1987 was the inaugural year for Ahsahta Press, an all-poetry publisher at Boise State University with the deft slogan, “Poetry Is Art.” Their focus was on highlighting and preserving works of poetry from the American West, and in that first year they published a slim volume by Michigan-born but Utah-enchanted Wyn Cooper, “The Country of Here Below.” 500 copies were printed; not all were sold.
Six years later, one of those copies had journeyed to Cliff’s used bookstore in Pasadena, California, where it was purchased by Bill Bottrell. Bottrell, a music producer, brought the collection with him to an informal weekly gathering that he and a group of musician friends had dubbed “Tuesday Music Club.