News from this week's Communiqué
Wafaa Bilal will appear on PRI’s The World today, December 19. Bilal was just on WNYC’s The Leonard Lopate Show on Friday, December 12.
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2008/12/12/segments/118143
“Iraqi-born artist Wafaa Bilal details a compelling interactive art project he undertook in 2007. . . . For Bilal art and life are inseparable.”—Art in America, December 2008
Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun
Wafaa Bilal with Kari Lydersen | City Lights Publishers | 9780872864917 | $16.95 | Trade Paper
Katy Lederer, author of The Heaven-Sent Leaf, taped an interview for Marketplace set to air on December 24.
The Heaven-Sent Leaf
Katy Lederer | BOA Editions, Ltd. | 9781934414156 | $16.00 | Trade Paper
Jason Del Gandio, author of Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists, will appear on the December 23 show hosted by Madeline Brand.
Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists
Jason Del Gandio | New Society Publishers | 9780865716285 | $17.95 | Trade Paper
The show aired on December 16. Merwin discussed his new book, The Shadow of Sirius, which addresses themes of memory and mortality. Click to listen: “The Poetic ‘Shadow’ Of Memory, Mortality”
The Shadow of Sirius
W.S. Merwin | Copper Canyon Press | 9781556592843 | $22.00 | Trade Cloth
Rhyll McMaster was interviewed by host Lisa Mullins on December 18. Download the show here.
Feather Man
Rhyll McMaster | Marion Boyars Publishers, Ltd. | 9780714531489 | $15.95 | Trade Paper
The New York Post recommends Xavier Garza’s book in the article “Feliz Navidad! Check out these cool Latin-themed Christmas gifts,” listed under kids’ books.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12102008/tempo/feliz_navidad__143422.htm?&page=0
An interview with Xavier Garza, author and illustrator of Charro Claus and the Tejas Kid, airs today, December 19, on NPR’s Latino USA.
Charro Claus and the Tejas Kid
Xavier Garza | Cinco Puntos Press | 9781933693248 | $17.95 | Trade Cloth
“Dope Menace collects the lurid cover art of drug-themed mass-market paperbacks from the postwar years, with self-explanatory titles like Orgy Town, Narco Nympho and Marijuana Murder.”—LA Weekly, December 16, 2008; Listed as one of the “Most Intriguing Season’s Picture Books,” Now We Sample the Season’s Picture Books
“If busty cheerleaders stripping for an Acid Orgy or blonde ingénues menaced by opium lords are more your poison, the vibrant paperback covers reproduced in Dope Menace . . . should turn the trick.”—The Village Voice, December 16, 2008
“Dope Menace boasts hundreds of full color images from the wicked subgenre of drug-exploitation narratives. . . . The covers that made these authors books so easy to pick up are collected here for the first time, in all their seductive and transgressive glory.”—Tucson Weekly, November 20, 2008
“Readers will dig Gertz’s enthusiasm and formidable knowledge; the stories behind key titles . . . almost as enjoyable as the beautifully reproduced, full-color covers. “—Publishers Weekly, “Book of the Week for the Week,” December 8, 2008
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6620251.html?q=Dope+Menace
Dope Menace: The Sensational World of Drug Paperbacks
Stephen J. Gertz | Feral House | 9781932595345 | $24.95 | Trade Paper
“Mr. Hall’s take-no-prisoners journal about his years as the director of the National Theater of Great Britain in the 1970s is the ultimate backstage back story, replete with tales of political infighting, artistic love matches and mismatches, and illuminating thumbnail analyses of the elusive greatness of titans like Samuel Beckett, Vanessa Redgrave and Harold Pinter.”—The New York Times, December 11, 2008
Peter Hall’s Diaries: The Story of a Dramatic Battle
Peter Hall | Theatre Communications Group | 9781840021028 | $32.95 | Trade Paper
This is great exposure! The upper-left corner of the home page rotates through the book (number five on the rotation). If you click through the text, a link takes you to the Seven Stories Press website.
http://www.isaacmizrahiny.com/
10,000 Dresses
Marcus Ewert; Art by Rex Ray | Seven Stories Press | 9781583228500 | $14.95 | Paper over Board
Louis-Georges Tin, editor of The Dictionary of Homophobia, presented a declaration to the UN General Assembly in New York City on December 18, urging the decriminalization of homosexuality worldwide. It was the first time that the General Assembly has ever considered the issue of human rights as they concern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Tin gave Maxime Vergahen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, a copy of this book in appreciation for her support.
The Dictionary of Homophobia: A Global History of Gay & Lesbian Experience
Edited by Louis-Georges Tin; Translated by Marek Redburn | Arsenal Pulp Press | 9781551522296 | $44.95 | Trade Paper
The story “Posterity” by David Crouse, as well as more of his introduction, is available for the whole week at the ForeWord Book Club.
The Man Back There: Stories
David Crouse | Sarabande Books | 9781932511635 | $15.95 | Trade Paper
Minoru Morita is cited on the front page regarding Japanese culture coming to the United States.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1215/p01s04-woap.html
Curing Japan’s America Addiction: How Bush & Koizumi destroyed Japan’s middle class and what we need to do to fix it
Minoru Morita | Chin Music Press | 9780974199542 | $15.00 | Trade Paper
This week in their list of “Literary Treasures from the Small Press Book Fair,” ForeWord mentioned the Akashic Books Noir series, Seven Stories Press’ All You Can Eat, and Cinco Puntos Press’ The Face of Pancho Villa.
“In his new book All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?, the former Clinton administration official takes our luxury-addled culture to task, arguing that despite past political indifference and gridlock, America can solve the hunger situation that affects millions.”—Playboy.com
For a complete list of the Akashic Noir titles:
http://www.cbsd.com/search.aspx?title=noir&publisher=221&
All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?
Joel Berg | Seven Stories Press | 9781583228548 | $22.95 | Trade Paper
The Face of Pancho Villa: A History in Photographs and Words
Friedrich Katz; Photographs by The Casasola Collection | Cinco Puntos Press | 9781933693088 | $12.95 | Trade Paper
“During the 1960s older performers of country music were displaced by the slicker ‘Nashville Sound’. . . . Luckily, a devoted fan and hi-fi installer from Baltimore, Leon Kagarise, was there to record their concerts and take heartfelt color snapshots.”—The Wall Street Journal, December 13, 2008
“From 1961 to 1971, Leon Kagarise, an audiophile with a passion for country music, snapped photographs of Johnny Cash, George Jones, the Louvin Brothers, Bill Monroe, Dolly Parton, and just about every other artist who played the small outdoor concert stages near his home. . . . Many of which have been collected in the attractive new coffee-table book Pure Country.”—The New Yorker, December 15, 2008
“Pure Country . . . unearths the loving snapshots of a true country-music fan, before the C&W establishment began to resent its own twang.”—LA Weekly, December 18, 2008; “Most Intriguing Season’s Picture Books,” Now We Sample the Season’s Picture Books
“An awesome coffee-table book featuring photographs from the celebrated rural country-music circuit, in which musicians merged with fans.”—Time Out New York, December 10, 2008
“[A] beautiful new book.”—Los Angeles CityBeat, December 11, 2008
“Sure to be beloved by both fans of CMT and Arthur Magazine, this captivating photo book . . . intimately chronicles one of the most important time periods in country music’s history.”—trendcentral, December 5, 2008
“Stunning.”—BoingBoing.net, December 15, 2008
“Pictures of both noted and anonymous performers appear in all their hazy, saturated, slide-transferred glory.”—Flavorpill.com, December 10, 2008
Pure Country: The Leon Kagarise Archives, 1961–1971
Process | 9781934170038 | $35.00 | Paper over Board
The Fall/Winter 2008–2009 Indie Reading Group Picks
Top Ten:
The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir | Kao Kalia Yang | Coffee House Press | 9781566892087 | Trade Paper $14.95
Featured Title:
The Night Birds | Thomas Maltman | Soho Press | 9781569475027 | Trade Paper $14.00
Winter 2008–2009 Kids' Indie Next List
A Perfect Season for Dreaming / Un Tiempo Perfecto Para Soñar | Benjamin Alire Sáenz; Illustrations by Esau Andrade Valencia | Cinco Puntos Press | 9781933693019 | October 2008 | Trade Cloth $17.95
Indie Next 2008 Highlights List
Feather Man | Rhyll McMaster | Marion Boyars Publishers, Ltd. | 9780714531489 | September 2008 | Trade Paper $15.95
December Indie Next Pick
The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange | Mark Barrowcliffe | Soho Press | 9781569475225 | November 2008 | Trade Cloth $25.00
The Better World Shopping Guide—Revised Edition: Every Dollar Makes a Difference | Ellis Jones | New Society Publishers | 9780865716308 | October 2008 | Trade Paper $9.95
January Indie Next Pick
Tinkers | Paul Harding | Bellevue Literary Press | 9781934137123 | January 2009 | Trade Paper $14.95
Tinkers | Paul Harding | Bellevue Literary Press | 9781934137192 | January 2009 | Trade Cloth $25.00
Couch | Benjamin Parzybok | Small Beer Press | 9781931520546 | November 2008 | Trade Paper $16.00
February Indie Next Pick
The Rose Variations | Marisha Chamberlain | Soho Press | 9781569475386 | $24.00 | Trade Cloth
Booklist, December 2008
Tinkers | Paul Harding | Bellevue Literary Press | 9781934137123 | $14.95 | Trade Paper
“A tinker is a mender, and in Harding’s spellbinding debut, he imagines the old, mendable horse-and-carriage world. . . . And so in this rhapsodic novel of impending death, Harding considers humankind’s contrary desires to conquer the imps of disorder and to be one with life, fully meshed within the great glimmering web. . . . Writing with breathtaking lyricism and tenderness, Harding has created a rare and beautiful novel of spiritual inheritance and acute psychological and metaphysical suspense.”
Details Magazine, December 2008
Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee | James Tate | Wave Books | 9781933517353 | $14.00 | Trade Paper
“When he turns to prose, this Pulitzer Prize-winning poet exhibits a surprisingly uncomplicated style. The reissue of his 2002 short story collection includes 44 oddly moving tales about vacationing spies, sour video-store managers, and creepy gynecologists.”
The Huffington Post, November 29, 2008
Trinidad Noir | Edited by Lisa Allen-Agostini and Jeanne Mason | Akashic Books | 9781933354552 | $15.95 | Trade Paper
“Rest assured, long after the Solo and Peardrax have been poured, after the last morsel of jerk chicken wings has been eaten, Trinidad Noir will be savored for years to come.”
Midwest Book Review, November 2008
Cretaceous Dawn | Lisa M. Graziano and Michael S. A. Graziano | Leapfrog Press | 9780981514833 | $15.95 | Trade Paper
“I was blown away with this novel . . . Our two authors have written a tale so gripping with survival, adventure, romance, and thrills that you don’t even realize you are also digesting scientific details of life from 65 million years ago. . . . All in all this is an exceptional read, one of a kind, and I give it my highest recommendation.”
Detectives Beyond Borders: A Forum for International Crime Fiction, November 30, 2008
The Vampire of Ropraz | Jacques Chessex; Translated by Donald Wilson | Bitter Lemon Press | 9781904738336 | $12.95 | Trade Paper
“I get a special kick out of that authorial magic that updates an old genre while remaining chillingly true to its time-honored form. . . . Chessex’s (and translator Donald Wilson’s) little feat of alchemy is to be just a bit more explicit—all right, sometimes more than a bit—about hidden horrors and forbidden appetites than, say, Bram Stoker, while preserving the same sense of foreboding and isolation. . . . A grimly humorous comment on the notion of buried secrets.”
Monsters and Critics.com, November 30, 2008
The Vampire of Ropraz | Jacques Chessex; Translated by Donald Wilson | Bitter Lemon Press | 9781904738336 | $12.95 | Trade Paper
“Chessex’s stark, spare writing style exposes the story’s bare bones, creating a compelling tale that delves into prejudice, superstitious fears and base cruelties thinly veiled by social morals. A fascinating telling that will leave readers wondering who were the true criminals and victims.”