Kevin Sampsell

Last Friday’s 20th birthday party was a great night full of drinking, cake, and friends (not to mention Mike Daily’s cool bike stunt/toast).

We packed over 150 people into Disjecta and had a lot of fun showing off our history of books and artifacts on two big tables.

But of course, as is sometimes the case, I realized later I made a few goofs and should have given some more shout-outs from the stage. I guess that’s what happens when you’re trying to figure out a working order for a dozen readers.

There were two people who didn’t make it to the stage. Suzanne Burns made the drive all the way up from Bend, Oregon but dropped out of the line-up later in the night when she started to not feel well. I regret that she didn’t get on stage. A couple of days ago, she posted a note on her Facebook page with a copy of the story/Future Tense tribute she was going to read. Go check it out if you’re friends with her there. Thanks for being there, Suzanne.

Michael Walsh was the other person at the event who didn’t make it on stage. I published two of Michael’s poetry chapbooks in the mid 90s and was always a big fan of his work. It was great to see him at the party and he was even wearing one of the very first Future Tense T-shirts ever produced. It was one that I made, also in the mid 90s, that said: “Corporate Poetry Still Sucks.” But even though Michael didn’t make it on stage, at least we got to see our old pal, Richard Meltzer (Richard wrote an intro to Michael’s chapbook, Paper or Plastic) .

Of course, there are a lot of other people that I want to thank for my twenty years of publishing though I neglected to at the party. People like former Powell’s small press mavens Vanessa Renwick and Marty Kruse–two people whose supportive value can not be measured. As well as Chloe Eudaly from Reading Frenzy (I gave the shop a plug but not her by name like I should have).

Future Tense authors Brandon Freels and Kurt Eisenlohr were also there, and while they’re both too shy to get on a stage with a microphone, I want to say thank you to them now. They’ve both been a big help with many Future Tense projects. Also, my interns, past and present, especially Jenn Lawrence and current wonderboy, Bryan Coffelt. And of course, my lovely fiance, B. Frayn Masters, has been a huge contributor to the press for eight years now.

Again–many thanks to everyone. You can see some a lot more pics of the party on Mykle Hansen’s Flickr page. The photos on this post were by the great Leann O’Rourke.

And if you missed out on the fun, we’ll probably do it again in five more years, and I’ll remember to thank everyone that night.