Emerging Writers Network

Source of Lit - Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor

I got to Nicola's about 45 minutes before last night's reading was scheduled and since I was bringing the author's book with me, felt the need to pick up something new. Not so surprisingly, I was looking for more 2016 short story collections that I'd yet to have picked up.

First I found one that wasn't even on my list, but it was up on the top of the shelves, face out--Alyson Foster's Heart Attack Watch (Bloomsbury, May), a hardcover. She's previously published a novel and this collection has some nice blurbs from Rebecca Lee, David James Poissant, E.J. Levy, Abbey Geni, as well as pre-pub words from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus. I think the fact that I didn't have it on my list at all contributed to why I picked it up and carried it around at first, but I opened it up and read some opening sentences and a page of one story and liked what I was seeing.

One more made it out the door with me, John Keene's collection, Counternarratives: Stories and Novellas (New Directions, 2015). While this paperback came out this past May, the hardcover was originally published in 2015, so it's not part of my 2016 SSC haul, but it had people like Eula Biss, Blake Butler, and Ben Ehrenreich saying nice things on the back cover and a quick peek inside left me bewildered in only the best way.

 

Source of Lit - The Postman!, Nicola's Books, A to Z Comics, and John King Books

Apologies if I mentioned one or two of these earlier--the past week has seen an explosion of OHMYGODIWANTTOREADTHATNEXT moments around here causing me great confusion on an hourly basis.

From the postman recently I've received Steve Stern's forthcoming The Book of Mischief: New & Selected Stories (Graywolf Press, September 2012), Wilfrido D. Nolledo's But for the Lovers (Dalkey Archive) w/an introduction by Robert Coover, A Theological Positiion: Plays by Robert Coover (Dutton), the galley for Victor LaValle's forthcoming novel, the devil in silver (Spiegel & Grau, Fall 2012), and some smaller Coover items--individual stories or mini-story collections, published in low print runs from the 70's {The Convention, The Grand Hotels (of Joseph Conrad), In Bed One Night}. Oh, there was also the nice package from Gary Fisketjon containing the two new Alix Ohlin books, Signs and Wonders (short stories from Vintage) and Inside (novel from Knopf).

I'm a huge Steve Stern fan and to see all of these older stories (and novellas) combined with newer efforts is fantastic--let's hope that Graywolf is the publisher finally successfull in finding a readership for this great writer. The Nolledo, I'll admit, I stumbled onto when searching for Coover items but the description made it all but impossible to pass up. "This extraordinary novel is no less remarkable for the power and the beauty of its language than for the exotic and magical world it creates. Ranging from hallucinatory lyricism to documentary realism, But for the Lovers is a rich and complex exploration of language, history, and mythology." The LaValle is one I can't wait to get into after having loved his other three books. And the Coover are a) cool little items and b) by an author that I can't get enough of.

From A to Z Comics comes Batman: the black mirror, written by Scott Snyder with art from Jock and Francesco Francavilla. This constitutes the last 14 (I think) issues of Detective Comics prior to DC's New 52 started up. It's an incredible run that I assume led to Snyder being set up as the writer on the new Batman series. The writing is fantastic, the art is great and works well with the script.

I went to a couple of readings at Nicola's last week (more about  each in later individual posts) and walked out with Richard Russo's Interventions (Down East Maine), Leni Zumas' new novel, The Listeners (Tin House), Jack Gilbert's The Great Fires: Poems 1982-1992 (Knopf) and Oxford American's The Best of the South issue. I've already blogged a bit about the Russo. I loved Leni Zumas' story collection and have seen bits of The Listeners and look forward to the whole thing. And Gilbert's one of the few poets published frequently in The Quarterly that I liked every time so getting a decade's worth all put together in one collection is something I'm looking forward to. And Oxford American is one of my favorite regularly issued magazines that also includes literature. I've not read all of this one yet, but did read the obituaries of William Gay and Lewis Nordan right away.

The visit to John King resulted in some very tired arms on my part. I walked out with a Rocky & Bullwinkle coffee table book that will be my dad's Father's Day gift (he finally gets email, I doubt he'll see this before Sunday), the Knopf hardcover of Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife, a novella by William Gass with an incredible layout design--somebody was damn busy considering the length of this book, a couple of back issues of Conjunctions, 14 with a section on "the new gothic" edited by Patrick McGrath including work from Coover, Bradford Morrow, Mary Caponegro, William T. Vollmann, and also has non-new gothic work from Diane Williams, and issue 21, the credos issue, which has novel excerpts from Coover's John's Wife and Carole Maso's The American Woman in the Chinese Hat, as well as stories from Mary Caponegro and Scott Bradfield and poetry from Forrest Gander.

Also taxing my arms were a couple of titles from Merrill Joan Gerber: An Antique Man and Chattering Man: Stories and a Novella, and a duo from Tony Ardizzone, the novel Heart of the Order and his Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award-winning short story collection, The Evening News. I found a ridiculously priced first edition of Steve Yarbrough's debut story collection, The Family Men, one I've kicked myself for over a decade over selling in a big move purge of books and then have been unable to find a nice copy for anywhere less than $50 or more--this one was $10. I'm going to scan the author photo and see if I can't get Steve to give me $10 just to keep that off of Facebook later this week! Found a copy of Scott Bradfield's Greetings from Earth: New and Collected Stories and Steve Stern's Harry Kaplan's Adventures Underground (which we needed for our rEprint series at Dzanc Books!). Also found a copy of Jennifer Allen's Better Get Your Angel On, a Knopf/Lish edited story collection with a great Chip Kidd cover (or a scary one, depends on your tastes I suppose), plus the Advanced Uncorrected Proof to Lewis Nordan's Wolf Whistle (an incredible novel) that also had a pamphlet Algonquin included with their review copies, an essay by Nordan, "Growing Up White in the South" telling why he HAD to write this novel. I think the last item I walked out of there with was Robert Coover's "Charlie in the House of Rue", a collectible single story published in 1980--this one of the 300 special edition (of the full editon of 1000 copies--the 300 were signed and numbered--this is 112). Whoops, forgot about Cynthia Ozick's The Shawl, which I reviewed yesterday here at the EWN.

So, you tell me, where to start?

Burke's Books--Special Deal on Signed Grisham Titles

A small confession.  I've never read anything by John Grisham.  Call me snobby, or elitist, or whatever other terms there are for it, but I never have.  I vaguely recall seeing the movie of The Firm, but know I never saw The Pelican Brief.  If the dates are right, The Firm came out not too long after I had really discovered the type of fiction that I liked--and I was burying myself in new story collections from University Presses, and haunting used bookstores to find copies of things like old Delillo novels and the original five Cormac McCarthy novels.  At that time, authors like T.C. Boyle and Madison Smartt Bell seemed mainstream because my local stores always had their new titles in on the day they were published, unlike many of the books I had to special order.  So, no, I never grabbed a copy of The Firm, or any of Grisham's follow-ups.  Not even the one that one of my favorite magazines, The Oxford American, published sections of.

I do know that the man likes the type of books that I do though--knowing some of the names that have come through the University of Mississippi as the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence, including current author, John Brandon, points that out pretty clearly.  He also supported The Oxford American for a period of time when they truly needed it.  And he's been a friend to one of my favorite independent bookstores, Burke's Books, for some 20 years now.

And they are offering a special deal on a couple of signed John Grisham titles:

John Grisham 20th Annniversary Offer

For a limited time only, order at least one signed copy of the new young adult novel (Theodore Boone: The Abduction, $16.99) and receive 20% off your pre-order for the signed copy of Grisham's forthcoming legal thriller, due out in late October.

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER YOUR SIGNED COPIES

DETAILS: This offer good through May 31st. If you order at least one copy of Theodore Boone: The Abduction ($16.99), you may pre-order your signed copy of the As Yet Untitled Fall 2011 Grisham Legal Thriller at a reduced price of $23.00 (regular price $28.95). Theodore Boone signed copies will be available for pickup and shipping in June; the Fall title will be available for pickup and shipping in November.

All orders must be prepaid to take advantage of this offer.

Everyone who takes advantage of this offer will be eligible to win a Grisham prize. We will be giving away signed limited editions of several Grisham titles, signed posters, a signed football (a promo for the Bleachers book), signed The Firm broadsides, and much more.

So, if Grisham is your cup of tea, if you have a reader of YA books in your house, or you just think it's a pretty cool deal and know that there's somebody you could give these books to as gifts, I'm sure a big order of this combo would do Burke's Books a world of good as they head into the summer.  And I'm pretty sure that's what John Grisham had in mind when he set this up with the fine folks there.

Dzanc Books Announces New Program with Independent Bookstores

As noted over at the Dzanc Books News Blog, Dzanc Books has begun a new program called the Dzanc Books Independent Bookstore Program.  Following up on the giveaways to libraries and schools that Dzanc did during the month of July comes this new program working in conjunction with independent bookstores.

The Dzanc Books Independent Bookstore Program

August 16, 2010 - Ann Arbor, MI--Dzanc Books is excited to announce a new program, the Dzanc Books Independent Bookstore Program, which has Dzanc working in conjunction with one or two independent bookstores each month (from the 15^th—with a slightly delayed start this month—through the 15th, coinciding with our monthly online journal, The Collagist, to move forward with our mission of promoting literary fiction.

There was great interest during the month of July, where we at Dzanc donated books to many schools and libraries when provided proof of purchases of books bought at an independent bookstore.   We have decided to continue this offer.  We believe that by focusing on one or two bookstores each month, with the help of their cross-promotion, that we will be able to help inspire sales within the indie bookstore community of not only Dzanc books but all great books, while at the same time drawing attention to the many charitable programs Dzanc Books sponsors and runs, including our Dzanc Writer in Residence Programs and the Dzanc Prize, which the purchase of our books, and/or usage of our Dzanc Creative Writing Sessions helps our ability to sustain and advance these programs across the country.

The first store to celebrate this program with Dzanc Books will be the RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH.  There are two main aspects to the program:

1)  Dzanc Books will continue the donating of a title from our catalog, or one of our imprints.  The patron of RiverRun Bookstore will inform us of the library to which the donation will be made.  Dzanc Books has created fliers that have a simple form to fill out and send to us with the receipt, showing that the book was purchased during the correct dates, and was for a book of literary fiction from RiverRun Bookstore.  The books do NOT need to have been published by Dzanc or our imprints.

2)  RiverRun Bookstore, along with promoting the donation of books, will also promote the Dzanc Creative Writing Sessions, our extremely inexpensive and successful writer mentoring program.  For every order to the DCWS placed by a writer that notes on their order that they were sent our way by  RiverRun, Dzanc will donate $5 to Seacoast Local, a non-profit based near the bookstore that promotes that people think local first when it comes to their money and time spent.  Dzanc Books will make this donation in RiverRun Bookstore's name in one sum at the end of the month.

Throughout the future of the Dzanc Independent Bookstore Program it is our goal to promote shopping at independent bookstores, develop better relationships with the stores we'll be working with, promote literary fiction, help writers via our DCWS program, and to donate both books to libraries, as well as money to worthwhile non-profits local to the bookstores we are working with.  Dzanc Books strongly believes that every single one of these aspects is vital.  Interested bookstores should email Dzanc Books at [email protected].

 About Dzanc Books

 Dzanc Books was created in 2006 to advance great writing and champion those writers who don’t fit neatly into the marketing niches of for-profit presses. As a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization, Dzanc Books not only publishes literary fiction, but runs inexpensive online mentoring programs, and sponsors the Dzanc Prize which has a literary community service aspect to it.  Dzanc also fully committed to developing educational programs in schools. For more information on Dzanc Books and its mission, books, authors, awards, and programs, please visit www.dzancbooks.org.

 

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