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6/1/2007: Coffee House Press Newsletter - June 2007
A Note from the Publisher, Allan Kornblum Immigration: Coffee House Press publishes award-winning novels, short stories, poetry, essays, and memoir; as such, we're not really a player in the world of politics. But this spring we published books by writers from China, Japan, and Korea, and over the years, we have published writers from the Philippines, Cambodia, Korea, Puerto Rico, Barbados, England, Romania, Hungary, and Finland. And we've published the children and grandchildren of immigrants from more countries than I could count. So what's with the Nativism that's sweeping across the land, shaking the fabled Tree of Liberty in an angry storm of intolerance?
Migration is in our blood, and the cross-cultural pollination that results from migration has produced all the great scientific and cultural flowerings throughout our history. At Coffee House Press we don't believe there are any borders the imagination can't cross. And we do believe that there's always room at the table for writers from every part of the planet, writers with new stories to tell, writers who make our world larger and smaller at the same time. And there's a reserved seat for you, the reader, who brings their words to life as you turn the pages of their books. So browse our spring list, wander through the bio notes, review excerpts, and summaries, as we have wandered across this planet, and enjoy the diversity of cultures and literary visions that we try to bring you in the pages of every book we publish.
Long-Term Commitments: Small presses are justly lauded for finding new writers, giving them their first opportunity to see their words in print, and helping them find an audience. At Coffee House, we've been the debut publisher for more than fifty authors since we opened our doors in the fall of 1984. But in addition to finding new talent, we have forged some mutually rewarding long-term relationships with many of the people we publish. This spring two old friends returned to our list, and we couldn't be more gratified with the reception they've received.
As reviewers have noted, the stories in The Last Communist Virgin, Wang Ping's fifth Coffee House title, go far beyond typical immigrant tales. While letting us in on a young girl reading forbidden books while locked in the bathroom during the Cultural Revolution, revealing the mixed emotions of recent immigrants making their way through the tough streets of New York, and portraying the doomed love of a man and a mountain spirit prepared to drown together during the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, Wang Ping suffuses every page of these stories with her love for China, and her compassion for all those who are part of the Chinese diaspora. Elaine Equi (the daughter of Italian immigrants) returns for her fifth Coffee House Press book with Ripple Effect. The book has really made a splash, and the ripples keep widening out, with a full-page rave in the New York Times Book Review, and even a review in Entertainment Weekly! The Times reviewer noted that her "fundamental sense of poetry . . . turn[s] common material into something rare and valuable. It also underscores her belief in the magical powers of the word, how language changes what it names into poems in the same way that 'mirrors / transform / us into ourselves.'" Entertainment Weekly included Ripple Effect in a list of "Five Reasons to Live."
Keep Coffee House in the Black: Regardless of our idealism, we can't print new books with red ink. We need your help to stay in the black, so we can keep brewing new books by your favorite authors, and finding new talent to delight your imagination. So please make an online donation on our web site. Every donor will receive a copy of a new letterpress broadside about books that I'll be personally printing later this month. Contribute to Coffee House Press and keep the endless refills coming. Many thanks for your support.
Paul Hoover: One of your poems is titled "Soul-making"; do you see poetry as a soul-making activity?
Joseph Lease: Soul-making, sure. Why not? That just seems true to me. I don't want to sell poetry short. Poetry isn't just a reminder of what we already know—it can be that—but it can also create life that we need—life that we don't recognize until we are in the poem. And, yes, it also returns us to ourselves and makes us new. And it demystifies lies. I love Keats's idea that the world teaches us to make our souls. I don't see why poets would want to escape from that.
Paul Hoover: Your poetry is accessible and shapely, but also innovative. How do you manage to be both as a poet?
Joseph Lease: I like it when each word makes the story and the music clear, when there is nothing in the way. When the music is right, that's when a poem reaches people, lets people in, and I hope my work does that.
Laird Hunt: There is something I've been curious about since I read your interview in Lance Olsen's book Rebel Yell. You mentioned something to the effect that you weren't so sure about the whole interior monologue thing and that perhaps we didn't have these language-rich interior lives going on all the time, bubbling away while we go about daily business. I've thought about that a lot since I read it and have wanted to ask you if you could expand a bit and maybe relate it to how you tackle the representation of your characters' interior lives.
Brian Evenson: Lance had sent me a question asking me what the most difficult narrative technique to master had been for me. I answered that the portrayal of interior feelings or thoughts was the hardest because I felt like all the techniques that people habitually use seemed artificial and unconvincing and didn't seem to have much to do with the way things work in my own head. Of course there's a certain artificiality already in place that comes from putting things into words in the first place, but that, somehow, doesn't bother me as much. I feel like thought goes through constant movements up and down that taken in one direction bring it closer to language and to the tongue and taken in the other direction bring it back down into the subconscious, reducing it first to Artaudian shrieks and sounds and then down deeper to something much more chaotic and disconnected than that, not only pre-lingual but pre-sound. I think certain writers are able to figure out and catch some of the ebb and flow of thought but I always felt that something was missing . . .
Laura Wright: You have lived and traveled in many places, and place names often appear in your poems. How do you see the role of place—both in general (e.g. where we live, work, travel) and specific to your writing (e.g. where you write)?
Anselm Hollo: Places and people go together. In days gone by, [my wife] would suggest possible places to visit, and I would say, "But I don't know anybody there." But we have gone places where neither one of us knew anybody, and have had a fine time. Though there is something to that plaintive comeback: poets' and artists' communities are spread out, not only across this continent but across the globe, and by traveling one hopes to meet others of like minds and interests.
Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife, novel by Sam Savage American Library Association Notable Book Finalist, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award Shortlist, The L.L. Winship / PEN New England Award
Somewhere Else, poetry by Matthew Shenoda Winner, American Book Award Winner, RAWI (Radius of Arab American Writers) Hala Maksoud Award for Emerging Voices The Architecture of Language, poems by Quincy Troupe Winner, Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement
The Open Curtain, a novel by Brian Evenson Finalist, Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original
1. Shop frequently at your local independent bookseller. If they don't carry what you need, they'll order it for you. In the Twin Cities, we love Micawbers, Birchbark, and Magers and Quinn.
2. Subscribe to a literary journal that supports independent literature with reviews and original work. There are many, but here are some that we read the minute they hit our mailbox:
3. Recommend a book by an independent press to your local library. Most libraries solicit ideas for books that they should purchase. If it's not there, it should be!
4. Start a conversation about the books you love. When you read a book by an independent press, spread the word! Word of mouth is the biggest factor in the success of a book, and independent presses don't have deep pockets, so your recommendation is worth more than an ad in the New York Times! You can also find great recommendations on-line. One of our favorite quarterly conversations can be found at the Lit-Blog Co-op.
5. Donate to a nonprofit literary press. Most presses offer a quick and easy way to donate (tax-deductible!) on their web sites. Every little bit means a lot to us, even twenty dollars. If a hundred people donate twenty dollars . . .
To make a tax-deductible donation to Coffee House Press or to check out more titles, review excerpts, author interviews, and events in your area, please visit www.coffeehousepress.org.
From all of us at Coffee House Press, thank you for your time, your reading devotion to great books, and your support. Have a great summer, and see you at the beach!
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