SOME GOOD BOOKS
ALTES
I’ve been on an unusual book tour with ALL OF US, my new book
of fictional stories and poems along route 17. I’ve used the book as an occasion to
gather stories, and have been holding readings and writings. Ten of them so far. I
read a little, then have the audience add themselves to my story using prompts
and giving them paper and pens. I’m reading in bookstores and in other spaces too:
senior centers, hospitals, as many libraries as I can.
Some years back, I worked in book publishing – in companies big and small. Simon
and Schuster for a while, for an illustrious editor named Alice Mayhew. Workman
Books, a new idea then (their best selling book at the time was all about the title:
Dieter’s Guide to Weight Loss During Sex). Then Pilgrim Press, the country’s first
publishing house, owned by a liberal Protestant denomination, the United Church of
Christ. The denomination’s head minister interviewed me to start a line of social
justice trade books. His name was Reverend Howard Spragg, and his
question was What is Morality? I didn’t know the answer, and therefore got the job.
After Pilgrim, I partnered with two men who taught philosophy at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem (I was the practical one!!) and we started a publishing
company, in New York and Jerusalem, called Adam in Israel, and Adama in New York.
(Our first book was a very short essay by Samuel Beckett in Hebrew. You can
imagine how many books Beckett sold.) I love books, and publishing them, but I’ve
always felt the industry lacked imagination in the way
books were sold. In the way that we learn what books exist. Book reviews in a place
like the New York Times cover a tiny percentage of the thousands of books that are
published. Every single book is a different story (even if it fits into a category – poetry,
fiction, non-fiction, history) and marketing is so generic, so standard, as though there
was One Ideal Reader in the world – say a woman with a PhD in 19th Century
Comparative Literature who reads the New York Review of Books, Eric Foner, Claire
Keegan, Zadie Smith, James Baldwin and Mary Oliver.
In fact there are thousands and thousands of new books published every year – half of
them self-published by many intrepid and creative writers, and very little effort is
made, or time or money either, to figure out ways of getting those books into the
hands of people who may be interested, who would read a book if they knew about it,
or if it were free in public spaces, in laundromats, as options on airplanes where
movies and music are stored.
Libraries are a wonderful exception. But even figuring out how libraries can know
about books isn’t easy.
I’ve tried, in very minor ways, to widen the net, by talking a supermarket in Cairo,
New York into handing out poems at the cash register for National Poetry Month,
giving out Menus of Poems (called Menupoems) at restaurants, leaving copies of short
stories in laundromats. I love Little Free Libraries, more and more ubiquitous.
There really is nothing like reading (even movies. And I love them.)
I’m sure many people who are Alte involved are writing a book, or have favorites
or unfavorites too. Tell us what they are.
TWO BOOKS TO KNOW:
Lawrence Bush, one of Alte’s creators, (and inventor of Babushkin’s Playhouse – a
subscription service that sends its members books and other inventions every month)
has recently written a fascinating new novel about sex, power, Judaism, and pretty
much everything else, called
HYMAN ( Ben Yehudah Press).
https://www.benyehudapress.com/books/hyman/
Jessica de Konick, another Alte creator, is a gorgeous and well-published poet who
moves easily and graciously between popular culture and big ideas. She’s the author
of Cutting Room (Terrapin Books.)
https://jessicadekoninck.wordpress.com
Tell us about your books –favorites, unfavorites, book you want to write.
LOVE,
Esther
PS JOIN US FOR OUR CHANUKAH ZOOM!!!!
Light a candle. Make a wish. For the link email altetogether@gmail.com.