Synchronia Casa Editorial: poetry written by women takes the FilBo 2022

Rocío Cely has tiny eyes. If he looks at you from the front, you can't understand if he is looking at your face or is looking at your soul. I met her in the middle of a book festival in Parque de la 93, about three years ago, almost, when I was working as a bookseller. What emerged from there was a friendship in the middle of school and books. I heard he ran a publishing house and told him to send me the books to start selling them. When he handed me the first of them, I was surprised to see the design so minimalist and at the same time so complex. The idea was to make the details stand out, and also the intentions. Eco-friendly paper, one-tone covers, illustrations. I really liked that collection of poems, that of Lucia Parias. It has a special force. I liked it so much that I continued to follow closely what Rocío published.

Synchronia is a publishing house of two or three people. The one who is always there is Rocío. Then came Virginia Moreno's book. What a poet. I had no idea about her. We even got to talk so that I could present the book and everything was ready, but my internet connection that day was disastrous and it couldn't be done. Rocío later spoke to me about what was coming with an Argentine author and when the book came out, ay dios, what wonderful poetry. Inés Kreplak became my leading author.

So far, Synchronía has published 5 Latin American women writers. Three are Colombian, one is Venezuelan and the other is Argentine.

Earth in Fire, by Lucia Parias.

Winning book of the International Prize for Published Work Albalucía Ángel, was illustrated by Nicolás Cañón. In it, the language that seeks to create and be created is contained; here, the word is molded like a piece of clay, it is placed in the fire, in the water, on the earth, as a way of gestating it to see it die and be reborn.

Interior furniture, by Ligia Trujillo.

It was illustrated by Laura Garcia. It is a collection of poems that was born in response to the interest of thinking about the house beyond a structural and physical plane. It speaks of the house as a habitable place in itself, which can cross subjectivities, the relationship with the other, with the world, with oneself.

By the basalt roads, by Virginia Moreno Goitía.

In this poetry book illustrated by Raquel Moreno, the author reflects on leaving her home in Venezuela and forming a home and a new life in Portugal. With this book we inaugurate the Peregrina Collection.

The illusion of the long night, by Inés Kreplak.

The author constructs a language that is used to cross the different nuances of affection and loss. There is a mother who always goes out of time and it is as if there is a bone missing in that body that continues to lean on life as she can, dragging that fault like one who carries a backpack with broken glass, pebbles, fragile snails and always to the point of breaking.

Here where I tremble, by Ana López H.

Great poetry, which is not great because it meets the absolutist criteria of a canon, but because it is immensely moving, is what is born of the deepest wounds and the most loving explorations of our own souls and bodies, and from the multiple worlds we inhabit. Therefore, what Ana López does in this book is to capture a great poetry that inhabits the micro and macro in a space-time of its own and that tells us about her experiences, loves and heartbreaks, spiritual encounters and even what language can mean.

With the odds of life, I moved a little away from what the publisher did and took refuge in various jobs. A while passed and I recently learned that Rocío had two other books ready and will present them at the Bogotá International Book Fair. I ran to write to him. “Let's talk about the publishing house,” I said. “Well,” he replied. I decided to interview her, she at her house and I at mine, coffee still pending, and this is what came up.

In what year did the idea of having a publishing house like this arise and why?

In 2019 Synchrony arises from an absence. I was in college and there were very few authors who studied. So I used to take advantage of the holidays to search the internet what authors were there and also search the library for their books and rent them.

Thus, the idea of creating the publishing house was born with the motivation of having a greater presence of female authors and that new generations could know that there are authors and that they are easily accessible.

What is the most difficult thing to undertake in the Colombian publishing industry?

I would say that the most difficult thing is two things: funding and visibility. This is a self-managed publishing house, which causes some limitations along the way.

Likewise, breaking through the sector and becoming visible can be difficult at first, although I feel that there are currently more opportunities to make yourself known than when I did it with the publishing house.

At that time we had to knock on doors to be heard and seen and many of those doors closed, but fortunately others opened and have been the ones that brought us here.

Another difficulty I encounter is sustainability over time, which is also linked to funding. In this type of project there are other jobs, other sources of income and often the time to work in the publishing house is limited.

And not to mention social networks, because it is almost a requirement to be on them and always be present, trying to listen to the whimsical and still strange algorithm.

What is the goal of publishing only books written by women?

I always start from history. From women who were denied the possibility of publishing because they were women, to those who had to use other names, to those who were silenced. I always think about the difficulty it was for them to make their lyrics known.

When the publishing house started, my goal was to be able to offer a space for emerging authors so that they could start publishing and not encounter such situations.

Therefore, the objective of this editorial decision is linked to being a space that encourages these emerging authors.

One anecdote that I have that reinforced the idea of publishing as a space to make these women who write known was just once when I went to a bookstore with my first book to see if I could sell it there. When I showed the owner the book and told him that it was the author's first work, he told me that poetry in Colombia was a mafia and that she was nobody. That way, no one was going to read it.

This undoubtedly motivated me to work even harder so that my authors are read, so that they don't have to be “mafiosas” but that they can find spaces to make themselves known and for people to approach their works.

Why poetry and not another genre?

For me, poetry is indispensable in life. I say that I have two 'bibles': an anthology by María Mercedes Carranza and one by Rosario Castellanos, of which are my founding texts.

And it is mainly because in them I find that the poetic is not found in the metrics, in the distance or in mysticism, in them I find that the poetic is in everyday life, in everyday life and that is what I want to convey.

By choosing only poetry as a characteristic of my publisher, I seek that those who approach my books also approach poetry.

It is almost a stereotype to think that poetry is difficult and is only for scholars. So my search with the publisher is to bring this genre closer to people and show that you don't have to go far to find the poetic moment and that it's not limited to just a few.

What does 2022 bring for the project? What is coming soon?

This 2022, without a doubt, brings a lot of things for Synchronia. In 2021 I had decided that the following year I was going to publish only one book, but life was responsible for changing the course of things.

One of the best that has happened, and that I am still ending up believing, is to be part of the Colombian Writers' Library. This is a collection of the Ministry of Culture that seeks to rescue women writers who have not circulated enough in the country and who deserve to be heard. For this collection, the ministry entered into an agreement with several independent publishers.

Together with La Jaula Publicaciones, as a co-edition, we are going to publish two tremendous poets: Maruja Vieira, who is still alive at the age of 99, and Emilia Ayarza whose lyrics are an earthquake.

These two books can be obtained at the fair and later in bookstores.

We are also working on a book that excites us a lot and that is a rescue of an author who is not well known in Colombia but who should definitely start circulating. Finally, this year we will also be working on our novelty of FilBo 2023, which will be the first publication of a new Colombian author.

That is, in essence, our 2022. We hope to revive our Las Andariegas Reading Club, as it is also a very valuable space that we want to bring to the world of face-to-face.

Synchrony in a word.

Synchrony has many words but to say only one I would say: visibility,

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