CAROL NOVACK is the publisher of the cutting edge multi-media e-journal Mad Hatters’ Review, the author of a poetry chapbook and several collaborative multi-media works, including a CD and two films. She received a writer’s grant from the government of Australia, where she resided during tender years. Carol practiced criminal and constitutional law in her native NYC for nearly two decades and returned to writing in 2004. Works may or will be found in more than 75 journals, including Action Yes, American Letters & Commentary, Diagram, Exquisite Corpse, Fiction International, First Intensity, 5_trope, Gargoyle, Journal of Experimental Fiction, La Petite Zine, LIT, Notre Dame Review, Otoliths, Tears in the Fence, and Word Riot, and in anthologies, including “The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets,” “Arcane Distortions: A DVD Anthology,” and “Online Writings: The Best of the First Ten Years.” A full collection is likely by the end of 2009. For additional details, including links to online writings, reviews and interviews, see the blog.

You describe your journal, Mad Hatters’ Review, as “Edgy and Enlightened Literature, Art and Music in the Age of Dementia.” What do you mean by “the age of dementia”? In general, how does your journal operate?

The first may be answered in my journal’s About Us page: “Mad Hatters’ Review, a bi-annual online multimedia magazine staffed solely by mad hatters, welcomes writings that address psychosocial issues, the pollution of minds, hearts, bodies and nature. We also welcome purely aesthetic pieces, packed with surprising images and whimsical wordplays. The name of our bi-annual reflects our view of the world as essentially demented and nonsensical, too frequently a nightmare or “non-dream” that needs to be exposed to the light for what it is, as well as what it is not. However, we, as artists, can also see another side of this world by voyaging into our own unique terrifying and joyful wonderlands and sharing our visions with others.”

The second, I gather, concerns primarily how we choose the writings we publish. Apart from a few solicited writings, we editors all pitch in to cast our votes, with comments, on the unsolicited submissions we receive. I try to get a consensus, but of course, I have veto power, which I try hard not to exercise the way Bush Jr. does. As for music, I dole out “assignments” to our musical staff. We have cartoon editors as well as an Art Director and art editors, and we include a few of the artists who contact us, wishing to contribute. I work closely with our excellent web designer/maestress to create our new issues.

Poetry, fiction, non-fiction, whatnots, wit and whimsy, audio features, audio text collages, featured films, book reviews, foreign features, columns, comics/tunes/parodies, contests, and galleries. These are all of the categories an artist can be published under at your journal. Whew! Could there possibly be anything else? What would you love to see more of in Mad Hatters’ Review?

I’d like to offer scratch and sniff, “massage a poem/fiction/whatnot/artworks/musical composition,” 3-D artworks, and many more “new media” creations and collaborative delights. I’d also love to see more tax deductible donations.

Is that how your journal is funded—through donations? How can a person donate? What expenses do donations cover?

My journal is largely funded by me, with some help from our editors and people who love what we’re doing. We have a fiscal sponsor, so our fans can make tax-deductible donations (see our main/index page). Donations go towards web designing and maintaining and fees I pay to CLMP, Fractured Atlas, and for miscellaneous other services. Considering the disastrous state of the economy, which will only worsen, I may not be able to keep the journal going. Also — living in NYC has become increasingly over the top expensive.

Are there other journals publishing multimedia work? How does your journal differ?

Sure, there are others, but as one publisher of a multi-media focused, offbeat press put it: “I’ve been a reader of Mad Hatters’ for some time now – I must say it’s the best on the web of its kind.” Actually, there were few when our first issue emerged in March, 2005. Now, there are more, as wannabe editors realize that they’d like to test the potentials of internet publishing. My favorite (in existence before we were, I believe) is Dreaming Methods, but it’s not “open” the way MHR is.

What do you mean by “open”?

From what I can tell, the new media projects are mostly if not solely created by the publisher.

When and how did you become interested in joining different forms of art?

I just was interested, naturally. My father was a musicologist and I played an instrument when I was young. Then I enjoyed creating visual art. I was art editor of my high school magazine. Then I was editor-in-chief of my university’s magazine, and included exciting visuals in the issue I produced –- in fact, I overspent the budget, so I only got to edit one very offbeat issue. When I conceived of MHR, I wanted to present something fun and different, not simply a print journal planted on the Internet, with maybe a visual here and there. What’s the point? I love challenge and originality, expansion, vision. Plus, the kinds of works I publish aren’t those that receive warm receptions at most journal, unless they’ve been authored by well-known writers.

Tell us about your current multi-genre project, “Gated Communities.”

Oh I don’t want to kill it in its youth by talking about it more than I have already. I’d rather talk about it once it’s finished. Suffice it to say, I have grandiose conceptions.

You also write plays. How many have you written? What is the market like for playwrights?

I’ve only written one, a one-act play; would love to write more. I suspect it’s the same lousy market for playwrights as it is for fiction writers, at least those who don’t write “realism.”

You have a collaborative spoken word CD out called Inventions II: Fictions, Fusions, and Poems. Is there a volume I? How did this project come about? With whom did you collaborate? Whose work is recited?

This CD is available for sale at CD Baby, with a description. Also available for MP3 downloads at Amazon and iTunes. The collaborative project came about from interactions with two very gifted MHR composers, Don C. Meyer and Benjamin Rush Miller. I thought it would be fun to produce a CD of a selection of my writings accompanied, mostly, by custom-made music. I knew Ben non-virtually; he’s performed at several MHR events. I met Don when I was visiting Chicago – took a trip to do some recordings at Lake Forest College, where he chairs the music department. CD Inventions I was the first produced (in 2007). The 2008 version includes more tracks with musical/sound accompaniment.

What type of events does Mad Hatters’ Review have? When, where, and how can readers get in on the fun?

Take a look at our events page! I curate local multi-media events and KGB Bar readings (the bar is a popular venue in the East Village) here. Curated a couple of MHR readings at the AndNow festival in Orange County this past April.

While living in Australia, you published a chapbook of poetry titled Living Alone without a Dictionary. What took you to Australia? What type of poems are in this book? How does the title fit in?

I married an Australian and was happy to move there. The chapbook is the product of a woman in her mid 20’s grappling with mother control issues, romantic quagmires, and metaphysical/ontological questions. The title expresses my belief that I must ultimately create my own ontological definitions –- somewhat existential a la Sartre. The first poem was published in 2006 in the defunct journal Mindfire, and last year in Starfish Poetry. The book is full of surreal/irreal images, as is my current work.

You currently live in New York City. Is New York truly the place to be if you want to make it as a writer? Tell us about the NY lit scene.

What does it mean “to make it as a writer?” If a writer has something/s to say and can express her/himself in a manner that reaches effectively the audience s/he wishes to reach, locale means nothing, except that for me NYC is very noisy and frenetic and I’m always dying to get away from the commotion. The “NY lit scene”? You mean sceneS. There are many cliques, many groupettes of (mainly) poets, many reading series that attract the same writers most of the time, others that are expansive and eclectic. NYC is diverse. There are all sorts of writers here, though it seems that a majority of them want to “make” the best seller list, get a big time agent, get a big name publisher. That’s not my definition of success.

I like that. “If a writer has something/s to say and can express her/himself in a manner that reaches effectively the audience s/he wishes to reach, locale means nothing…” Do you think, however, that where a person writes, where he/she lives, inevitably affects what he/she writes about? Or is the human experience somewhat universal?

Well, yes, you’re right, Kelly. We don’t live in a vacuum, of course. At least unconsciously, our subjective experience of the “outside” world/s, including “locale” (world-country-city/town-neighborhood-house), stirs our emotional-mental, psychological-ontological “inner” tides. I’m simply not much of a geographical “place” writer. My writings aren’t consciously driven by my particular locale (NYC), though most of them are at least subliminally “political,” focused on archetypal ways of thinking in the USA and elsewhere, affected by the very sorry state of the inhuman condition in this country and abroad. I do tend to think that our experience of life, on a profound level, is universal, though that word has limitations. We all need emotional and actual nourishment, love, acceptance, recognition, raison-d’etre, self approval. How we deal with deprivation of our basic needs separates us.

For many years, you worked in criminal defense and constitutional law. In 2002, you returned to school and received your masters in social work. Have these professions influenced what and/or how you write? On a personal level, how has working in these areas affected you?

My years as a lawyer have given me fodder for content. EG, my latest satirical column (first episode in issue 8, the next in the current issue) at MHR: “Better than Court TV: True Cases from the NYC Courts.” Then of course, years of thinking like a lawyer must somehow affect my perspective, though most of my quirky works are drawn from a subliminal stream of thoughts and feelings, driven by the rhythms and sounds of language. Dream works, imagistic, psychological archetypes. But much of what I write is considered “political.” I wasn’t a corporate, tax, or business lawyer; I zealously fought for my clients’ constitutional rights.

As for on a personal level, I only worked as an attorney. My “field” experiences in social work were internships. I burned out (to a crisp) as an attorney. The constant uphill battles exhausted me. I could go on and on here. I’d only become exhausted and depressed.

While browsing your blog, I noticed a post you wrote about Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama. It was a warning, in fact. Would you mind discussing your views on Obama, the Democratic party, and your political slant, here?

(See my blog posts from June 28th on.) I’m what would probably be called a “progressive,” which means that I want to see the world progress into the future with as much wisdom and compassion and also forward-thinking pragmatism, as possible. I see Obama as a Pied Piper, leading children (a large proportion of his bandwagon is comprised of young “idealists”) into death. Well, that’s melodramatically put, but I can’t see that any leader who’s not going to stem the tides with compassionate, thoughtful vision, including respect for our Constitution (eg, privacy issues [FISA], separation of church and state), and an unwavering stance against war, is going to do anything but lead us and the rest of the planet into sure extinction, tied to old ways of thinking, politics as usual, and cowardice. Obama is a coward without principles. Political business as usual. He obviously has very strong corporate ties and he’s fooled a lot of people. Some of the liberals and progressives who cheered for him now realize that he isn’t what he purported to be. Others continue to rationalize his reversals. In any case, we are bereft of any choice but to vote against “Bomb Bomb” McCain, hoping that Obama will come to his senses if he’s elected (not assuming that the election won’t be fixed again by the Republicans). Those on BO’s bandwagon should feel totally betrayed. We skeptics, who were called “cynics” and worse, are not surprised — merely inevitably sickened. Some, like me, are despairing; others think there’s a way out. The primaries were a pathetic dance, exhibiting the lurid misogyny and sad naivety of Americans, as well as the obscene, reckless cynicism and deception practiced assiduously by members of the Press…

If you could go back in time and live during any era, which era would you choose, and why?

I’d like to go forward or backward to another planet with a dominant species far more advanced than this one. There’s no era that I romanticize.