RHONDA.

There are actually three Rhondas (that I know of) wandering the fictive literary galaxy and all three can actually be found in one book: Joshua Mohr's debut novel, Some Things That Meant the World to Me. There is little-boy Rhonda, old-lady Rhonda, and Rhonda (a 30-year old man).

As Donald Ray Pollock mentioned in his blurb for the book, "[Rhonda] is one of the most troubled and heartbreaking people you will ever encounter in literature." Though which Rhonda in particular he refers to is uncertain. Read the book and find out.

The author got the name tattooed on his arm.

New Some Things Cover.

P.S. Some Things That Meant the World to Me, the debut novel from the Joshua Mohr, is due out June 1 but is now available for pre-order through our site.

P.P.S. Check out that quote from Donald Ray Pollock!

Gary Indiana's Blog.

Gary Indiana has started a blog where he has posted a boat-load of his writing, most of which appears to be previously unpublished : stories, essays, musings, interviews, etc.

There even appears to be much/most/all of the manuscript for his forthcoming book, Andy Warhol and the Can That Sold the World available for your perusal.

Indiana's first novel in six years, The Shanghai Gesture, is coming your way soon...

The Rudy Wurlitzer Renaissance.

"There is something of a Rudy Wurlitzer renaissance going down in the pop culture zeitgeist; not only through the Criterion releases [Walker; Two Lane Blacktop] but also through a well-deserved re-examination of Wurlitzer's long-forgotten work as a masterful novelist."

So says Rodger Jacobs in his thoughtful interview with the author for PopMatters. Jacobs approaches some seminal works, such as the film Wurlitzer co-directed with Robert Frank, Candy Mountain, and his classic novel, Quake (which we'll be reissuing Fall '09 in a comp edition with the equally nihilistic Flats). Jacobs continues:

"[The Drop Edge of Yonder is] a rousing adventure tale that is far more compelling than any narrative the reluctant guru from Lowell, MA, could have arrived at."

The Cave Man cover

Please Help Philoctetes

Francis Levy, author of Erotomania: A Romance and our dear friend, is co-director of the Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination, a non-profit group housed in the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. You should see their programming, there's everything from film screenings of Guy Maddin to roundtable discussions on topics as varied as 'Modernity and Waste,' from an entire afternoon on Samuel Beckett featuring Edward Albee and John Turturro, to 'The Biology of Romance.' It's wild and vital.

I'm on the Philoctetes programming email list and I regularly forward event listings to friends in the city. And, I should add, it's a great selling point as to why nothing really beats New York City: Where else would you be able to witness something such as this, with such amazing and knowledgeable panelists, first-hand, in such an intimate setting?

In a very sad turn of events:
"...the foundation that funds all activities at the Philoctetes Center held large investments with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, and the Center's capital and income source has literally vanished overnight.

"We at Philoctetes feel very strongly that we need to do all in our power to assure the survival and continued growth of the Center. Our programs not only generate interest here in New York, but our online resources serve those across the country and in other parts of the world as a unique engine for intellectual enrichment.

"In order to continue, even at a reduced level of activity, we urgently need an infusion of funds. For this reason, we are appealing to all of you who have been friends of the Center and have partaken of our activities to contribute as much as you are able. Additionally, if you know of any foundations that might be interested in supporting the activities of the Center, please contact us."

Contributions may be sent to:
The Philoctetes Center247 E. 82nd St.New York, NY 10028

Time Out New York: Drop Edge Best Book of 2008!

Michael Miller, the books editor of Time Out New York, selected The Drop Edge of Yonder by Rudolph Wurlitzer as #1 on his list of the Top 10 Books of 2008.

"Wurlitzer develops a dreamy, carnivalesque portrait of the American West, exploring the territory’s mythology even as he wildly entertains."

Miller has impeccably good taste, so it makes it all the more meaningful to have Drop Edge edge out his list this year.

Also worth noting, is that in addition to reissuing Wurlitzer's countercultural classic first novel, Nog, next summer with a new introduction from noted critic Erik Davis, we will be publishing Wurlitzer's second and third novels as well - Flats and Quake - in a "69ed," compilation edition shortly thereafter.

Erotomania Conversation

Erotomania: A Romance continues to win over reviewers and thwart nay-sayers.

Billy Thompson contributes some thoughtful, in-depth coverage to the December issue of The Quarterly Conversation. Thompson is clearly a Kundera fan (as is Francis Levy, I later learned), and so I take it as a positive sign that Thompson devotes so much space in comparing Erotomania (on some levels) with Identity.

"[Erotomania] can just as easily be a bookend to the beautifully nuanced prose of Milan Kundera as it can be a long-version story for a nudie mag minus the accompanying photographs. It's all in the context - as it is with most relationships."

(I've also included a full-cover shot of the book cover with this post, for the complete effect: some hot, full-body action.)

I Smile Back - Bookslut Review

There's a stellar review of I Smile Back by Erin McKnight in the December issue of Bookslut.

Finding a favorite passage was a difficult task, but here's the winner:

"Amy Koppelman explores with ruthless honesty a woman come undone. Laney remains captivating in her certainty that although her family's dissolution is her sole responsibility to deter, she can't quite conjure the necessary thwarting efforts. For the only thing as ferocious as Laney's lack of preventive action is her behavior, the reader powerless against her vice: an addict hooked to Koppelman's potent writing and her protagonist's unpredictable conduct."

Great Indiana Profile in Time Out New York

Michael Miller, in a great profile of Gary Indiana in Time Out New York in synch with the release of Indiana's new collection of essays, Utopia's Debris, says about the author:

"His nonfiction has an awe-inspiring syntax and rigorous sensibility that suggest Joan Didion’s political takedowns but have a droll power all their own, one that’s tuned in to the frequencies of art, sexual power and human folly."

Also, Arthur Nersesian has just contributed a great blurb for Indiana's first novel in six years, The Shanghai Gesture, which we'll be releasing in April '09:

"Indiana has gloriously revived an obscure Hollywood film of the same name, infused it with eroticism and intrigue - and added Dr. Fu Manchu! The result is a lustrous, laugh-out-loud world of bawd and mayhem; an erudite, charmingly operatic opium den of decadence that seesaws between high brow and low camp and reads as though Cormac McCarthy had rewritten Austin Powers."

I Smile Back - Elle + Bookforum

I Smile Back, Amy Koppelman's second novel, is due out on December 1, but the book is already garnering some really impressive reviews.

This week, from the December issue of Elle, and in the December/January issue of the always-thoughtful Bookforum.

From Elle:
"Stomach-churning... Koppelman mosly writes from inside Laney's disillusioned mind, ricocheting between the quotidian details of wife and motherhood and big-picture musings, forming exquisite stand-alone tone poems."

From Bookforum:
"Laney Brooks is a woman in agony, suffering from an undefined malady that makes standard housewife ennui—boredom from carpooling or picking up dry cleaning—look like a picnic. Laney’s despair, ably depicted by Amy Koppelman in her affecting second novel, I Smile Back, is rooted in childhood.

I Smile Back is now available in bookstores and through online retailers.

I Smile Back on Audible.com

I Smile Back, the stomach-churning new novel from Amy Koppelman (A Mouthful of Air), due out from Two Dollar Radio in December, is now available as an audio download through Audible.com as part of their "Indie First" program.

It's pretty amazing to digest the book in this way. Lauren Fortgang gives a great reading that adds an interesting dimention to Koppelman's protagonist, the dismantled Laney Brooks.

For those interested in a tangible copy, you can order the book now through online retailers, or pick one up at an independent bookstore near you.

Details Magazine: Boutique Publishers

TWO DOLLAR RADIO was picked by Timothy Hodler of Details as one of "three of the best bets" for "niche publishers that curate their lists with care and taste."

From the article:
"...this tiny upstart has already produced an impressive array of subversive fiction from former literary big-leaguers - like Rudolph Wurlitzer and Jay Neugeboren.
Try if you like: Jonathan Lethem, Cormac McCarthy."

Also profiled in the piece were Small Beer Press and Dalkey Archive, both of whom are insanely rad.

PW: No to Kindle, Yes to Object Status

In the November 2 issue of Publishers Weekly, Claire Kirch continues the ongoing discussion regarding digitalizing book content.

Kirch spotlights Crust alongside boring boring boring boring boring boring boring by Zach Plague, released by Featherproof Books, as examples of indie presses disregarding the translation of a book to digital format.

From the article:
"Mainstream publishers are hastening to join the digital revolution, with many formatting their digital book content to make it conform to Kindle specifications. Some houses are even making digital book content accessible via Web-enabled cellphones.

"Bucking this trend toward digitalizing book content, two independent small presses—Featherproof Books, a Chicago press founded in 2005 by a pair of Time Out Chicago staffers, and Two Dollar Radio, a Granville, Ohio-based press founded by a husband-wife team, also in 2005—insist on pursuing a more tangible aesthetic in book production. Both presses publish primarily fiction and both are adamant that the physical book itself is not just a work of art, but a highly evolved object keyed to a reader's experience—a philosophy that runs counter to the central premise behind digital access."

Nasalism Blog.

Celebrate Liberation.
Celebrate Self-Reliance.
Celebrate Invention.
Celebrate Re-Creation.
Celebrate Blogs.
Celebrate Hope.
Celebrate Crust.
Celebrate You.
Celebrate Change.
Celebrate Blogs.