Miranda July’s sold-out reading at the 42nd street Humanities and Social Sciences Library was much more of a formal event compared to the one organized by 192 Books three days prior. The vibe here was more wine-and-cheese, both of which were present. During the intermission, however, I did spot two young men excitedly having Michel Gondry autograph an orgami bird (or was it a plane?).
More photos, and review continues, after the jump.
Matt Ashby writes: The room filled with about 60 people, some standing in the back, for the interview of Amiri Baraka by Colin Channer. Baraka, known for his poetry and activism, recently released a short story collection Tales of the Out and the Gone, published by Akashic Books, a Brooklyn-based independent house that also published a collection of Jamaican writers, Iron Balloons, as edited by Channer. Akashic’s publisher Johnny Temple introduced them.
Soft Skull’s FAQ informs that this indie press began as a guerilla operation out of Kinko’s when founder Sander Hicks was an employee there in 1992. Hicks has parted since, but with Richard Nash serving as the publisher beginning 2001, it has been printing over 40 titles a year. Its titles span a range of genres, including fiction, poetry, politics, translations, art and erotica. To give the readers a sample of the work it’s been putting out, here are some of the books that were published this year: Lynn Tillman’s American Genius: a Comedy, Kevin Powell’s Someday We’ll All Be Free, Jonathan Becker’s Bush and Putin as Leaders, Nikolai Maslov’s Sibera, David Griffith’s A Good War Is Hard to Find, Marck Swartz’s H2O, and Martin Millar’s The Good Fairies of New York.
