthetic are infused in the material. Can you explain further Ken’s role in the press as a connector? Was he also the printer?<\/p>\n

They each did a bit of everything, although Ann was of course the one who did the design and visual artwork they included in their prints. Ken told me she also took the lead on typesetting, though he did set type as well, and printed. Ken was the primary letter-writer, communicating with contributors and subscribers, which was no small feat! Theirs must have been the most active mailbox in all of Detroit, and Ken kept up the professional and interpersonal correspondence that was the backbone of building that network. Some of this moved over to email in the latter years of the Alternative Press\u2019s life (so, in the 90s), but before that, it was through the mail, and Ken describes devoting great effort to the letters he wrote to poets and artists they worked with.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Bumper stickers from a page in Dispatches from the Avant-Garage\/ From top: Edward Dorn, William Mathews, Jim Pallis<\/p><\/div>\n

Detroit\u2019s Sonic and Industrial Influence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Detroit has a strong identity tied to industry and sound. Do you see a relationship between the city\u2019s industrial history and the aesthetics or rhythms of Alternative Press production?<\/p>\n

Yes, definitely. As far as music goes, I talk in the book about how the Press\u2019s early years were connected with groups like the MC5 and the Stooges. And the aesthetic confluences that are typical of the Alternative Press\u2014which published poetry, but also visual art, and a number of works that reference music, like Kofi Natambu\u2019s \u201cSonnymoon for Us All\u201d broadside\u2014are emblematic of a wider cross-pollination of artistic genres in Detroit at the time. You can see this, for instance, with groups like the Detroit Artists Workshop as well, which included visual artists, writers, and musicians among its affiliates. And practitioners of each art form were engaged with the others, learning from each other, feeding off of each other, and collaborating at the cutting edge of artistic production in the era.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is true for the Press\u2019s relation to industry as well. For one thing, the Mikolowskis\u2019 ability to buy a cheap letterpress was a result of industrial transformations to commercial printing that took place over the course of the 20th century. As professional print shops gained access to faster, computerized tools, letterpresses became obsolete for most commercial purposes. But, as we\u2019ve already discussed, letterpresses and the various other elements they required to print were enormously heavy and took up a lot of space, so they weren\u2019t easy to get rid of. As a result, lots of hobby printers and small presses were able to get access to these machines and their tools for very little cost. I talk in the book about how the Alternative Press was part of a wave of small publishers during the era who took up letterpress, in part due to these industrial transformations.<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of the auto industry, the Alternative Press\u2019s bumper stickers probably best illustrate the Press\u2019s links with their home in the motor city. Almost no one else was printing poetry bumper stickers at the time, and they are a perfect format for a press from Detroit. As I talk about in the book, bumper stickers are also very much a product of their moment. They arose as a result of industrial developments in the postwar period, including new kinds of adhesives and neon inks. And then they spread through the culture, following the expanding interstate highway system and the growing adoption of the personal automobile. I really enjoy picturing people reading a poem by Diane di Prima or Robert Creeley\u2014maybe without realizing it!\u2014on the back of the car in front of them in traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n