Vis Pamela Rosenblatt of the Somerville News—a story about a member of the Small Press Exchange, Doug Holder. You can check out Doug's profile, here.

The arts editor of The Somerville News received a Certificate of Appreciation for his community access television program at the organization’s annual meeting Jan.25.

“I think Doug Holder really provides an excellent service to the larger writer community in Somerville.  And it’s not just ‘Poet To Poet/Writer To Writer’ that he does.  Besides ‘Poet To Poet/Writer To Writer’, he also writes his column in The Somerville News, and produces The Somerville News’ Writer’s Festival.  He’s really a dynamo in support of Somerville’s writers and readers,” said Wendy Blom, executive director of Somerville Community Access Television.

As a major local poet, writer, journalist, and inter-viewer, Doug Holder is highly regarded in the Somerville and surrounding areas, said Wendy Blom.

She met Holder the first week she started at SCAT in 2005, she said. “And I was immediately impressed by the commitment to the show that he does and the ease with which he draws out his guests,” she said.

Holder said he developed such an admirable reputation in the writing community through years of study and dedication to his craft. 

He said his story begins when his mother’s family first came to the United States at the turn of the 20th Century.

 

“A lot of my relatives got in the book business by selling books, selling books on pushcarts in the lower East Side of New York.  And then later, my uncle David Kirchenbaum started out that way.  Then, he opened up a whole series of book stores in New York on Book Row, the most famous one was Carnegie Book Store.  And so we were always surrounded with books, appreciation of writing, and the world of books.  So there was always a strong emphasis on reading and the arts in our family.  So it was a natural progression.  I was always writing,”he said.

Holder’s “Poet To Poet/Writer To Writer” cable TV show grew out of a life-long interest in radio talk shows, he said. 

“When I was a kid growing up in New York, there was a guy named Brad Crandall and Long John Nebel on late night radio.  Talk show hosts who were also on TV.  There was Susskind.  David Susskind.  And Alan Berk.  They always interviewed these interesting, off-key characters.  You know, try to get into what made them tick.  And so, since I was interested in writing and poetry, I wanted to interview writers and poets in the area.  So it’s always been a dream of mine,” said Holder.

Holder first realized this dream in college, he said. 

“In college undergraduate days, I had a radio talk show for a brief time on my college station, interviewing visiting writers.  And I always wanted to do it, so I figured when I moved to Somerville.  I heard of Somerville Community Access TV, and they said it was very easy to have your own show.  Because I’m not very good technically, I went to a training session and started the show.  And it was pretty easy to get guests.”

His first poem was published in Sub-Terrain, a Canadian magazine, at the age of 36, he said. He was in his early 40’s when he began Ibbetson Street Press, he said. 

“Before I started the Press, I was just publishing as a simple poet.  But when I started the Ibbetson Street Press in 1998, then a lot of things happened.  I met a lot of different people.”

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Source: Somerville News

Doug Holder is the publisher and founder of the IBBETSON STREET PRESS of Somerville, Mass. His poetry and articles have been widely published in the small press. The former president of Stone Soup Poets in Boston, Mass, Holder is currently on the faculty of Newton Community Education. Since 1989 he has run poetry groups for psychiatric patients at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. He is currently the Arts/Editor for THE SOMERVILLE NEWS, the Boston editor for Poesy magazine, and a regular contributor the SMALL PRESS REVIEW. Holder holds an M.A. in Literature from Harvard University.

Four years ago he was appointed director of the Newton Free Library Poetry Series, in Newton, Mass. and he is also the host of the Somerville, Mass. Community Access TV program Poet to Poet/ Writer to Writer (Channel 3 Tuesdays at 5PM.) Recently appointed to the board of faculty advisors of the Wilderness House Literary Retreat in Littleton, Mass. In (2003), Holder along with writer Timothy Gager founded "The Somerville News Writers Festival", that has featured such writers as: Lan Samantha Chang, Robert Olen Butler, Tom Perrotta, Andre Dubus lll, Alex Beam, Franz Wright, Sue Miller, and Hallie Ephron, to name a few. Currently on the Advisory Board of "the new renaissance" literary magazine, and a PR consultant for the "Heat City Review."

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