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Five Questions for Dale Campisi

JA November 16

Since 2007, Arcade Publications have been releasing big stories in small formats on Australia’s unconventional histories and personalities, from E.W. Cole and Madam Brussels, to Overheard by Meanjin regular Oslo Davis, and, most recently, MacRobertsonland – a colourful tale of Australia’s very own Willy Wonka. Earlier this month, we chatted with designer Michael Brady, and now, we bring you Arcade part II with publisher Dale Campisi, who sat down with Spike across the digital divide to talk about double brandies, nuclear winters and unearthing stories in the Victorian Archives Centre.

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Tell us about the building blocks – how did Arcade Publications first begin?

Rose Michael and I had been working in publishing for a while and wanted to do our own list on our own terms: small books, big stories – with lots of pictures and quotes from primary resources. To do that we reeled in our partners, Michael Brady and Peter Daniel, to create the design that is so integral to Arcade. And then we got thinking about all the other ways we can tell stories, such as lectures and walking tours and vintage fashion parades! I hope one day we’ll do a hot air balloon adventure, and maybe go to Paraguay.

What’s in a name? Why ‘Arcade’?

I guess it has to do with EW Cole and his book arcade, the subject of the first book we published. I remember having numerous conversations about what we wanted our name to convey, and Arcade captured it best: boutique, eclectic, unique.

Walk us through a typical day for you – how do you divide your time between editing and sitting in the publisher’s chair?

I don’t edit anymore. That’s Rose’s job – she’s a great editor. Early on we did spend a lot of time sitting around Rose’s island bench, which was great because we didn’t even have chairs to begin with! I spend my time telling stories and finding new ones. I’ve been hanging out at the Victorian Archives Centre lately (there are loads of stories just dying to be unearthed there), and I spend alot of time talking about Melbourne past, present and future.

What do you look for in a manuscript? How do you know when you’ve got the one you want to publish?

I keep a look out for ideas rather than manuscripts. I’m looking for ideas that’ll be great books, interesting walking tours, fun events; they’ve got to be multi-faceted. Like LM Robinson’s Madame Brussels: This Moral Pandemonium, which has been a book, theatrical walking tour and courtroom drama – and that’s only what we’ve done with that story so far. I’m sure you can tell we’re backlist publishers, too. We’re still promoting every book we’ve published so in that way we’re looking for authors that we can work with long term.

Finally, what’s the last book you loved, and why?

Nevil Shute’s On the Beach, which I’m reading again right now. Admittedly I do read it imagining Anthony Perkins in his tighty whiteys and Ava Gardner getting hammered on double brandies and Fred Astaire in his race car cutting laps of a track in 1960s Melbourne. A nuclear winter is approaching, and everyone dies in the end and there’s never any hope that they won’t.

Amazing! I love Shute’s stark plain prose, too. And it’s full of fantastic insights into mid-century Australian life. Have you ever heard the phrase ‘Stop poking your stick in my ear’? And did you know that a tray of tea and buttered scones was the universal signal in Australia that a party was coming to an end? Even at half past eleven?!

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