Category: Publisher’s Thoughts
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Burning the Pencil at Both Ends: An Interview with a Small Press Operator
Editor’s note: Samantha Donisi-Hamm is a graduate student at the University of Houston – Victoria, where she is working on her M.S. in Publishing. She recently asked Atticus Books publisher Dan Cafaro to respond to a series of questions for a research paper she is writing for one of her classes. What prompted you to…
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Are Dissonant Voices Losing the Fight to Corporate Interests?
MADISON, NJ — Black Lawrence Press last month withdrew its commitment to publish Elizabeth Ellen’s novella from a forthcoming anthology because it found an unrelated essay she had written on rape “objectionably pernicious.” I believe the Black Lawrence editorial board has every right to change its collective mind—and I certainly don’t see this decision as a form of…
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Book Collecting 101: A Potpourri of Column Ideas for Sale to the Right Buyer
When I first opened Chapters Revisited, a used bookstore in Doylestown, Pa., in 1995, I was completely unaware of the nuances of selling books, particularly books that may be considered valuable because they were out of print. I also was unaware of how much money I would risk by running a “proper” bookshop of mostly…
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Inside the Head of John Boehner: Orange Is the New Barack at State of the Union ’14
0:09 “Now nod to Biden, John. Wink too. Keep the old kook guessing. Your tie rocks. His blows. You got this, John. You got this.” 01:31 “Ok, John, the Prez talked against China. Clap but don’t stand. Remember which party he represents. Let’s not get carried away.” 07:05 “Now would be a good time to…
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A Day in the Life of a Relapsed Bibliomaniac
MADISON, NJ — For too many years I lived in towns that either were too small, too remote, or too whitebread, cookie-cutter suburban to boast an independent bookstore. I made a point to end this trend last year when I returned to my home state of New Jersey after a twenty-year absence. It was a…
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A Writerly Farewell to Ned Vizzini
Writer Ned Vizzini took his life yesterday at the age of 32. News of this tragedy fills my Facebook newsfeed. The writer community I engage with reacts in the only way it knows how, groping for words to make sense of the senseless, offering heartfelt condolences, and writing memorial columns. I look up Vizzini’s name,…
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Together Raising Orphans: The Publisher-Author Relationship
When I first started Atticus Books, nearly four years ago, my intention was to discover debut novelists. As I became familiar with the small press terrain, I began noticing this unforgiving crack between commercial and literary fiction, a layered netherworld of talented story craftsmen like Nathan Leslie. Writers like Nathan whose prose — like a…
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Loving Lit Mags: Dan Cafaro
Today we publish Paper Dreams: Writers and Editors on the American Literary Magazine, a compilation of the continued history and conversations of the people who love new and interesting literature so much they spend their lives dedicated to sharing it with the world. But before we make history, it is only polite to introduce you…