“The poem is a path that cultivates its brambles” wrote Yves Prié. This path has been his for four decades. In December 1980, our man, a great poetry reader, poet himself, created the Folle Avoine editions, in his writing and printing workshop at the gates of Rennes.
The project was carried out with modest means but a strong ambition, material aid and editorial solidarity, which in the opinion of Yves Prié, hardly exist any more. This solidarity and this encouragement ” confraternel », Yves Prié will find them with two« historical »poetry publishers, René Rougerie, editor of the journal ” Poetry Present “, But also Guy Lévis-Mano (founder of” GLM “). These two were, for our fledgling publisher, examples and ” triggers »Major and determining, likes to remind Yves Prié.
René Rougerie, publisher himself of the first texts by Yves Prié, was of first-rate moral and intellectual assistance. Under this influence, Prié edited texts of poetry in a presentation, a typography, a graphics which obviously recalled the imprint of the Master. The material aid from the public authorities, clearly visible and concrete when the Folle Avoine editions were born, did the rest in a climate and a context of literary creation that we do not find exactly a few decades later. Yves Prié, in his deeply rooted desire to make the book, was also a typographer, layout designer, printer, and – first vocation – a poet in the exact image of Guy Lévis-Mano whom he met in the 1970s.
Yves Prié, if he is a poetry editor, first of his own poems, is also a creator of bibliophilic books, and it is through a dialogue with artists who are dear to him that he began to compose books, those that are commonly called artists’ books, and that Prié prefers to call ” books with artists “. These books are, in fact, the fruit of an exchange between the painter, the designer or the engraver and the publisher. Editorial work is thus, for Yves Prié, a work of connivance and complicity. So Prayed ” dialogue “With Dilasser, Fédorenko, Pagnoux, Seneca, Han Psi (the creator of the two acronyms of the house), and others, who will always be for him artists of great literary, aesthetic and formal proximity.
Our publisher’s catalog will therefore be enriched over time with illustrated books of poetry, limited edition on beautiful paper and large format, to ensure the dimension of a work of art to a work born from the voice of a writer and the hand of an artist.
Yves Prié’s catalog will then expand to other sources than poetry. The curiosity of our publisher and his love of literature in general through his encounters with essayists and novelists (Louis Guilloux, Yannick Pelletier, Henri Bordillon, Michel Onfray, Jean-Claude Le Chevère, Mérédith Le Dez, among others) have also enabled the editing or republishing of texts by Georges Palante, Alfred Jarry, Georges Bataille, Roger Caillois, Jean Grenier, Louis Guilloux of course, all appeared, or almost, in the Signatures collection.
Foreign literature will also find its place with the Territories collection where were published astonishing texts such as this Japanese poetic almanac, source of inspiration of the haikus, in an unpublished translation of the Japanese Alain Kervern, extracts from the ” Danish “, of Lotherus, or ” History of the Danes “, Amply and superbly illustrated by Nicolas Fédorenko, – a text in which is the first story of” Amlethus “, Source of” Hamlet “By Shakespeare -, the theater of John Millington Singing, or even some big names in the Hispanic field, Miguel Hernandez, Luis Mizón or the Colombian novelist Alvaro Mutis. Without forgetting the great Spanish Republican journalist, also a poet and Rennes academic, Antonio Otero Seco, translated by his friend Albert Bensoussan.
Other collections will emerge, but the one which remains the “original” collection is quite simply called “ Crazy woman Oats », Where will be found Heather Dohollau – his book ” The alley of the doors »Was the first title in the publisher’s catalog -, Jean-Paul Hameury – of which Yves Prié is the almost exclusive editor -, Michel Dugué, Alain Kervern, Jean-Noel Trebaul, Michel Pagnoux, Denis Rigal, Serge Wellens, Paol Keinneg, Andree Chedid, among others.
The collection ” Off-print “Completes the poetic range of this publishing house with in particular the texts of Yves Prié himself, previously published by René Rougerie, such as” The night of stones », « Wandering souls », « Borders ” or ” Passage of bitters ».
Music will also be recognized in the publisher’s catalog and Yves Prié’s meeting with the composer Anthony Girard gave birth to ” The Dream is our hope “, A score for soprano on poems by Yves Prié himself premiered at the Sylvia-Montfort Theater in Paris in 2001. It will also be” Night, winter “, For violin, piano and chamber choir, to poems by Yves Prié, premiered at the Conservatoire national de region de Rouen in 1998, followed by” Paths, color of time », Created in Rennes in 2015 by the chamber choir of Sabine Argaut.
In 40 years of editorial and writing activity, Yves Prié has given us to read and see more than 350 works grouped together in twelve collection titles, as many texts which are, by the admission of this rare and precious publisher. , the expression of authenticity, of a ” secret conjunction between the person and the form he develops. This is what I call authenticity. I hope that the books I have chosen to publish correspond to this declaration of intent. Literature and more particularly poetry cannot be a free game for me, they are a commitment, a risk-taking. I refer to these verses of Mayakovsky: “And it dares to call itself a poet / and it squeals like a gray quail / whereas nowadays / it is necessary with a puzzle / to carve in the skull of the world. “And how not to think too, concludes Yves Prié with this sentence from Kafka:” The book must be the ax that breaks the frozen sea within us. »
From the rich multitude of Folle Avoine’s catalog, it is difficult to extract one volume more than another. Despite everything, let’s choose a few titles, wonderfully illustrated:
– « The Poem of the Grand Inquisitor ” of Dostoevsky, translated by André Markowicz, published by Folle Avoine in 2004 – before the Actes Sud editions – is a text that Yves Prié always wanted to publish. This monument of literature – a long reflection on the abandonment of freedom for material goods, reminds us of our editor – was illustrated here by six etchings by Nicolas Fédorenko, friend of Yves Prié, painter from Brest with a powerful brush and pencil that goes well with the strength of the text of the great Russian novelist.
– « Shade to eat ” of Louis Le Bihan, published in 1984, is the result of a meeting between Yves and the author, professor of Classical Letters. Louis Le Bihan’s metaphorical writing was magnified by the brush and calligraphic inks of Han Psi, a demanding Breton artist, ” a pure of the pure »Says Yves Prié, to the point that this demanding man refused from 1980 any commercial exploitation of his work of artist.
– « The playing cards of the body », A book published in 2008 by Roland Seneca, artist living in Douarnenez, engraver on copper then on wood, who met Yves Prié through Nicolas Fédorenko. Sénéca explains his work and the book is postfaced by the novelist Claude-Louis Combet.
– « The night of stones », Poems by Yves Prié, illustrated by Francois Dilasser, an artist chosen by Yves Prié for the sobriety of his line.
– « Fields of Castile-Terres de Castille “, Bilingual edition of the poems byAntonio Machado, translated by Nicole Laurent-Catrice, illustrated with lithographs and drawings byEric Brault, in a large format on beautiful paper.
Let’s finish by quoting the words of Yves Prié of infinite gentleness and grace (but there are so many others under his pen): ” The poem was the gift. He was looking for the best approach to reach day, a sentence contains night and wind, fire and winter. The incision of time was then less sharp; the shadow stuck to the earth to soften the faults. Black and white mingled in the air. The morning ignored the grips of death – This world is a childhood that a river ennobles, he said – The gentle gaze of women on all emerging things is tender. The weather was going against the wind in a snow slide » (in : « A day without importance »)
Editions Folle Avoine
Le Housset 35137 Bédé
► Catalog of “Folle Avoine” editions: www.editionsfolleavoine.com
–
