Catbird Press publishes, among other notable books, a number by Czech writers in translation, including THE POEMS OF JAROSLAV SEIFERT; a garland of these poems appeared in Archipelago Vol. 2, No. 3. DAYLIGHT IN NIGHTCLUB INFERNO offers Czech fiction from the “post-Kundera generation,” including work by Daniela Fischerová. Her “A Letter to President Eisenhower,” appears in Vol. 3, No. 1. Her FINGERS POINTING SOMEWHERE ELSE is due out this year. Robert Wechsler, publisher of Catbird, has written an interesting book-length essay, WITHOUT A STAGE; THE ART OF LITERARY TRANSLATION; worth reading.

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 Michael and Cornelia Bessie (Archipelago, Vol. 1, No. 4; Vol. 2, No. 1): “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 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), and the performance artist Carolee Schneeman. A beautiful story by Ortese, “The Great Street,” appeared in our inaugural issue, and the writer’s testament, “Where Time Is Another,” appeared Archipelago Vol. 2, No. 4.

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 only celebrity writers 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.

Station Hill Press is a non-profit publisher run by the poet George Quasha. They publish writers of serious and surrealist bent, as very fine poetry and fiction. Among their writers are Maurice Blanchot and Spencer Holst (whose “The Zebra Storyteller” appears in Vol. 3, No. 1). María Negroni, whose work appeared in Archipelago, Vol. 1, No. 1 and Vol. 2, No. 4, is the author of a beautiful work in poetry and prose, ISLANDIA, which they will publish this year, using print-on-demand; a noteworthy work of literature brought out by an interesting development in publishing technology.

Sun & Moon Press is a fine, serious, literary press with a long backlist. They publish classics as well as contemporary fiction and poetry; writers and poets such as Arkadii Dragomoschenko (astonishing Russian poet), Paul Celan, Harry Matthews, Djuna Barnes, Paul Auster, Russell Banks. They will publish Maria Negroni’s LA JAULA BAJO EL TRAPO/CAGE UNDER COVER, tr. Anne Twitty, in a Spanish-English edition; a selection appeared in Archipelago, Vol. 2, No. 4.

Fine Arts

Colophon Page is devoted to fine artists’ books and works on paper. The attendant shop is the Mezzanine Gallery of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; with review and forum pages. Read Jeanette Watson’s ‘Off the Wall,’ book reviews by the owner of the old Books & Co..

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. 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.

Photo Arts  A handsome site showing work of fine-arts photographers and photojournalists. They have just announced the formation of “Phototgraphy Today International,” a consortium on-line of cool photographic sites in England, France and the U.S. The design and quality of reproduction are excellent.

The Private Library  A lovely surprise hidden behind a wall of chinoiserie, “Providing Services to Bibliophiles Since 1980.” Kurt Thometz offers guidance on the development of collections, cataloging, corganizing library software, conservation, and appraisals. “The Well Dressed Bibliophile” collects marvelous interviews with, portraits of Albert Murray, John Waters, Diana Vreeland, Fran Liebowitz, among others.

Literary Reviews

Arts & Letters Daily A portal site organized and selected for intelligent readers, directing us to information about books, authors, and commentary worth reading; nothing flashy or ‘entertaining’ here, thank goodness.

The Barcelona Review, Jill Adams, Editor. A fine, multi-lingual offering published in Catalonia by a multi-national group. Intelligent editing; interesting reading of younger writers from Europe and America.

Big Bridge Edited by Michael Rothenberg, editor of OVERTIME, selected poems of Philip Whalen (Penguin, 1999), and Wanda Phipps, who bring an open-armed, ’60s generosity to this “webzine.” “We think walls are good for keeping out the cold and rain,” they write: “They’re useless in the creation and propagation of art.” Big Bridge Press publishes chapbooks and handsome botannica.

The Cortland Review Established in 1997, this publication offers such poets as Charles Simic, Robert Pinsky, Henry Taylor, Mark Doty, Robert Creeley, Mark Jarman, Lloyd Schwartz, Neal Bowers, R.T. Smith, John Kinsella, and others. All poetry and most fiction appear in real audio format. They publish in February, May, August, and November, with Monthly features.

Jacket was founded and is edited by John Tranter, an interesting Australian poet whose work is published often in the London Review of Books and the TLS. “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. In this quarterly literary journal he publishes the work of other writers generously.

London Review of Books One of the few reviews we read cover to cover; published on paper every two weeks and worth subscribing to. The on-line edition offers a generous selection, including a recent review by Iain Sinclair of James Sallis a writer we’ve admired for some years. Among his talents are a series of superb novels passing as detective stories: THE LONG-LEGGED FLY, BLACK HORNET, MOTH, EYE OF THE CRICKET. He also translated Raymond Queneau’s ST. GLINGLIN.

The Richmond Review received approving notice (along with Archipelago) in the TLS. 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.” Published ten times a year.

Renditions  A magazine of translation, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, edited by Eva Hung, whose poems appear in this issue of Archipelago.

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