Gary Fisketjon Wins Award

It still sounds strange to say that Gary Fisketjon is an EWN'er, but it really is the case and he's been nothing but generous with his time for the EWN in the past.

We were happy to hear that the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction has announced that Gary Fisketjon, VP and Editor-at-Large for Knopf, has been awarded the 2006 Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction.  Gary was kind enough to answer a few quick questions about this announcement.


Dan:

Thank you, Gary, and congratulations on the announcement.  How did you find out about the award?

Gary:   

Noreen called me up – I was hoping to say that my candidate had won the thing, but alas no. 


Dan:

While making the announcement, Noreen Tomassi, Executive Director of the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction, said,“The creation of the Vintage Contemporaries series was a landmark event in fiction publishing in America, and Gary also has an incredible track record working with some of the finest American writers. The Maxwell Perkins Award was presented for the first time last year to Nan A. Talese, and we can’t imagine a more appropriate recipient for the second award than Gary Fisketjon.”   

Do you take much time to reflect on the creation of the Vintage Contemporaries series?  Looking back, what does it mean to you to have been at the helm of that?

Gary:   

Well, I had two colleagues who were every bit as responsible:  Melanie Fleishman, whose background in bookselling was invaluable, and Jeff Stone, whose experience as a sales rep was just as crucial.  Besides which, this was an idea so obvious that any number of people could’ve dreamt it up.  Certainly it had an enormous effect on literary publishing in this country, which had really been enfeebled for quite some time beforehand, and the success of fiction in trade paperback soon spread into hardcover as well – all this, I should add, made possible by the renaissance in independent bookselling that was going on at the time.



Dan:

You have a long list of fantastic, contemporary, authors that you have worked with.  As many of these authors are still working today, how often are you able to take on new authors?

Gary: 

As often as possible, but nearly not so often as I’d wish;;;



Dan:

Any early predictions on who will follow yourself and Nan A. Talese in the near future of Maxwell E. Perkins Award winners?

Gary:   

Who can say?  I can think of any number of people here at Knopf who are more deserving, but I would add that no one comes to this by him- or herself.  The “lone wolf” notion of publishing is one I’ve always questioned, as I believe Mr. Perkins would’ve, since the strength of this enterprise isn’t a single person here or there but the sort of collaboration that involves various people in different departments.  Without that, my experiences would’ve been far less interesting and rewarding, and moreover with no chance of success, and it’s been my tremendous good fortune to have worked alongside a great many of them….


Dan:

Congratulations again, Gary.  And continued success being a part of many of the great books so many of us look forward to each year.

Gary: 

You’re a daisy to say so.

Comments

[Dan Wickett]

This comes from Steve Yarbrough. Gary has been his editor for the last four novels.

"Well, from the insider perspective, the truest thing I can say about
Gary is that Perkins himself could not possibily have been a better
editor. Rather than try to make you write some book that he's got in
his head, Gary addresses himself to the book you've written. He's a
genius when it comes to helping the writer find his or her voice, when
it's temporarily lost, and we do all lose it from time to time. He's
also an enemy of excess verbiage, believing that if you can say
something in ten words, you're wasting your time, and the reader's, if
you say it in eleven instead. Lastly, he's just a prince of a man, a
gem in every way."

[Dan Wickett]

This from Alix Ohlin, whose story collection, Babylon, just came out and was edited by Gary, as was her novel that was published last year:

"I just read Steve Yarbrough's comment and I
couldn't agree more. Being edited by Gary has taught
me so much about economy in writing and not indulging
oneself, not being lazy. I find it truly miraculous
that he has edited so many diverse books, that he
knows as much about the business as a whole as he does
about the individual sentence, and I still sometimes
shake my head when I think about it, amazed at my own
good fortune."

[Dan Wickett]

Poor counting skills on my part - Steve Yarbrough reminded me he has FOUR novels, but only the last THREE were actually edited by Gary Fisketjon.