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11/15/2005: Coffee House Press Newsletter - November, 2005
A Note from the Publisher, Allan Kornblum
I have had the thrill of personally holding a 5,000-year-old fragment of a clay tablet from the Sumerian empire. Each letterform had been incised into what had once been a damp slab of earth. It is with a similar thrill that I welcome our readers to the inaugural issue of Brewing News, the Coffee House Press newsletter available only by e-mail or on our web site. Of course these days, every letter of every word is formed by a series of electronic impulses on a computer monitor, but the impulse to publish books has never changed—it's the impulse to share enthusiasm for literature.
Every member the Coffee House staff is filled to overflowing with enthusiasm for the books we brew. Part of our commitment comes from our knowledge of our authors—their personal stories, and their goals for their books. We welcome the opportunity to fill you in on some of those stories. We're also very gratified when our authors are recognized with grants and awards. We look forward to using this newsletter to share in our celebration.
You may also want to know a little bit about the people responsible for making Coffee House Press books, so we plan occasional staff profiles as well. This debut issue includes a piece about Chris Fischbach, who started here with an internship in 1994, and joined the staff in 1995.
We hope this occasional newsletter proves informative and entertaining. Let us hear what you'd like to see us include in future issues! And be sure every book you read is fully caffeinated. Click here to contact us.
An Interview with Lolita Hernandez
Lolita Hernandez is the author of Autopsy of an Engine, a 2005 PEN/Beyond Margins award-winning novel. Her writing is influenced by the rhythms and language of her Trinidad and St. Vincent family, and is tempered by over thirty years as a UAW worker, twenty-one of them at the Cadillac plant in Detroit. Her poetry has been widely anthologized and stories from this collection have appeared in The Iowa Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, and Seeds: The Biannual Journal of Sisters of Color. She lives in Detroit.
Much of your personal experience at the Cadillac plant shaped Autopsy of an Engine. Do you feel your experiences since its publication will influence your choice of topic and insights in your next work? And if so, what kind of sources are you using to research any current projects? One thing I've discovered in touring with the book is that people want to know what's in the hopper; fortunately, I always have something in the hopper.
Even before the publication of Autopsy I had begun work on a collection of stories about the Detroit outside of the factory. The most recent of these stories involves the game of cricket, so I read C.L.R. James's classic Beyond a Boundary. I also spoke with cricket players on Belle Isle, watched some movies about Cricket, especially the great 1960-61 test cricket series between the West Indies team and the Australian team. That was totally inspiring and helped put some of the emotion of that game into the story.
Other stories in the book, so far, have required various research techniques, including newspaper articles, interviews, and so on. In tandem with the Detroit stories, I've begun working on what I think will develop as a novel that will take me outside of Detroit. For this book, I will have to travel to the English- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean (I like that kind of research) in addition to library work to learn more about life in post-World War II Detroit.
Should we expect another unconventional perspective? A similarly vivid story construction and style? Whoa, unconventional, eh? My life has been somewhat all over the map so maybe that's why my stories come out the way they do. I don't even know if I can tell a straight story. At any rate, I tend to like stories that have an edge and an element of surprise. I also like a little magic, a little ooh or ah to spice up the story.
Recently, you were awarded the PEN/Beyond Margins Award, an award given to emergent authors of color. How did you feel about winning? I'm still on cloud nine. It's great to get some recognition. I was really moved by an event recently held in my honor at UAW Local 22 in Detroit, the home of many of the characters in Autopsy. Several union leaders spoke of their pride in having one of their own win a PEN Award. Someone from the community spoke of the community's pride in having a Detroiter win.
Do you think it is more important for literature to serve as a medium for shaping reform in America, or for it to convey a piece of the author's unique identity? Where do you feel Autopsy fits in? Honestly, I think Autopsy willy nilly does both. It tells about a world not many people know about, and it addresses the issues we face as workers by trying to answer the question of why. That's where the magic comes in. Even in my collection in progress about Detroit it's obvious that my characters are working class.
In terms of my unique identity, there's no doubt that culture and gender influence my writing. The factory stories are loud with the language and rhythms of the many cultures of Detroit that touch my life, as well as the factory itself. Bringing forward the real life of the factory in a way that transcends conditions, time and place, allows non-factory people to understand factory life and helps us all understand our common human condition. I think if anything, that's what I strive for in my writing.
What have you been reading lately? And to what extent are you expecting it to influence the tone and shape of what you're drafting? Let's just say I have a lot of reading to catch up on. These days, having just completed the cricket research, I am reading the work of my fellow PEN Beyond Margins awardees. I am stunned to be in such brilliant company. I used to worry that another's work might seep into my own, but that's nonsense. Of course, I'm affected by what I read. Why read if not? So I'm influenced by a wide range of writers and constantly discover new members of what I call my literary family. I learn from them all.
Featured Book: Crossing Three Wildernesses by U Sam Oeur
Celebrated poet U Sam Oeur delivers a breathtaking and haunting portrait of Cambodia from his near-idyllic boyhood, to his years as a government official, to the devastating takeover of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, and the subsequent "liberation" of Cambodia by the Vietnamese. Having been educated in the United States and a proponent of democracy, Oeur was forced to feign illiteracy in order to survive the killing fields and their aftermath. A witness personally touched by the three wildernesses—death by execution, death by disease, and death by starvation—Oeur emerged from the experience with his hope for peace, freedom, and the power of literature unshaken. This remarkable memoir is a testament to the horrors of genocide and the strength of the human spirit.
Publishers Weekly says, " This sensitive summary of his nomadic life resonates with passion, poignancy and self-insight." The Minneapolis Star Tribune writes, "The compelling account of his life makes for a window into the human experience underneath a story that often is told in terms of incomprehensible statistics." Order it now.
Meet Our Staff! Chris Fischbach is the Senior Editor here at Coffee House, where he does acquisitions and editorial work for both our fiction and poetry. Here he takes a moment to sit down and chat about pie, golfing, and Truman Capote.
What are you reading right now? I'm reading In Cold Blood, since I never read it, though I've always wanted to, and I need to read it before I go see the new movie Capote, starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I've read lots of other Capote, and one of my favorite books is his Grass Harp, but for some reason I never read In Cold Blood.I’m enjoying it, though he’s very critical of the Midwest in the way that New Yorkers can sometimes be, as if they don’t realize they’re being condescending. No offense to any New Yorkers reading this.
What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish? My grandmother's cherry pie. It's nothing fancy, but it's good. It's really more the circumstances of Pie Time at my family's Thanksgiving. You see, my younger brother doesn't like pie, so every year at Pie Time I make a big deal about it and tell everyone at Thanksgiving that he doesn't like pie. He gets really mad, which is why I do it.
What author do you resemble the most? I suppose I sometimes resemble the poet James Wright. It's the glasses and the big head. That's what they tell me, anyway.
What would you do if you weren't an editor? I would try to become a golf writer. I don't know if you read any golf magazines, but they're totally right-wing. I'd like to balance that out a bit. Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, he's a leftie, and he sometimes writes for Golf Digest. There's a huge market for left-wing golf writers, I think. Or at least a bigger market than there is for poetry!
What book would you take on an eight-hour layover? Well, I just ordered the paperback of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke, from Hans at Micawber's [a local Twin Cities bookstore]. It's long. It's about magic. That sounds good to me.
A Visit From St. Alphabet Under the tree or tucked into a stocking, language-lovers and children of all ages will fall in love with St. Alphabet, whose antics are guaranteed to capture the imagination. Satisfy your craving for literary hijinks and experience the joy of hearing this classic poem reinterpreted as you revel in discovering the hidden wit in each hand-colored illustration. If you're seeking the perfect gift to encourage the writer in your life, you can't beat St. Alphabet, who exclaims, as he dashes away in his sleigh, "Happy Alphabet to all, and to all a good write!".
From Baghdad to Brooklyn Jack Marshall, born in 1936 to an Iraqi father and Syrian mother who had immigrated to the United States during the depression era, grew up in Brooklyn's Sephardic community . Inspired by the posthumous discovery of letters written by his father but never mailed and colored equally by Arabic culture, Jewish tradition, and a thriving American metropolis, Marshall's memoir is a lyrical story of an era, a city, a little-known community, and an artist's coming-of-age. As Marshall evokes the magic of youth and discovery, he creates a moving tribute to the power of literature and its place in furthering his negotiation of language, culture, family strife, and issues of education, faith, and politics.
• Come to our 2nd Annual Holiday Sale! Saturday, December 3rd from 1pm - 5:30 pm at the Black Dog Cafe in St. Paul (kitty corner from the St. Paul Farmer's Market) Readings by local authors Special holiday pricing Don't forget the raffle!
• Meet Yuko Taniguchi, author of Foreign Wife Elegy on November 16th at the Rochester Art Center.
• Dave Morice, author of A Visit From St. Alphabet will make appearances at The Walker Art Center and The Bookcase of Wayzata in Minnesota on December 3rd.
