Boston Bibliophile Interviews Zac Bissonnette, Author of THE GREAT BEANIE BABY BUBBLE

1.  What inspired you to tackle Beanie Babies and Ty? What was it about these adorable little plushes you just couldn’t resist?

I was in elementary and middle school when they were popular. I only had a couple but my mother and I were big into antiques and flea markets and, overnight, it went from no one knowing what Beanie Babies were to Dick & Ellie’s, a popular Cape Cod flea market at the time, being like 20% Beanie Baby dealers. I have these really vivid memories of these Beanie dealers just being really busy and really excited—talking about how much their inventory was going up in value. We were both totally perplexed by it.

And then, all of a sudden, it was gone. No one talked about Beanie Babies anymore. I hadn’t thought about them in forever until I was in college and saw, at a little country auction house in Amherst, MA, several big Rubbermaid containers full of Beanie Babies—perfectly preserved and almost perfectly worthless. I Googled them when I got home and realized how big they’d been—10% of eBay’s sales at one time—and that the guy who’d created them had become a billionaire, and the richest man in the history of toys. The story of how this thing had gone from a $5 stuffed animal with no advertising produced by a small company into this speculative craze that really did take over the lives of a lot of people was really intriguing to me.

2. In the course of doing research for the book, what did you learn that surprised you? What challenges did you face writing the book?  

So when I started making very preliminary calls to see whether it might be a topic worth further exploration, the first thing that struck me was the sort of strength of emotion people felt about the toys and also about Ty Warner. I’ve never reported on anyone who stirred such universally strong feelings in people. One of the first people I reached out to was someone who used to work at the company. I messaged her on Facebook and she said to call. I called and her husband picked up the phone and the first thing he told me was, “Ty Warner ruined out life.”

The biggest challenge was that Ty declined to talk to me for the book—which was sad, in a way, but I think it also forced me to really leave no stone unturned in my search for the story. I also think that—and Malcom Gladwell wrote a spectacular essay on this—access in terms of telling someone’s story tends to be overrated. If you wanted to know the truth about who I am and what I’m like, spending a day with me and asking lots of questions would probably be one of the worst approaches to that. Not that I have anything spectacular to hide or anything, it’s just that I would, as anyone would, tend to show you a side that would be different from what other people see when I’m not being shadowed by a reporter with a digital recorder.

If you really want to know about someone, I think talking to as many people as you can who’ve known and liked/not liked that person at every stage of their life is a better approach. That’s how I pieced together the story of Ty’s life and career.

3. You cover some pretty extreme manifestations of the Beanie Baby craze- including a murder, debt, and more. How was the craze a manifestation of American culture in the 1990s? 

It’s a fantastic question. I think much of what drove the craze was more universal than American: our willingness to suspend disbelief and engage in magical thinking, the allure of the get rich quick scheme, and our overreliance on past performance as a predictor of future outcomes are things that have shown up in every culture since as long as there’s been recorded history.

But the Beanie Baby craze really did rise in a special era of unreality in America: the internet bubble. In terms of how that ethos found a manifestation in a plush toy, a lot of that ties in with the unique way in which the mother-daughter relationship of the 1990s tended to be centered around materialism in a way that it hadn’t been before. That bond wasn’t about religion or sewing or cooking the way that it had been in previous generations; it really was, more than at any time in history, a relationship defined by shopping and spending and brands. And that’s a big part of how these animals that started out as a popular kids’ toy became this obsession of adults.

4. Do you own any Beanie Babies yourself? Do you have a favorite? 

Haha. I think it’s impossible to spend a lot of time researching and reporting on other people’s obsession without that obsession rubbing off on you. It’s not something I wrote about in the book at all because others have explored that way better than I ever could—go order Susan Orlean’s Rin Tin Tin right now!—but yes: I did, for “research purposes,” buy many, many Ty animals, including Beanie Babies. I still can’t walk by a display of plush toys without stopping to examine them. I also buy them as gifts for people who probably don’t want them but at the same time, they need to stop worrying and learn to love them.

My favorite Beanie Baby is definitely Kaleidoscope—a spectacularly designed cat who came out after the craze had ended. I think my all-time favorite Ty piece though, would have to be Sugar, who is a Ty Classic cat. The cats are my favorite Ty animals because, as you’ll see in the book, they’re what started the company and they’re at the center of some of my favorite stories in the book. I also like Whisper the Deer, Seaweed the Otter, and, among the new Beanie Boos line, I think Rocco the Raccoon is pretty perfect. Have you blocked my email address yet?

5. So much of the book is about Ty Warner and the way the personal and the corporate intermingle.  What can someone developing a brand learn from his example- good or bad?

 I think the thing that struck me about Ty was how his obsession with the product transcended the business element of it; it wasn’t just about trying to create a toy that would sell. It was this quest to create the most perfect plush animals. Even his competitors would always give him credit for that: He has an incredible eye and he doesn’t stop until a piece is perfect.

Ty really built that company on his own perfectionism, love of the product, force of personality, and intuitive grasp of consumer psychology. He did it all without consultants or focus groups, and he had no education beyond a year of college (studying drama).

6. You talk about how fan culture- the magazines and books devoted to Beanie Babies- helped grow the market for them as collectibles, then Ty tried to use scarcity to manipulate the secondary market and grow retail sales, successfully for a while. Is there a Beanie Baby fan culture now that the collectible market has all but dried up? Have we all moved on, or are there still hard-core Beanie collectors out there?

One of my favorite things about the internet is that, it seems, nothing ever really moves on completely. At the risk of outing myself as a total weirdo, I need to disclose here that I am an obsessive Perry Como fan and collector; I buy something Perry Como related at least once a month, and I know probably all the other diehard Perry Como fans just from being on the internet. Weird obsessions and interests in esoterica are, I think, really encouraged by the internet where you can find a community for almost anything, which provides the social element that keeps hobbies alive long after what would otherwise be their expiration date.

So the craze for Beanie Babies is entirely over, 99%+ are worth much less than the $5 price they retailed for in the 1990s, but there is still a world of enthusiasts living on. Leon and Sondra Schlossberg have a wonderful site called TyCollector.com, and there’s also BeanieSource.com, which has great updates on new releases from Ty. And, as a kid’s toy, Ty’s line of plush animals remains the most popular in the world—which they deserve to be because, in terms of value, they really are the best. 

Thank you so much, Zac! This is one the funnest interviews I've done and I really appreciate your time!

Kew Gardens Pop-Up Bookstore

Last Thursday, local writers, publishers and artists got together in the Queens neighborhood of Kew Gardens to hold the first-ever "pop up bookstore." The event was held at ThinkingCAP (82-66 Austin Street), a tutoring center. Teaching rooms were remade into salons where small-press publishers, authors and other creative people displayed their work and chatted with curious booklovers. Authors were drawn from around Queens and some have double lives as artisans; the event included a local potter and several visual artists.

The evening was the first of its kind and hopefully not the last, as Queens booklovers rally to promote the idea of an independent bookstore in Kew Gardens or Forest Hills.

Right now, there is only a Barnes and Noble outlet in Forest Hills to supply local readers; the closest independent bookstore is in the neighborhood of Astoria. It would be great to see the borough be able to support a second indie, and one focused on this area of Queens with its particular strengths and diversity.

Today I have an interview with Deborah Emin, publisher at Sullivan Street Press, who organized the event. She graciously agreed to answer a few questions for us about the event.

Sullivan Street Press Publisher Deborah Emin

1. How did you come up with the idea for the pop up bookstore? Has there been an event like this before in the neighborhood? What goals do you have for it?

No one, as far as I know, has done a Pop-Up Bookstore in Kew Gardens. I wanted the community to know how many great writers we had here and that we all need their support and I wanted a potential bookstore owner to know that there were people interested in having such a venture here.

Author Robert K. Blechman holding his Twitter mystery Executive Severance. You can find him on Twitter @RKBs_Twitstery.

2. Can you tell me about the reading series you started in 2008? What authors have you had?

I started the REZ Reading Series in Kew Gardens because we have no bookstores and there was a large reading community but no place for them to experience the benefits of a bookstore--authors with new books to read and sell their work.  Vivian Gornick, Laura Miller, Max Blumenthal, Jay Neugeboren, Justin Martin, Nancy Kline, we had the Poverty Initiative show up during a blizzard to talk about their new book and to help with a food drive--basically we counted on good will as there was no money to offer anyone. Plus this area is filled with writers and we tapped on them to participate. I know lots of poets and people trying out new work and on and on, it has been a long and fruitful time.

Handmade Bookmarks and Poetry by Carol L. Lustgarten

3. What's your vision for an independent bookstore in Kew Gardens? 

I am not a bookseller, I am a publisher. I would love to have a place here where not only books were sold but also music, we have lots of musicians here too, and where artists can also sell their work.

A Selection of Books from Sullivan Street Press

4. What's the next step after the event is over? What can the community do to help? What kinds of challenges does the project face and how can we get involved?

 Last night as we all sat and talked about the fun we were having, we decided to do it again and again and to involve more Queens writers and booksellers in the mix. More artists too. A couple of people suggested spaces they thought they could get for free. And we talked about sitting in the parks, of which we are blessed with some of the most gorgeous spaces, to sell when the weather turns warm again. Making it a weekly event on the weekends and showing up, whoever wants to for a couple of hours.

The challenges are that none of us have any money. But we love bookstores. I think if more people come to the events, support the ones trying to draw attention to the needs for a bookstore and joining in by writing as you do about these things, we can find someone at some point who will take this venture seriously. We do have plenty of empty store fronts in both Kew Gardens and Forest Hills but the problem as always all over Queens is parking too.

Thank you so much for your time. It was a really fun evening and I for one look forward to more literary events in Forest Hills and Kew Gardens!

For more information on Sullivan Street Press, visit the website here.

Boston Bibliophile Interviews: Andrea Lynn, author of QUEENS: A CULINARY PASSPORT

Today I have an interview with Andrea Lynn, food writer, guru of Queens food and author of Queens: A Culinary Passport. She has been a food writer, cook, recipe developer and food enthusiast for many years. Currently she is a freelance lifestyle writer and recipe developer. Her webpage can be found at AndreaLynnFoodWriter.com and you can follow her on Twitter @andrealynn27.

I'm a huge fan of her new book and delighted to share some Q&As.


1. How long have you been interested in the Queens food scene? What first piqued your interest? 

I've lived in Astoria for 7 years; at some point, a few years ago, I was getting a little jealous/ annoyed at all the attention that the Brooklyn food scene gets. I thought, "Why not Queens?" While specific restaurants in Queens do get highlighted, I think the borough as a whole doesn't get much respect for its wonderfully diverses ethnic food scene. So I wanted to show-off Queens.

2. It can be a little intimidating for the newcomer to broach some of these communities and threshholds. How can New Yorkers, or anyone in a big city with diverse populations, get started? 

Start small. Spend half a day in a certain section of NYC (or another city) and just start exploring. Ask strangers for their food recs. It's surprising how happy people are to share that info, when asked. Also, I think if you're particularly interested in certain cuisines, go straight to the areas that have them: Polish food in Greenpoint, Greek in Astoria, etc.

3. Do you have a personal favorite cuisine? 

I do love Asian food (Thai, Chinese, Szechuan.. all of it). When other people get sick, they might crave chicken soup. For me, it's hot and sour soup. One of my favorite things to do (even since I was a kid) is go to dim sum on the weekends. And now I especially think that Flushing has the best dim sum there is.

4. Do you have a food guru? Where else can a hungry person find great information on ethnic foods?  

Joe DiStefano is pretty great and thorough as far as Queens food. I'm amazed how he constantly finds new, interesting food picks on a daily basis practically. We Heart Astoria and We Heart LIC is always on top of new restaurant opening in the area. Jeff Orlick knows everything going on in Jackson Heights.

Andrea, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us!

Boston Bibliophile Interviews: Stav Sherez

Stav Sherez is a British novelist and music critic whose first novel, The Devil's Playground, was published in 2004. That book was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Best First Novel Award and his two most recent books, A Dark Redemption and Eleven Days were both shortlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.

I've been a fan of his since A Dark Redemption hit the U.S. in 2013 and I'm so excited to share this Q&A with you today.

1. You started out as a music critic. What brought you to crime writing? Whom in the crime world do you like to read? Who are your influences?

The stories I wanted to tell brought me to crime fiction. I've always been interested in questions of morality, in those places where right and wrong are not so clear-cut and in the choices people make when they think they have no choice at all, so it was natural that crime fiction would be the best way to explore that. I also love the deductive side of crime fiction – the seductions of logic, puzzle and mystery. There's something very elegant and satisfying about the best crime novels that is hard to find anywhere else.

I still read: James Crumley. Kem Nunn. Jim Thompson. James Sallis. James Ellroy. Ross Macdonald. Those are the ones I keep coming back to.

Outside of crime it would be: Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Denis Johnson.

2. Do you write with music playing? Do you ever envision a playlist for your novels? Does ELEVEN DAYS have a playlist, even unofficially?

I can't write to music. I need to hear the rhythm of the sentences in my head. But I can't plot without it playing in the background! It seems to turn the tap on my subconscious. My first novel, The Devil's Playground, was written while I was still a music journalist and music features on almost every page. But I hate to do the same thing twice, so there's very little music in the next three books. However, it's started to creep back, and in The Intrusions, my next book, Geneva's listening habits would indeed constitute a playlist.

3. Your two crime novels that are available in the US, A DARK REDEMPTION and ELEVEN DAYS, are both really concerned with global social issues and their impact in England. How do you choose which issues to focus on in each book?

It's sounds like a cliché but the stories choose me. I begin to get obsessed and find myself thinking about little else. I read what I can about the subject and then I have to write about it, so I can stop thinking about it all the time! But, often, it's a single situation that sparks off the book and I then start to feel my way into it. It's only looking back with hindsight that I can see the same theme running throughout all four novels – that of idealism turning to fanaticism which, by its very nature, takes me to far-flung places. I'm very obsessed by the idea of Tourist Noir – how we behave when bad things happen to us abroad, when we no longer have the crutches of friends, family or even language. I guess all my books could be considered tourist noir.

4. I love the relationship between Carrigan and Miller. How do you see it evolving over the course of the series?

Why, thank you! I'm so glad you like it. You never know if something's going to work for a reader and it's always lovely when it does. I don't plan that much ahead – I think if a character surprises me, they're more likely to surprise the reader too – but I can say that things are going to get a little more fractious between Carrigan and Miller in the next book. Things sometimes have to get worse before they get better...

5. In the first two books the focus has been very much on Carrigan although we got some hints of Miller's problems in ELEVEN DAYS. Her ex seems like a real piece of work- are we going to see more of him? Does he wind up dead?

Oh yes, we're definitely going to see more of him in The Intrusions! I'm glad you asked about that because in the next book the focus is much more on Geneva. It's nice to be able to switch between them and hopefully, it'll be one of things keeping the series fresh.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions!  I can't wait for the next book.

Interview with Marc Fitten, Author of ELZA'S KITCHEN

Marc Fitten's second novel Elza's Kitchen was published earlier this year; I reviewed the delightful Elza's Kitchen yesterday but I've been a fan since his first novel, Valeria's Last Stand, came out in 2009. Marc was kind enough to answer a few of my questions so I could share the answers with you.

You’ve said that people have very strong reactions to your books. What have those reactions been and why do you think this happens?
I think people who read my books don't really know what to expect beforehand.  They begin and they recognize an off-beat and breezy narrative and think it’s going to be a light comedy, but then they realize that the characters and their situations are terribly flawed.  I think there's an incongruity between the light narrative style and thematic heaviness that people either respond to or don’t.  But I like to imagine that the hints are always there and that the characters I write are psychologically real. I think Billy Wilder does this sort of thing expertly.  Same with the Coen bros.  I like the idea of someone sitting down to watch something like Friends and maybe getting into it when all of a sudden – but not really – Monica attacks Phoebe with a frying pan.  I don’t know.  I’d like to see that, I think.
One critic in the UK wrote that I was like Marmite.  A critic in the States wrote that I was like Prince.  I don’t know.  Take that as you will.  I think it means readers will either like my work or they won’t.  Considering the opposites are Nutella and Justin Bieber, I’ll take Marmite and Prince any day.

You lived in Hungary for a number of years and both of your novels are set there. Why did you choose Hungary as a place to live, and what is it about the country that has inspired you so?
I lived in Hungary for five years back in the nineties.  I was young and looking for a good time. And the idea for what I’m calling The Paprika Trilogy came from film.  I wanted to create something like Kieslowski's RED, BLUE, and WHITE films but I wanted my project to span the period of time from the end of Soviet communism until today.  I wanted to explore the mindset of three women as time passed and the country transformed.    Hungary is perfect because it embodies the qualities of lightness and heaviness that I try to put in the book.  Mass social transformation is a huge undertaking for any group of people. It’s the sort of process that screams for fiction.
 
Why do you so seldomly name your male characters? In Valeria’s Last Stand, the male lead was known as “the Potter”; in Elza’s Kitchen, it’s “the Sous-Chef.” Why these choices?
I wanted to keep the focus entirely on the female protagonists.  I also wanted to lend the books a fairy tale quality.  I don’t think anything is lost in Little Red Riding Hood because we don’t know the woodsman’s name.  We don’t even know Red’s name!  It worked stylistically, so I went with it.  In the finale, I plan on having male characters whose names I will etymologically expound on until the editors beg me to stop.   

Your books have a kind of folk-tale feel about them to me, yet their settings and characters are deeply contemporary and steeped in modern political, economic and social realities. Can you explain this contradiction?
I think civilization is mostly absurd and at odds with human nature. Luckily, I wasn’t the first person to have this thought.  I don’t know who was -- maybe the guy who lived next door to the guy who invented it --  but I know Freud wrote a book about it.   

Don’t get me wrong, I prefer civilization to the alternative.  I partake.  However, every time I put on a suit, I am conscious of the fact that the fabric of our lives is really cotton…and then mass hysteria. Our context is entirely speculative.  At best civilization is a hopeful hypothesis, at worst, an illusion.  The only real things, as far as I can observe, are the precarious and existential crisis of the human condition, the capacity to love, and hope.  Anything else, any political or economic system especially, is a chimera.  So Kundera nailed it, "the great matters of nations cannot make us forget the modest matters of the heart." And my style is entirely concerned with stripping away the pretentions of civilization in order to represent people – who I find endlessly fascinating.

Marc, thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions! Best of luck with your book and I can't wait to read the finale!

Interview with Dan Wilbur, author of How Not to Read

Yesterday I reviewed bookseller and comedian Dan Wilbur's book How Not to Read. Today I have our conversation on books, reading and literary culture.

How Not To Read started with your blog, Better Book Titles. What gave you the idea to create Better Book Titles? Didn’t you have anything better to do?

I was in stacks at Columbia University and I met the famous librarian ghost who lives there. She asked me to teach her how to use an iPad. I obliged, though her ghost-hands made it hard to tap the screen. She then asked me if I would father her ghost progeny. It was really weird, but when I woke up surrounded by ghost-babies it reminded me that I would have to teach them everything I'd ever read in books. Although we all know ghost-babies live forever, I am sadly mortal. So I designed this blog to help them understand books faster by summing up each one in a concise image. The results were funnier than intended.

The real answer: I was playing a game called "Assassins Creed" where you kill the Pope at the end, and I thought: "They should have called this 'Kill The Pope'" It would have been so controversial!! Then I looked around my apartment and realized there were many books from college I could sum up easily, and I started with the very first one I posted: "Teddy Roosevelt Solves Tranny Murders" for "The Alienist." It's a great book and needed a better title. 

  

It says on your bio that you play a lot of video games. What video games are you playing now? Do you play video games while you write? Cause it kind of seems that way.

 Hah! It does seem like I write while playing games. I certainly played a lot of Words with Friends while I should have been writing. When people ask how long it took to write the book, I say "a year, but to you it will appear as though I wrote it in one sitting!" That's probably because I played too many games. Right now I'm between Batman: Arkham City, Chrono Trigger (an RPG for Super Nintendo where you constantly time-warp!), and I just bought a game called Starhawk which features a big online community of angry teens to challenge. Those are the games I like most now. Where I can make a teenager angrier for ten minutes by beating him. It's a good way to get out the spite I feel for my own fifteen year old self.

I think we’re all sick of books and reading. I mean, really. Whatever, right?

Totally. It's like: wow, books! What's your deal? Why don't you make music and cool colors and cost less money? Every time I see a bunch of books on the curb, I think: "Good. More space in that house for Bed, Bath & Beyond paintings and Laserdisc collections! Good job, house dweller!" Next book I see I'm gonna take down a peg by heckling it. HAH!! WHAT NOW, BOOK?! Think you're better than everyone else with your beautifully-wrought imagery and suspense? You're nothing to me! Anyway, I'm reading Gone Girl right now and it's great.

What are you so glad to have finished recently?

I'm glad I finished writing my book so I can relax and collect all that SWEET CASH.

Best book I finished in the last few years: Skippy Dies. lots of themes juggled from drugs, catholic cover-ups, ghosts, time travel, more drugs, and death. Paul Murray ties it all up nicely at the end. Really sweet and funny. Other than that: Pulphead, I reread Adam Ross's Mr. Peanut and still love it. I also tried a third time to read Ulysses, and I'm proud to say I quit because I was getting nothing from it but the sad-people jitters that come from the self-flagellation of voluntarily reading Joyce.

I have to say, your book did not help me stop reading. On the contrary, it made me want to read some of the books you mentioned. What do you have to say for yourself?

OH NO!! I've failed! Maybe next time I'll write a book with fewer literary references. Oh no! It's like these signs on the subway to stop people from eating junk food or doing cocaine, but there's cocaine and junk food on the sign! I've become what I hate most. A reader-inspirer!

Thanks for answering my questions, Dan!

Interview with Author Alex Gilvarry

Alex Gilvarry is the author of From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant and the founding editor of the website Tottenville Review. He's written for The Paris Review and other publications. From the Memoirs is his first novel and he joins us today for a brief interview. He can be found online at alexgilvarry.com.

1. What inspired you to write From the Memoirs of a Non Enemy Combatant? What issues were you trying to get at it?

The imprisonment of men without due process, particularly those in Guantanamo Bay. I think novels can still incite change, or change the way we think. Or at least they can be a big doorstop of a reminder that things need to change. 
 

2. What kinds of reactions have you had to the book? When I met you at your Cambridge reading with Liz Moore, the crowd seemed confrontational and even a little rowdy. Do you have any stories from the road- odd encounters at readings, etc.- that you’d like to share with my readers?

Ha! That's Cambridge for you. Our readings here can get rowdy. But it's the non-fiction writers I feel for. They get it the worst. I think at the reading you attended at Porter Square Books, it was suggested that I was a Nazi sympathizer for using a quote by Coco Chanel as the epigraph to my novel. I fumbled the question a little because who would ever expect to be linked with the Nazis at their book reading. But the quote is a good one for our time. "Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them."

 3. Why did you present Boy as essentially a dupe? Should it matter to the reader if he’s innocent or guilty? Are the tactics used against him in prison more or less acceptable based on his innocence or guilt?

It was important to me that he have a certain naivete to the character for him to be real. I think one of the pleasures of this book and books like it are for the reader to determine Boy's level of guilt or innocence. And it changes with every reader, every experience.
 

4. What kinds of research did you do for the book? At your Cambridge you mentioned reading Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago; how did that book influence yours?

That book is at times a moment to moment telling of what it's like to actually be in a Russian prison. This was something I had to imagine--being in prison. And it was something I had trouble with. So books were the only thing that helped create that. I read several books worth noting, and I recommend them to anyone with a further interest in the situation in Guantanamo or simply American injustice. The Eight O'Clock Ferry to the Windward Side by Clive Stafford Smith, Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power by Joseph Marguiles. Five Years of My Life, Murat Kurnaz. All very powerful and infuriating. The villain in all of these is us. But I also studied the prison novel as told by Kurt Vonnegut and Max Frisch.

 5. Do you consider writing to be a political act? Is this book political?

I think writing is both a moral and a political act, and that this should be exercised much more than it has been in literary fiction today. Maybe it's not the same as it was in Solzhenitsyn's day--because books are no longer the dominate medium. But HBO is certainly not going to deliver the next Catch-22 or the next Gulag Archipelago, because television--while it may be called the "new novel" even by many novelists--abides by investors and advertising. It's still primarily entertainment, where as the novelist answers to no one but his own moral compass.

Thank you Alex for this great interview- and book! Read my review of From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant here.

Publisher Spotlight Dalkey Archive Press: Interview with Director John O'Brien

This week I'm excited to present a three-part series focusing on the Dalkey Archive Press, a small nonprofit publisher specializing in wonderful literary fiction, drama, poetry and nonfiction. Today I have an interview with its director, John O'Brien; tomorrow and Wednesday I'll have reviews of two recent Dalkey titles, The Truth About Marie and The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am. I hope you'll stay with me for this great series and get to know a fascinating publisher!



What is Dalkey Archive all about? What's its mission and background? 

I will try to make this as simple as I can, but will probably fail. I wanted the Press from the start to be international in its scope and to publisher writers who otherwise would probably never see light of day. So, these were writers from around the world, including the United States. It was clear, starting i the 1970s, that publishing in the United States was changing, and one of the changes was a gradual decrease in the number of translations being done. This trend, of course, has continued. But the Press also has a certain aesthetic taste, one that I have an enormous difficulty describing. My easy answer is that we publish what I like, but what I like is of a certain kind. But we do not look for a certain kind of book, or what's called a "Dalkey book." We read and react to manuscripts the way that readers react to a book: they find it interesting, or they don't.


What kinds of books does Dalkey publish? When a reader sees the Dalkey logo on a spine, what can he or she expect? Who are your authors?

This is tricky. There obviously is something that characterizes our books, but it's hard for me to stand back and say what it is because the choices are so personal. My own interest is, I believe, in character--which sounds very old-fashioned. But I think that character becomes far more interesting to the degree that a novel isn't burdened by plot, which confines character. There is also certain styles and structures that I relate to, and these tend to be rather distinctive ones. I don't find our books "challenging," though many reviewers do. If one is well read and knows literary history, I think our books are almost "mainstream." (I think something must have been cut off in your last question: "Who are your authors?" There are about 300 of them!)


What distinguishes Dalkey from other small presses?

There are other presses that do books similar to ours, and sometimes we even overlap. The difference may be our insistence on a certain kind of book. I have never been interested in having the Press present a wide range of tastes. There is a certain kind of writing that I like and relate to, and I am doomed to publishing only that kind of book. We also have a critical dimension to what we do, which perhaps makes us distinct. We publish, not only the Review of Contemporary Fiction and CONTEXT, but also a number of critical and scholarly books. I don't know of any other press that has this kind of profile. Finally, we have an educational dimension to what we do, which is perhaps best represented in the translation work we do with young translators; this reflects my background as a university professor.


What's your favorite Dalkey book or books?

This is nearly impossible to answer, and I'll try to limit myself to between 5 and 10, but on another day the books could be quite different. So, to try: 1) Nicholas Mosley's "Impossible Object"; 2) Gilbert Sorrentino's "Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things"; 3) Jacques Roubaud's "Some Thing Black"; 4) Dimutru Tsepeneag's "Vain Art of the Fugue"; 5) Svetislav Basara's "Chinese Letter"; 6) Patrik Ourednick's "Europeana"; 7) Vedrana Rudan's "Night"; 8) Flaubert's "Bouvard et Pecuchet"; 9) Fernado del Paso's "Palinuro of Mexico"; 10) Aidan Higgins's "Scenes from a Receding Past"; 11) of course, Flann O'Brien's "At Swim-Two-Birds." There's 11. It could easily be 100.


What are some upcoming Dalkey books we should be watching out for? 

Jean-Philippe Toussaint's "The Truth about Marie"; William Gaddis's "JR"; Gerhard Meier's "Isle of the Dead"; and Kjersti Skomsvold's "The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am."

Mr. O'Brien, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions!

Please come back starting tomorrow for the reviews!

Publisher Spotlight: Introducing Weavers Press & Publisher Moazzam Sheikh

Today I have the distinct pleasure of presenting an interview with writer Moazzam Sheikh, short story author, librarian and now publisher of Weavers Press, a new small press based in San Francisco and specializing in South Asian literature. 

I've known Moazzam for a couple of years now and it's a real privilege to have a front-row seat to this new venture of his. Tomorrow, I'll have a review of the first book Weavers Press has published, To Be With Her, by Chicago-based writer Syed Haider. I think Weavers Press is a name you'll want to look for!

What’s the story behind Weavers Press? Why did you decide to start it? What is the press’s mission?

Well, I have always been attracted to a streak of independence in art and literature. South Asian writers have had tremendous success in getting published by mainstream presses. But if you look at how many translations of works of fiction from South Asian languages have been published in the US in the last five years, for example, the result is very depressing, verging on insult. Many have felt there needs to be an alternative window. We chose the word 'weavers' to honor a specific poetic tradition in medieval India where poets wrote in the register of people living on the margins and used weaving as their central metaphor and identified with the female sex as the most oppressed by the system. This is very prominent in the Punjabi language. The poets distanced themselves from status quo and court power. I see modern black, Jewish, gay and lesbian, labor, Latino, feminist presses akin to those Punjabi poets who see mainstream, commercially compromised output not fully representative of important issues and not encompassing the complex, multi-layered experience of a people. The press is primarily dedicated to allow space for serious quality writing by South Asian writers; and will consider works by others if they their work engages with South Asia in a complex way. We'll certainly consider translations of literary works written in South Asian languages.

Can you tell me a little bit about your background in literature and in life?

I grew up in Lahore and have lived in San Francisco for the last 25 years. I began writing on the late side, since early nineties. I have translated fiction across Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and EngIish. I am a librarian by profession. My first book of short stories The Idol Lover was published by an independent press in San Francisco. I have published short stories in Urdu as well. I am currently working on translating a few poems from the Punjabi by the noted poet/critic Najm Hosain Syed, which will be published in one of the coming issues of Chicago Quarterly Review.

The Small Press Distribution link to my book with a blurb: http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9780979339011/the-idol-lover-and-other-stories-of-pakistan.aspx

Who have been your influences in literature and publishing?

This is a difficult question to answer. With regards to publishing, I have already mentioned a tradition of independent publishing in the US. No one can deny the important role the black press in the antebellum America had played in addressing a terrible inequality between blacks and white in this country. The same goes for Jewish presses for combating anti-Semitism and for other marginal/minority groups in this country. Alternatives presses/publishers play an important role in shaping popular consciousness. But if I have to mention one person whose dedication has inspired me is none other than my friend in Karachi, Ajmal Kamal, who has managed to produce one
of the finest Urdu literary journal introducing so many international writers to the Urdu readership. He has also published many wonderful writers under the banner of City Press. If it weren't for him, readers in Pakistan wouldn't know who Naiyer Masud or Uday Prakash is. Down the road, Andre' Schiffrin's New Press (NY) would publish translations of Masud's short stories in 1999.
And to answer your question about literary influences, well, there are too many to list, but in the context of South Asians writing in English [Salman] Rushdie's name cannot be discounted. Perhaps I should also mention Juan Rulfo, the Mexican writer, for the only two books he wrote hold a special
place in my heart. And Dostoyevsky is the ultimate kind of fiction, though I extremely detest monarchy. One of my recent favorite novels is Vyasa and Vigneshwara, a brilliant post colonial work originally written in Malayalam by Anand (which is a nom de plume). Recently I have also come to admire very much a living legend of Punjabi literature, Najm Hosain Syed. His poetry, his plays and literary critique should be read by every Pakistani at least. Among American poets I have always admired Adrienne Rich's work. Currently I have been savoring the superb Zone by Mathias Enard.

What kinds of books are you interested in publishing?

We are primarily interested in publishing literary fiction, though we did recently publish a book of poems written in Punjabi in English translation.

What have you published so far? What’s forthcoming?

Well, we have published two books so far; one novel, To Be With Her, and one book of poems, The Circle of Illusion. The third book is about to come out, The Aim of Art (which takes its title from Oscar Wilde). It is a very well written, literary novel, not a South Asia specific book. This is a long
story, but the only exception we'll probably make. I was so impressed by the language and the theme! It's a WWII novel and part of it takes place in Iceland and a chunk of it in different parts of USA. It's a tale of a friendship between an educated, gay Jewish man and straight Christian man from a poor and broken down family background. Their friendship is centered around their attraction to art and literature as one educates the other.

My own manuscript (my second collection of stories) is also ready but I am not sure if Weavers Press would be the home. Then we have Roshni Rustomji-Kerns stories we have been working on. After that we would like to do some kind of anthology but no final decision has been taken yet. We also
have a few young writers in mind.

What niche do your books fill? Who is your target reader? Would you say your books fall to the more literary or popular end of the spectrum?

We at Weavers Press aims to stick to what we think has a literary merit, which is of course always very subjective. Mainstream publishers have a very different agenda. We believe there's always a sizable readership that craves for original, serious, non-exotic literature and we would like to reach them.


What plans do you have for the company?

It's a very modest and humble effort. We would like to gauge our effort and journey by the quality and not the number of books we will publish. We would love to strike a good balance between translations and works originally written in English.

Where can readers find your books?

Small Press Distribution is representing us. The books can purchased either on their website: http://www.spdbooks.org/Search/Default.aspx or Weavers Press' website: http://weaverspress.wordpress.com/bookshop/ directly.

Bookstores can get the books from the distributor also. To Be With Her is also available at some independent bookstores in San Francisco such Modern Times, Alexander Books, Book Shop, and Birds and Becket, and in Chicago for sure. It can also be purchased on Amazon.

Book Blogger Appreciation Week: Interview Swap Day with Amy of Amy Reads

Today is Interview Swap Day! I signed up to interview Amy of Amy Reads, a terrific blog that focuses on GBLTQ lit, African lit and more. Amy hosts Nigerian Literature Fridays and has started a database of Nigerian literature, among other neat projects. She's also started a project called The Real Help, to "to read the books recommended by the Association of Black Women Historians in their statement on The Help". She's a fantastic blogger who's doing some important work to advocate for the literature she loves, and I feel privileged to have interviewed her!

1. What motivates you to keep blogging?  
The community - it's all about the community! (And the books!) Every time I read a good book, especially a lesser known work, I just want to share it with others. And I often find some point or other in a book that I really need to discuss. 

2. How do you organize your time to make room for blogging among the other demands of your life? 
Ah this is a hard one! Or embarrassing ;) The truth is that I don't have a lot of balance. I suppose that because I travel so much for work it is a little easier for me - I know no one in the city, usually, and have nothing to do in the evenings other than work or read or be online working on blogging things. When I am home I am finding it more difficult now that I live in a city that actually has fun things to do (Toronto) and am still working on finding a balance. I often read blogs before I start working, during lunch break, and then in the evenings I devote a few hours to reading / writing posts / commenting. I try to schedule ahead so that when other demands do come, I don't fall too behind.  

3. Why is blogging about books important to you?
I read a lot (shocking I know!) but I never had anyone in real life with whom to discuss books. When I stumbled across the book blogging world in 2008/2009 I was so happy and couldn't believe such a community existed. When I finally started my site in 2010 it was because I wanted to take part and discuss the books that I was reading - that often no one else was. It's important to me to be able to share my love for these books and actually get the chance to talk about them with others who are equally passionate about books. 

4. What genre do you like the best? What are your favorite reads of 2011 so far? What are you looking forward to?
I love non-fiction best, but also African literature and GLBTQ literature. I've read so many fantastic books that it's hard to pick. A couple would be Arrow of God by Home and Exile by Chinua Achebe, IN DEPENDENCE by Sarah Ladipo Manyika, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor, and A Million Nightingales by Susan Straight. The books that I am most looking forward to for the rest of the year are those I'm reading for my various projects - be it The Real Help, Year of Feminist Classics, or my Nigerian Lit Fridays feature. 

5. Who influences your choices when it comes to reading, and who influences the way you think about books? 
So many bloggers influence what I read, and that is really where 90% of any influence comes from. I often pick up books just on a whim, but if there was anyone who convinced me to read someone I can guarantee it was a blogger! Some of these bloggers are listed in my BBAW post yesterday.
Thank you Amy, for taking the time to answer my questions! If you'd like to see her interviewing me, you can go to her blog today!

Special Feature: Interview with author Elena Gorokhova

Today I'm honored to be able to present an interview with author Elena Gorokhova, whose wonderful memoir A Mountain of Crumbs is now out in paperback.

1.Why did you decide to write this memoir? Why is it important for an American audience to learn about day to day life in Russia in the Soviet era?

I wrote this memoir to exorcise my demons. Chekhov once said, “If you are able not to write, don’t.” I wasn’t able not to write, I suppose, and over the years I kept writing essays about my life in Russia. I wanted the American audience to see how similar we all are, despite our different social systems and the ocean between us.

2. Why did you decide as a child to start studying English?

There was something captivating about the sound of English when I first heard it at age ten coming from a record called “Audio-lingual drills.” There was something mesmerizing: all those rolled R’s and soft L’s and the intonation that soared at the end of sentences. It was so foreign, so rarely heard. It sounded like music. It sounded like magic.

3. Who were your literary influences? Whom do you love to read?

I was brought up with books by Russian classics: Turgenev, Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov. We all were; these writers were part of our high school curriculum. My friends and I craved contemporary English and American literature, but very few books from the West were allowed into Soviet Russia. We read Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms because it was an anti-war novel. We read Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath because that book, as Pravda put it, “exposed the ulcers of capitalism.” Now I read both in English and in Russian. I love to read poetry: from Ovid to Boris Pasternak to Iosif Brodsky to Billy Collins. I love the prose of Ursula Hegi and Mark Doty. I love to read both fiction and nonfiction by J.M. Coetzee, the finest writer alive.

4. Was there any subject you found particularly challenging to write about? How did you approach it, or did you avoid writing about it after all?

The most difficult chapter to write about was “Simple Past,” where my father dies. I was 10 and he was in the hospital (children were not allowed in Soviet hospitals). I made a call one day and heard the clerk say, “Died last night.” No matter how difficult that chapter was to write, it made me feel relieved. It felt as if a heavy rock had lifted off my heart.

5. What's your writing process? Do you write every day? Are you working on something now?

I would like to write every day, but I teach full-time. I write as often as my schedule allows. I’m now working on my second memoir about coming to the U.S., about the first year or two living as a lost stranger in a strange land.

6.  Have you been back to Russia? How do you feel about the changes in the country since the fall of the Soviet Union and what do you think is the cards in the future?

I go back to Russia for a visit every year, and I have witnessed many changes. My country is no longer locked behind the Iron Curtain; people can travel abroad and read anything they like. Yet, in a way, it is the same country. The communist apathy has been replaced by the general apathy, allowing the Kremlin to consolidate their influence over the national media and discourse. The government controls all television and all but one radio stations. Russia’s governors are not elected but appointed by the president. The new generation of Russians are too busy traveling and making money to pay attention to the freedoms being stealthily stolen away from them.

Ms. Gorokhova, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions and best of luck with your next book. I can't wait to read it!

Publisher Spotlight: Europa Editions Interview with Alina Bronsky

Recently I had the honor of interviewing author Alina Bronsky, whose new book The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine is due out next month from Europa Editions.

1. I talked to you last year about your first book, Broken Glass Park. How has the past year been for you? How has your life changed since the publication of your first book, and now, your second, the very wonderful The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine?

A: Thank you Marie - I‘m happy you liked The Hottest Dishes.

My life sort of changed completely after the publication of my first book. In the first 12 months after Broken Glass Park came out I was kept pretty busy with more than 150 readings and events in Germany. I quit my job and wrote my next novel mostly during the train rides. I had invitations from all over the world and went on a 2-week-long book tour in the US. The touring and events continue even now, after the publication of my second book. However I had to reduce the quantity of events radically because I need more time for my family and for the next novel.

The great thing about The Hottest Dishes is that readers react so passionately to it. It seems to be a much more polarizing book than my first: readers love or hate it with all their hearts and react even more emotionally than they did to Broken Glass Park.

2. Rosalinda is a fascinating literary creation. Where in your imagination did she come from? Why did you choose her as the narrator of this story?

A: Rosalinda is not a product of my imagination. She is alive. She represents a whole generation in the former Soviet Union. I know lots of women like her, and readers often agree, saying that Rosalinda remindes them of their own mother or grandmother. I chose her as my narrator because I liked the idea of ambiguity. Rosalinda sees everything in her own unique way and does not accept any other point of view. The reader starts to distrust her very soon and to develop his own interpretation of the story.

3. Hottest Dishes is really different from Broken Glass Park. What do the two books have in common? Why did you tell this particular story as a more a satire or black comedy?

A: It‘s difficult for me to compare my books - it‘s like comparing one‘s children. Both books have heroines who live between worlds, and who are not really settled anywhere. The touch of black comedy comes thanks solely to Rosalinda. She does not allow herself to get depressed and she describes even the tragic parts of her life in a way that can make you laugh.

4. What themes do you address in Hottest Dishes? Why were these themes important to you?

A: Well, the answer is always the same - identity, love, failure, loss. What else is important in life?

5. Is Hottest Dishes a Russian book, or a German book like you've been quoted as describing Broken Glass Park? What do these distinctions mean? Do they matter?

A. I don‘t think such distinctions matter any more. It makes me very happy to see that so different people all over the world can enjoy or be deeply touched by the stories of Sascha or Rosalinda. These heroines seem to have something both exotic and universal to them.

6. Who are your literary influences? Whom do you like to read? What are you reading now?

A: I think every book I have ever read influences my way of writing. I read everything I can get my hands on, and I mean everything literally. I just finished 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami and The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. Yesterday I started Matched by Ally Condie.

Ms. Bronsky, thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. And since this interview marks the first time I've had the chance to interview an author twice, my thanks are double, too!
More in the Publisher Spotlight series on Europa Editions:
Week One:

• Tuesday: Interview with editor-in-chief Michael Reynolds,
• Wednesday: Review of Heliopolis, by James Scudamore, nominated for the Man Booker Prize,
• Thursday: Interview with James Scudamore.

Week Two:

• Monday: Review of The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, by Alina Bronsky, due out next month,
• Tuesday: Interview with Alina Bronsky,
• Wednesday: Review of Hygiene and the Assassin, by Amélie Nothomb,
• Thursday: Review of The Jerusalem File, by Joel Stone.

Publisher Spotlight: Europa Editions Interview with James Scudamore

Today I have the honor of sharing an interview with Heliopolis author James Scudamore. Mr. Scudamore was kind enough to answer a few questions about his Booker-nominated novel as part of my Publisher Spotlight series on Europa Editions:

1. Heliopolis combines a lot of different elements really successfully- plot, character and style- but what really makes the book for me is the setting. Sao Paolo came across to me as almost a post-apocalyptic ruined city, and some of your descriptions of high rises and city streets and the way people live in gilded cages, sounded like something out of science fiction. How realistic is the Sao Paolo in the novel? If I went there tomorrow, what would be different? What would be the same?

The city of the novel is a confection combining some features of the São Paulo I remember from my childhood, some elements of the modern city that I have revisited and researched since then, and some flights of imagination. It felt vividly real when I wrote it, and I hope that comes through for the reader, but it's not intended to be an objective representation of the place (if such a thing even existed). Having said that, I should point out that the real São Paulo feels to me like the product of someone's fevered imagination anyway - an imagination acquainted with Ballard and Delillo and Judge Dredd's Mega-City One - so those initial spurs of inspiration don't necessarily contradict one another. When the Brazilian translation came out last year I was apprehensive about locals taking me to task for over-imagining their city's social divides, but many people I spoke to said that I could have gone further than I did, offering me in passing the latest examples of the chasmic distance between the lives of the majority and those of the gated, helicoptered elite. 

2. You've lived all over the world; why did you choose Brazil as the setting? Could you have told this story about another country?

The starting point was simply a conflicted character who hated his job, who could have existed in any city. Then all this Brazilian imaginative furniture started to crowd things out and I realised that my character was conflicted because he was adopted, and had graduated from one world to another in a very stratified society, but wasn't accepted anywhere. I also felt that the city in my mind was somewhere I hadn't read that much about - it certainly doesn't conform to many of the stereotypical images of Brazil. From then on, even though I never actually name it in the novel, the action could only be happening in one place. Which isn't to say that there aren't other megacities like this one: I imagine you could find parallels in, say, Lagos, Mumbai or Mexico.  

3. What made this Brazil, the one in the book, this way? What forces in society brought it to where it is?

Principally an accumulation of fear. Fear makes people lock themselves away from the rest of society, and when they are locked away they feel increasingly afraid of what lies outside their gates, because they can't see it anymore. The more they lock themselves and their families and their stuff away from everyone else the more they feel that those on the outside want to climb their walls and get at those things. Which makes them build bigger walls. Which makes the people on the other side of the walls hate them even more. I was also conscious of the force of advertising and marketing in a city of haves and have-nots: Ludo's working life is a extreme vision of a certain toxic workplace philosophy.

4. What themes are you trying to address through the story of Ludo, who seems stuck right in the middle of all this chaos? What is important for the reader to understand or take away from the story?

That's not for me to say: the reader can take away whatever she or he wants. One of the reasons I like the story is that it looks into the way people can use generosity to take control of others: a cynical line of inquiry, perhaps, but an interesting one. 

5. How does your embattled hero find a place in such a starkly divided and troubled society?

To begin with, he can't: that's the point. The man we are introduced to as the novel opens, trapped in bed under the naked body of his adoptive sister, is someone who has allowed himself to become inert because a powerful group of people has hijacked his life and influenced its direction. Over the course of the novel he tries to get back some of that control, as well as to confront some of the various different prejudices working against him based on where he is perceived to be positioned in society.

6. Why did you decide to write this story? What's compelling in it for you?

I had to write it because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get it out of my head. If I hadn't got rid of them, visions of pollution sunsets and derelict skyscrapers and helicopters full of rich people flickering over pungent slums might still be preoccupying me, potentially emerging at random in dangerously inappropriate contexts. The same is true of the novel I'm finishing now: it's the repository for a whole new set of images I'm trying to exorcise. But that's for another interview.

Mr. Scudamore, thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with my readers and me!

More in my Publisher Spotlight series on Europa Editions:
 

Week One:

• Introduction to the Series,
• Tuesday: Interview with editor-in-chief Michael Reynolds,
• Wednesday: Review of Heliopolis, by James Scudamore, nominated for the Man Booker Prize,
• Thursday: Interview with James Scudamore.

Week Two:

• Monday: Review of The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, by Alina Bronsky, due out next month,
• Tuesday: Interview with Alina Bronsky,
• Wednesday: Review of Hygiene and the Assassin, by Amélie Nothomb,
• Thursday: Review of The Jerusalem File, by Joel Stone.