Just announcing the inaugural edition of Bookslut.com's Indie Heartthrob Interview Series, where every Monday I will be interviewing someone involved in the small press (be it book publishing, zines, lit mags, you name it...). This week features Richard Nash, editor-in-chief at Soft Skull Press:
I used to be a theater director (Downtown, "avant-garde," Richard Foreman acolyte) and Sander Hicks, the founder of Soft Skull, saw one of my productions and liked it, so he gave me his plays, and I started to direct them. At the time (1997-2000), for a day job/health insurance, I worked at Oxford University Press, doing permissions, electronic rights and foreign rights. I started to help my theatre collaborator out with his other gig, the Soft Skull thing, and just got in deeper and deeper and deeper. By early 2002 I realized indie publishing was far more culturally relevant than theater...
Also, check out the July edition (issue 62) of Bookslut, which features interviews with Miranda July (No One Belongs Here More Than You ), Arnold Rampersad (Ralph Ellison), Ron Currie Jr. (God is Dead), and my own interview with Peter Godwin ( When a Crocodile Eats the Sun).
I'm not sure if I've ever posted this before, but The Poetry Foundation has been commissioning graphic novelists and cartoonists to adapt poetry into comic strips. So far there are three wonderful renditions:
An interview with Francophone-Ivorian writer Marguerite Abouet, where we discuss the translation of her graphic novel Aya into English, the image of Africa created by the Western media, and her childhood crush on Spider-Man/Peter Parker:
As an African person living in France, I don't want to see how badly the media represents the Ivory Coast. The African people have enough of these very bad, miserable images of Africa that the media will show. Even now people will still say to me, 'I'm not going to Africa because I'm really afraid to see all these miserable people.' It's almost as easy as saying you don't want to go to the United States because you're afraid to get a bullet in the head.by John Zuarino
An interview with Soft Skull author Matthew Sharpe, in which we discuss his amazing new novel Jamestown and "homosexual tendencies in the 17th century.":
The crew of the ship had their own food supply, while the settlers had theirs. The settlers used theirs up and had to trade with the crew. There's this one guy among the settlers who says, "We traded whatever we had with the crew for food," and he gives a list of things: hatchets, beads, copper trinkets, coins, muskets, and the last item on the list was "love." I just thought that one word was like a little peephole into what must have been a whole host of activities. By John Zuarino
Don't forget to check out the Monday blog, where every week I'll try and salvage what's been left in the dust in regards to the small press and other et ceteras.
And by the way, my graduation robe makes me look like I dove into Bea Arthur's wardrobe. Sequins, sequins everywhere!
That's what I got in the mail from Akashic Books today. It looks like it's going to be insanely good, so I'm thinking I might want to interview the writer. She teaches at The New School too, so it won't be too hard to get a hold of her.
I think I want an MFA, and CUNY is looking mighty fine after I take a year off.
I have to get up early for the Comic Con. This could be either really funny or really appalling. Either way, I have an interview to do at 5pm, and I haven't prepared my questions yet. I will need to take pictures. I wonder how many Storm Troopers will be at the LGBTQ Identity in Comics forum. Because you know, Star Wars is pretty gay.
As I'm sitting in my colder than necessary apartment reading various blogs, I have Seinfeld on in the background. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot the preview for Bridge to Terabithia.
Now, Bridge to Terabithia was one of my favorite novels growing up. It's about a boy and a girl who create an imaginary world in the woods called Terabithia. But keep in mind, they know whole-heartedly that Terabithia isn't real--that's the beauty of it all. It totally captures the child/pre-teen imagination.
Based on the preview for the film adaptation, though, it looks like Hollywood decided to cash in on the Eragon/Lord of the Rings/Chronicles of Narnia/Harry Potter craze and make Terabithia real. At one point the announcer ("In a world..." has always been his classic line) says that it's up to the two children to save the world they created from a menace on the inside. I know that film adaptations are expected to be different from the original work, but I feel like this time they're essentially fisting Katherine Paterson's work without her knowledge.
Of course, I could be wrong. I haven't even seen the movie.
I'm only about 30 pages in so far, but I'm already blown away by Paul Auster's new novel Travels in the Scriptorium. It's breezy, and somehow Auster makes just about every word count. Read it now!
Thus commences a new blog on a new server on the eve (several eves premature) of my last year as an undergrad. So how do I celebrate? Why, by sitting home watching an episode of AIR, where FEMA is under attack.
I happened across a feature/interview in TimeOUT NY with Andrew Bujalski, writer/director of Funny Ha-Ha, regarding his new film that opened today in NYC entitled Mutual Appreciation. From what I've read, Mr. Bujalski is said to be the "Cassavetes for the Myspace generation." Now, I ran a search for this movie on rottentomatos.com, and it has a rating of 100%, which I haven't seen before. This could be due to the fact that it literally just opened today, but I think I really want to see this tomorrow.
Of the three films I'd be up for seeing this weekend, it's going to be Mutual Appreciation, Half Nelson or 13 Tzameti, all of which are supposed to be wonderful. I really haven't seen too many movies in the theater lately (other than Lunacy and Strangers With Candy), so I really want to make the effort before my income takes a major decrease and I'm rendered a part-time bookseller/student.
Meanwhile, has anyone heard anything/read about the new 9/11 Comission graphic novel? It sounds like an interesting idea, but I see it either A) being really great or B) flopping miserably.
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