"You came all the way from Changsha to interview, but personally I really have nothing to make public! A magazine editor, who has been married for a long time, no longer values any honor. Although the honor of the' National May 1 Labor Medal' is very high and hard-won, I am more willing to share with you our "Prose Poetry" magazine. " 20 13 On May 9th, Feng Mingde, editor-in-chief of Prose Poetry magazine, said this when meeting with reporters.
Prose Poetry is a publication sponsored by Yiyang Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Speaking of the fate between Lao Feng and this magazine, it is still a bit legendary. 1May, 986, Feng Mingde met Zou Yuehan, the founder of prose poetry after drinking. At that time, Feng was the vice chairman of the trade union of Yiyang Sheet Factory. Zou Yuehan was the editor-in-chief of the magazine at that time. He said, "Xiaofeng, you usually like to write and draw. Now the full-time cadres of the Municipal Federation of Literary and Art Circles have been transferred. How about we lend you? " In fact, as a full-time cadre of the Municipal Federation of Literary and Art Circles, he is actually assisting Zou in editing the magazine Prose Poetry. The red face Feng Mingde heart a hot, agreed.
After seconding to the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Feng Ming knew that the magazine was a "three noes" unit with no establishment, no funds and no space. More importantly, this magazine has not yet been published, and each issue is printed by several young artists at their own expense. "I began to take over the second phase of the specific editing work. I remember that in order to save a few plate-making fees, we actually published two issues of the third issue. "
Feng Mingde in life is more like an artist, with long hair and a shawl. He spoke with dance and quick words: "I don't value honor, which doesn't mean that our magazine doesn't need social support." After running a pure literature magazine for so many years, I always think that the government can't help but support it, but it can't be too supportive. Too much support will actually make people who run publications dependent and make them not enterprising ... "When it comes to running magazines, Feng Mingde is particularly excited. "This year, our wages began to change to fiscal expenditure. After working for so many years, I finally got the' imperial grain' for the first time. However, I believe that we people will not become lazy because we all want to take prose poetry to a higher level. "
The magazine attracted female college students before it came into the cabinet, and the small trailer was pulled out of the big market.
1992 The serial number of "Prose Poetry" published in public. Prior to this, prose poetry borrowed the original Yiyang Cultural Center 10 square meter office. When a reader visits, he has to get up and give up his seat or talk in the corridor. 1995 to 2000, the magazine moved to Yiyang City Federation of Trade Unions to rent an old garage for office, with poor office facilities and narrow space. Feng Mingde and other staff went shirtless in summer and used charcoal stoves to keep warm in winter.
"However, since then, writers have often come to the editorial department to talk about prose poems. At this time, I feel refreshed. You don't know that those of us who like literature are crazy. For poetry, we can eat or sleep. " It is precisely because of this "madness" that Feng Mingde and others quickly made prose poetry gain a firm foothold. "In recent years, pure literature publications are generally depressed. In order to make a breakthrough in this background, we edited into salesmen and porters. We often take advantage of business trips to bring publications outside the province. "
1988 in the first half of the year, Yiyang Federation of Literary and Art Circles organized personnel to study in Hebei and other places. Feng Mingde and his colleagues used a small baggage trailer to consign 1000 of the fifth issue of Prose Poetry to the newspaper retail company of Shijiazhuang Post Office. The manager of the company was not familiar with little-known prose poems, and at that time, the market was full of romance magazines and swords. "I said he just wouldn't let go, so I had to put forward my position at the counter and put the publication on its newspaper outlets for trial sale. Fortunately, this publication has not been put on the counter. A girl from Hebei University happened to pass by, and when she saw our magazine, she couldn't put it down ... In this way, the manager was tempted. He said,' I didn't expect this small poetry publication to be liked by others. It's not easy for you to come all the way from Hunan, so put it all here for consignment!' "
Feng Mingde only consigned 300 copies in Shijiazhuang, and the rest of the publications were pulled to Beijing, South and other places with small trailers to open sales points. "As the editor-in-chief, I am most happy that several editors of our magazine are unloading and packaging their own publications. In order to adapt to the modern rhythm and accept online contributions, editors moved computers from their own homes without computer funds. When I am on a business trip, I will still take time to understand the market situation anytime and anywhere and open up distribution outlets. " However, it is worth mentioning that the whole magazine, including Feng Mingde, has only three editors and one person in charge of distribution.
"We are still a long way from the monster, but we are completely different."
Nowadays, prose poetry is well known. Lao Feng said, "Our editor didn't take any money for this. Many times, it seems that we still stay at the level of literary youth in the 1980 s and pay more attention to spiritual things. "
He calculated an account for the reporter: "Our magazine is now priced in 3 yuan. Excluding printing, distribution and manuscript fees, we can earn 30 cents. In other words, we have a gross income of about 20 thousand yuan every month, and the salaries and office expenses of the four of us are spent on this 20 thousand yuan. Many times, we can only pay for one guest. "
It has been suggested many times to take advantage of the existing influence of prose poetry to participate in some commercial activities. "That can really make some money, and in the short term, our wallets can also swell up. However, if the magazine's layout is full of advertisements, it will inevitably lower the grade of the magazine, so I would rather not have money ... We must not make any damage to the magazine in order to increase a few money! "
In Feng Mingde's view, the success of "prose poetry" is largely due to their preference. Located in Yiyang, which is relatively backward in economy and information, the influence of money on them is not so obvious. At the same time, they have no choice but to edit the existing magazines wholeheartedly. They have no other extravagant hopes and dare not have other extravagant hopes. "
In recent years, Yiyang City has increased part of its investment in prose poetry, but this money is still a drop in the bucket compared with the needs of the development of prose poetry. "We want to have more money to make the magazine more beautiful, but this is basically impossible. Most of the time, we can only face the reality ... "
On one occasion, it happened that several friends from the business community came to visit Lao Feng. When they met Lao Feng, they were drinking a cup of green tea and discussing literary topics seriously. They don't understand: "What age are you people still interested in these topics?" Old Feng Chong's friend smiled and said softly, "Maybe there are several monsters and substitutes in every era. Although we are still a long way from the monster, we are completely different. "
"Prose poetry is just a stream, and we should let it flow down."
Yiyang City only published 22 volumes of prose poems, and Hunan Province only ranked 12 in the whole country, but it has a considerable circulation in economically developed areas such as Guangdong Province. "Many foreign readers know that prose poetry is in Yiyang, and there is a prose poem in Yiyang. Every year, many foreign readers and lovers of prose poetry come to Yiyang and come to Prose Poetry magazine. A student in hunan city university once told me that I applied for Yiyang College because of prose poetry. Three newly graduated girls from Hubei University came to Yiyang to apply for a job because of "Prose Poetry" ... "Feng Mingde said.
It is reported that "Prose Poetry" has the smallest host city, the fewest employees and the simplest office conditions among 9468 periodicals in China, but it has gradually formed a unique style of "three essences" with short works, exquisite forms and excellent printing, and further developed in the direction of "quality, popularization, gift and aesthetics". In the past 22 years, it has published more than 200 issues. The monthly circulation increased from 3,000 to 70,000, the annual circulation was 800,000, and the total circulation exceeded 6,543.8+million, making it the largest poetry publication in China since the new century.
"We participated in the China News Development Achievement Expo, the 6th Hong Kong International Book Fair and the Leipzig International Book Fair. People's Daily, China Press and Publication, Literature and Art Newspaper, as well as major domestic poetry journals and websites all reported or commented, and were included in the Outline of Contemporary Literature History of China. Prose poetry was awarded as "Double-effect Journal of China Journal Square", "One Hundred Key Journals of the Second National Journal Award" and "Nomination Award of the Third National Journal Award". In 2006, Prose Poetry participated in the "Quality, Characteristics and Development —— Experience Exchange Meeting of National Small and Medium-sized Periodicals" organized by the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, and introduced the experience as the sole representative of the national literary periodicals. Feng Mingde introduced these to reporters, while lost in thought.
"I think the Internet is the biggest enemy of our pure literature publications. What I want to think about now is, how does prose poetry face the impact of the Internet? Times are changing, and so are prose poetry magazines. Therefore, we must change the purpose and thinking of running a journal ... "In Feng Mingde's view, many roads are not how difficult they are, but how far they can go.
"If literature is a big river, prose poetry is just a stream. Personally, I think it is not a myth to hold high the banner of art and stick to the pure land of elegant literature. The key is how to do it What we have to do is how to let this small stream go down without surging, but it will never dry up. "
Three words and two beats: stick to the pure land
Feng Mingde won the "National May 1st Labor Medal in 2007" for making the pure literary publication Prose Poetry prosperous. When I first heard the news, I was a little surprised. I remember when I was a literary youth, I read prose poems. Over the years, because I am busy making a living, I seldom read prose poems again. Of course, this is actually an excuse, the main reason is that with the cooling of pure literature fever, the focus has changed.
Although I don't often read prose poetry, it doesn't mean that I'm not interested in it. Time makes people old. However, when I was young, the wonderful literary complex never got old. Therefore, when I have a little time, I like reading those literary publications and learning from them to enrich my life. It is true that this is a very gratifying thing and a perfect spiritual journey. Therefore, I should thank people and magazines like Feng Mingde and Prose Poetry. It is they who stick to such a pure land and make our life full of interest. Only in this way can every tired soul be comforted.
Under the background of the general depression of pure literature, it is a miracle that prose poetry can persist and get wider and wider. The reason why I went to interview Feng Mingde was to understand the reasons behind this miracle. Unfortunately, the success of prose poetry has nothing to reveal, except to persist silently and move forward step by step. "I want to think twice about the content of every magazine. If it is too artistic, there will be no market. If it is too popular, there will be no artistic taste. It is not an easy task to achieve the perfect combination of the two! "
The day I went to interview Feng Mingde coincided with his 49th birthday. "I have been engaged in prose poetry for more than 20 years, about 10 years, and I am leaving this beloved post. I think I'm still confident that I can stick to prose poetry. However, I'm not sure if I can grow prose poetry into an evergreen tree. " I can understand what Feng Mingde said. The prospect of pure literature publications is really not optimistic. Nowadays, well-known publications in many big places are hard to maintain, let alone prose poems in small and medium-sized cities.
At the beginning of the year, Hunan established the strategy of "strengthening the province by culture". I think a big cultural province should have a national and even international famous cultural magazine. Of course, "Prose Poetry" failed to reach this height, but its success is a direction of efforts!
True prose poetry has a soul, and every word of prose poetry with a soul will come alive and shine; Real magazines also have souls. Every article with soul in the magazine will be moved and charming. Fan Yaxiang, chief reporter of Changsha Evening News, intern Kuandi.