More Depressing Book News
Looks like another well-known independent bookseller is on the ropes (via PW Daily): After closing its 15-year-old Penn Quarter store in Washington, D.C., on Friday to make room for a Wagamama noodle shop, (Ed. Note: At least it’s not a fucking Cold Stone Creamery.) Olsson’s Books & Records, which is headquartered ...
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Seven Japanese Authors
I finished reading Contemporary Japanese Writers, Vol. 2 over the weekend, and found seven writers/books that I wish were translated into English: Yoshikichi Furui Asagao (Rose of Sharon) is a masterpiece from Furui’s middle period. In a commentary to the paperback edition, writer Hisaki Matsuura remarks on the ...
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Always Good to End on a Positive Note (Or Not)
Today’s PW Daily has a piece from Rachel Deahl about the possible death of another book review section: Amid the pending real estate sale and newsroom cutbacks, rumors have surfaced about book sections being cut at Tribune-owned papers. One freelance critic told PW that the Tribune Company is planning to slash ...
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New Catalan Fiction issue of RCF
This actually came out a month or two ago, but I recently received the new Review of Contemporary Fiction, which is a special focus issue on New Catalan Fiction. (Full disclosure: I set this project into motion at Dalkey Archive after returning from a trip to Barcelona, but left before seeing it to fruition.) It’s a ...
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New Absinthe
The new issue of Absinthe arrived the other day and looks like another solid issue. According to Dwayne D. Hayes’s editor’s note, this issue could be considered the “humor” issue, with stories such as Jens Blendstrup’s “The New Deceased Member of the Mikkelsen Family.” Wilhelm ...
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Reading the World 2008: The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa
This is the twelfth Reading the World 2008 title we’re covering. (Almost half-way!) Write-ups of the other titles can be found here. And information about the Reading the World program—a special collaboration between publishers and independent booksellers to promote literature in translation throughout the month ...
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Bragi Olafsson's The Pets and Open Letter Subscriptions
Yesterday, over at Booksquare there was an interesting post on “Why Publishers Should Blog,” that generated a bit of discussion: Just as authors need to better market themselves and their books, so do publishers. While the audience for a publisher website is diverse — authors, booksellers, journalists, ...
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