Independent Presses
Catbird Press publishes, among other
notable books, a number of those by Czech writers in translation, including Jaroslav
Seifert, a garland of whose poems appear elsewhere in this issue; and a volume of Czech
fiction from the “post-Kundera generation,” DAYLIGHT IN NIGHTCLUB INFERNO. Robert Wechsler, publisher of Catbird, has written
an interesting book-length essay, PERFORMING WITHOUT A STAGE; THE ART OF LITERARY
TRANSLATION; worth reading.
Interesting Czech sites include:
Radio Prague (with RealTime
broadcasts)
The Czech Center/New York
The Prague Post
Central Europe Online
Chelsea Green Publishing Company in White River
Junction, Vermont, specializes in books about sustainable living, with selections of
environmentally friendly, thoughtful, and hopeful books. The editor in chief, Jim Schley,
wrote us about our conversation with the Bessies, in recent issues: “As a younger
editor who has every intention of emulating such ... predecessors, I find this
conversation to be truly illuminating.” This press has high standards.
The Harvill Press publishes, among many
estimable authors, Richard Hughes, Richard Ford, and in translation, Anna Maria Ortese
(THE LAMENT OF THE LINNET), Ismael Kadare, Javier Marķas. Many of their titles are
available in the U. S., particularly at independent bookstores. We urge our Readers to
look for their books.
The Lilliput Press is an Irish publisher founded
in 1984 by Antony Farrell. Some 150 titles have appeared under its imprint: art and
architecture, autobiography and memoir, biography and history, ecology and
environmentalism, essays and literary criticism, philosophy, current affairs and popular
culture, fiction, drama and poetry - all broadly focused on Irish themes. Since 1985 they
have brought out four volumes of the essays of the late Hubert Butler. Hubert
Butler’s “The Artukovitch File” appears,
with their permission, in Archipelago, Vol. 1, No. 2.
McPherson & Co publishes such writers as the
fascinating Mary Butts (THE TAVERNER NOVELS), Anna Maria Ortese (A MUSIC BEHIND THE WALL,
Selected Stories Vol. 2, just published), and the performance artist Carolee Schneeman. A
beautiful story by Ortese, “The Great Street,”
appeared in our inaugural issue.
Mercury House is a not-for-profit literary
press in San Francisco. Members of the staff used to be associated with the respected
North Point, before that imprint closed its doors. Alfred Arteaga’s HOUSE WITH THE
BLUE BED is out now; “Beat,” from that volume, appeared in our Vol. 1, No. 3.
They are to publish NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH, a non-fiction narrative by Katherine
McNamara; a chapter of it appears in this issue.
Online Originals is an internet publisher of
literature who take the position, one we find ourselves much in agreement with, that
“Conventional book publishing has changed dramatically in recent years. Most of the
world’s publishers are now owned by a handful of media conglomerates, ruled in turn
by their finance and marketing departments. To guarantee high profits, they tend to accept
manuscripts only by celebrity writers than authors whose output conforms to the
conventional mainstream market. ... We believe that the Internet is the way forward for
all kinds of publishing. But for the benefit of our authors, we do not prevent them also
publishing printed versions of their works at a later date.” They deliver
“book-like” texts by e-mail.
Fine Arts
The Colophon Page and Photo Arts are two beautiful sites devoted to the fine
arts. They are directed by the fine-art book publisher James Wintner, of JHW Editions.
Colophon Page is devoted to artists’ books, which are displayed as if in a gallery;
there is an attendant shop, and review and forum pages. Photo Arts presents and offers for
sale the works of fine-arts photographers and photojournalists. An on-line auction of
photographs took place recently on the Photoarts site; the catalog, still up, is worth
looking at. The design and quality of reproduction of these sites are excellent. See also,
Jeanette Watson’s ‘Off the Wall,’
her book reviews.
Fray. Strange. Cool. Heartbreaking. A delight.
Octavo is a digital publisher committed to conserving
books, manuscripts, and antiquarian printed materials via digital tools and formats. They
make original works available to readers and book lovers through partnerships with
libraries, individuals and institutions. Faithfully depicting the beauty and craftsmanship
of these works, their editions incorporate all the modern day benefits of digital formats,
such as live text, searching and bookmarking. Schools and libraries receive special
discounts and generous site licenses from them. As a sample, they offer a PDF download of
William Shakespeare Poems. We are always pleased when web publishers use pdf files, as we
do for our Download edition.
Literary Reviews
The Barcelona Review, Jill Adams,
Editor. Their first anniversary issue is on-line with short fiction by Douglas Coupland,
Elissa Wald, David Prill, and an English translation from Catalan, some playful Catalan
porn, taken from one the biggest selling books in Catalunya, a collection of
“comic-erotic” stories by the Miranda Brothers.
Jacket was founded and is edited by John
Tranter, an interesting Australian poet. “For more than thirty years he has been at
the forefront of the new poetry, questioning and extending its procedures,” according
to his biographical note. His own work has been published widely and deeply; and in this
quarterly literary journal he publishes the work of other writers generously.
The Richmond Review received approving notice
(along with Archipelago) in the TLS last year. The founding editor, Steven Kelly,
“lives and breathes” literature as an editorial consultant for various English
publishers. He set up this site in October 1995, “when it was the UK’s first lit
mag to appear exclusively on the World Wide Web.” Each issue carries short stories,
feature articles, book reviews and poetry, and it comes out around ten times a year.
Bookstores
Politics and Prose is the largest independent
bookshop in Washington, D.C., with a full and beautifully-chosen stock-list and a
nicely-arranged web site.
The Village Voice Bookshop lives in the heart of
Paris, and makes American and English books available to customers on several continents,
via phone, fax, post, and e-mail. Odile Hellier,
the proprietor, is a Contributing Editor of this publication.
The Media
C-Span 2: C-Span 2 now offers its complete weekend
programming to books, and matters related directly to books; their host, and a founder of
C-Span, Brian Lamb is particularly interested in non-fiction.
The Financial Times: For those who want to watch
intelligently not merely the movement of stocks but the expansion of capital, this
newspaper (on-line; in print) is essential. We are told that Alan Greenspan reads the FT;
his assistants do not.
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