Six Months In

A Breather, a Status Report, a Request

The lists have been coming fast and furious lately, so today we're going to take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Feels good. Aaaah.

OK, first a status report, then a re-post of two standing invites, then I'll ask for help with a future post.

Status report:

We're up to 121 subscribers. A modest number compared to Substack superstars—the over-achievers, Stackers trying to make a living at it, networkers, influencers, opinionistas, etc. But here’s my POV: Your ranks are robust enough that I don't feel like I'm talking to an empty room.¹ Which is lovely.

A tad less lovely: we're not yet having much of a dialog. I envisioned more back and forth. If you’ve responded, thanks! If not, it’s your call, but don’t be shy.

The Birth Year Project is in perking away—we have a dozen years in the can. Once I doped out the formatting, I've been able to add some back story, opinion, writerly gossip and whatall, which might entice you to hook up with a title or two.

Shelter from the Storm has, to date, slipped under your radar. I’ll keep it active, though, since it comes from the core idea behind this Substack [more below].

The Reading Projects: I like puzzles, challenges, games—and since I have my own life-long reading project, I call some of this Stack’s lists “reading projects” or “challenges.” Do I expect you to drop everything and dive into one of these?² Real-istically, I hope you make the acquaintance of some new titles, and I hope seeing a book in relation to certain other books gives you a keener sense of context. In short, I pretend you’re in the market for a reading project even if you’re not . . . while also remembering how I tiptoed close enough to the lip of Victober to peer in, then found myself tumbling head-over-heels like Alice.³

Standing Projects:

Birth Year Project:

You supply your birth year, I'll put up a short list of books published that year—the popular/well-known titles first, then some books I'd recommend. If your year's already been used, fret not; I'll do a fresh one.

[Note: Birth Year posts now live on a separate shelf [see button atop home page]. The first few years [1950, 1978, 1965, 1992, 1963, 1984, 1966] are still scattered among the regular posts and will be relocated if I ever figure out how.]

Shelter from the Storm:

The concept: Each of us has a small cache of books we know and love that most people have never heard of—even avid readers like ourselves. Our discoveries, books we feel a special need to keep out of the clutches of oblivion. I invite you to recommend one.

How It Works:

• One per subscriber [for now].

• Tell us why, in one sentence.

• When there's enough for a list, I'll post [and update].

• You can have your name attached, or not—up to you.

What I Need Your Help With:

Good books that aren’t read fall into two categories: ones that have been forgotten and ones that were never known. Excellent-but-not-remembered books get most of the attention on this Substack. Today I want us to look at the other sort.

Over six months of posts, I’ve listed a number of works you’re less likely to know. Here’s a list of twenty or so.⁴ Most titles in this list (all but the oldest several) have in common that they were published by a semi-small/independent press. One reason I happened onto them is that I pay attention to what certain presses publish—in particular, Charo Press, Europa Editions, & Other Stories, and Archipelago Books.⁵ Also in this list books from Astra Publishing House, Arcade Publishing, and Unbound.⁶

There are many more such publishers: Graywolf, Milkweed Editions, Coffee House, Tin House, Two Dollar Radio, Catapult, BOA Editions, Akashic Books, Dorothy, Counterpoint, Deep Vellum, Persephone Books, McSweeney's, Open Letter, Dzanc, etc.

You may have read their books without paying attention to the imprint, but you probably recognize some or most of the names.

Then there are the even smaller, even more indie, even more labor-of-love/obsession endeavors. How many of these are you aware of: Vine Leaves Press, Amble Press, Forest Avenue Press, Mad Hat, Clash, Feral House, House of Anansi Press, Braddock Avenue Books, Bellevue Literary Press, Microcosm, Baobab Press, Hawthorne, The Third Thing?

One of the ideas in essay, “Oblivion” (pirated in the first three posts of this Substack) is that there are so many books being published today that it’s extremely difficult for individual titles to stand out—we’re being inundated not just with the books, but with new marketing schemes, book-launch hoopla, video teasers, and whatever else a press can come up with to gain traction. Lotsa noise.

So, finally, my request:

I’d like to begin addressing the second category I mentioned above—books that were never known—by turning to the contribution of small presses.⁷

Many of you have read, even own, small press books you really admire. I’d like you to call our attention to one (or more) of those.

I’ll curate a list from what you suggest (and a few other sources) and post when it hits critical mass.

That’s it. Happy reading. I’m off to Michigan for a friend’s 90th birthday.

PS: Just as I was about to post got a post from Electric Literature about some small press titles: https://electricliterature.com/15-small-press-books-to-read-this-fall/

1. And fledgling writers on book tours know how that feels.

[My favorite story (via Bill Kittredge): Guy’s picked up, taken to a campus venue and dropped off. There’s no one to introduce him and only two attendees, sitting in the back. But our guy has his pride and sense of professionalism, so he goes ahead and reads from his work. After a while, though, one of the fellows in back says, Um, thanks for reading to us, but there are two of us, and we were first, and we think we should be able to have the room. They were in there trying to study. Turns out the person in charge of publicity had dropped the ball. Yes, it’s a glamorous life.]

2. Yes! Of course!

3. One of these days, one among you will write and say you took me up on one of the challenges and cite chapter and verse.

4

• Stillicide, Cynan Jones (2019) 

• Black Wave, Michelle Tea (2017)

• The Young Bride, Alessandro Baricco, (2015)

• The Wake, Paul Kingsnorth, 2014

• Brickmakers, Selva Almada (2013)

• Treasure Island!!!, Sara Levine (2011)

• Elena Knows, Claudia Piñeiro (2007)

• The Unit, Ninni Holmqvist, (2006 )

• The Restraint of Beasts, Magnus Mills (1998)

• Love, Hanne Ørstavik, (1997)

• The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa (1994)

• Dawn, Sevgi Soysal (1975)

• Forbidden Notebook, Alba de Céspedes (1952)

• At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O’Brien (1939)

• Ask the Dust, John Fante (1939)

• A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes (1929)

• The Real Diary of a Real Boy, Henry A. Shute (1902)

• The Odd Women, George Gissing (1893)

• Tent Life in Siberia [reportage], George Kennan (1870)

• Domestic Manners of the Americans [reportage/memoir], Fanny Trollope (1832)

• Castle Rackrent, Maria Edgeworth (1800)

5. I love Archipelago—I subscribe to it and every so often a gorgeously made paperback comes in the mail. Subscribing is an option for some of these presses, which are labors of love and make no profit and deserve our undying gratitude (and our cash).

6. Unbound is a “crowdfunding publisher: “Our community of 350,476 people from 207 countries have pledged £12,623,292 to fund 404 projects—and counting—from bestsellers to award-winners.”

7. People in the book biz may know where to draw the line between established, highly respected indie presses like Archipelago, and those run by, say, three grad students in a loft with a leaky roof. But I can’t, and you probably can’t either. So make your suggestions and we’ll sort it out later.