Brooklyn
and New York City
Lit Scene Fall 2007 Highlights
Compiled by Janine Armin and
Nathaniel G. Moore
Bought out by Winton, Shoemaker &
Co., which also owns Counterpoint, Soft Skull was
able to go ahead with a
new scourge of fall titles. This year has already heralded great
literary moves in NYC, though more of the renovative bent than the
innovative. Small presses, and the fairs that celebrate them, are
getting a hand from new investors, ensuring the longevity of the
products and the quality of drinks at the launches.
The press’ political edge continues,
with titles like Freedom From Want: American Liberalism and the
Global Economy by Edward Gresser, recounting the anti-globalization
cause of those wily American democrats who see free trade as a bad
thing, and who don’t think working for nothing is a good idea. Because
that’s obvious and Soft Skull isn’t, the book also concerns the
turn-around wherein these ideas are actually hurting the poor they seek
to protect, as democracy becomes likened to a ‘conservative tradition
reaching back to Sparta.’
The City In Crimson Cloak
by Asli Erdogan, follows Özgür, a young woman who has declared war
against Rio de Janerio by writing it down in her novel within the novel,
The City in Crimson Cloak. The narrator describes one day in
Özgür’s life, populated by ‘shanty towns, Condomble rituals, and
the violence and sexuality of the streets.’ The two novels intertwine
presenting diametric metaphors for Rio: life and death. Another cool
book from Soft Skull is Awake! A Reader for the Sleepless edited
by Steven Beeber, which looks at somnambulistic texts that help satiate
the sleepless.
Brooklyn press, Akashic,
is shelling out a hefty swell, with Like
Son by Felicia Luna Lemus, 'the not-so-simple story of a father, a
son, and the love-blindness shared between them,’ featuring a
post-punk man who must solve his family saga involving a ‘Mexican
avant-garde who once brought tragedy upon the Cruz family.’ Alex Rose’s
The Musical Illusionist sounds mind-blowing: ‘an interwoven
collection of post-modern folk tales -- disappearing manuscripts,
neurological anomalies, teleporting bacteria, and an unforgettable
composer who manipulates sound to bend perception -- that masterfully
blends scientific curiosity with magical-realist caprice.’ This
collection is organized by something called ‘The Library of Tangents’
into which the reader travels and views exhibitions and experiences ‘parallel
understandings of space, time, language, and all of the senses.’
Akashic’s poetry imprint Black Boat
releases Eel on Reef by Uche Nduka, who has been compared to John
Ashbery and Kamau Brathwaite.
Readings defiantly abound in the city,
with Chinatown’s Happy
Ending Music And Reading Series features some big time writers like
Ellen Litman, Chris Adrian, Jonathan Baumbach and Irini Spanidou. KGB
follows suit with David Lehman, Andrew Seguin and the contributors to Open
City. As usual, glamour also touches NY’s literary world, with the
Accompanied Library hosting a mid-September gala looking to revitalize
the elite literary club.
Also don’t forget the New
York Art Book Fair September 27-30, 2007. The annual fair of
contemporary art books, art catalogues, artists' books, art periodicals,
and 'zines offered for sale by over 120 international publishers,
booksellers, and antiquarian dealers. |
