Phoenicia had its best year ever in 2013, and we'd like to thank every single person who contributed: the readers who bought books, the authors who wrote them, the artists whose work graced the book covers and interiors, and the craftspeople who ran the presses and binderies or shipping departments. A lot of minds and hands go into the making of a book, and no matter how advanced our technology becomes, this is still the case. And we're excited, looking ahead to 2014! The first release will be a new CD of music by Jon Appleton, brilliantly performed by Minkyung Oh. Then there will be a large-format book of photographs of the 60s and 70s: turbulent years of protest, change, and the back-to-the-land movement by Jonathan Sa'adah, with essays by several excellent writers; and later in the spring, a book of prose poems by Luisa Igloria. So, thank you again for being interested in us, and for your support of independent publishing. It is greatly appreciated! August may be le mois des vacances here in Quebec, but here we are in the last week, with September right around the corner and Phoenicia is getting busy to sail off into an exciting fall season!
Chapbook Winner! On September 1, the winner of the annual qarrtsiluni chapbook contest will be announced, with the winning chapbook to be published by Phoenicia. That book is already in preparation, and we can hardly wait to let you know about it! Photography! In mid- to late October, we'll be publishing our first photography book: a stunning and thought-provoking collection of black-and-white photographs from the late 1960s and early 1970s by Jonathan Sa'adah. These images document the protests against the Vietnam war; the changes to a formerly rural New England landscape that were wrought by militarization, emerging corporatization on a national scale, and the expansion of interstate roads; and the response: the back-to-the-land movement by rural hippies. The book will include essays by Steve Tozer and Hoyt Alverson, and by the photographer. Epic Poetry! And then, before the holidays, we'll be bringing out Marly Youmans' book-length, post-apocalyptic narrative poem, Thaliad -- a poem I fell in love with when we published an excerpt at qarrtsiluni, and hope many of you will feel the same way. And a Late Summer Sale! More news and plans are already in the works for 2012, but you'll have to wait for those! In the meantime, please browse the current catalog, where all our book titles are on late summer sale of 15% off, now through September 9th (online e-store orders only, not through Amazon.) Please use code#B87AYYZU when ordering. For a closer view of our most recent book and the people behind it, you might like to listen to the podcast published last week by Dave Bonta at ViaNegativa. It's an interview/discussion with Rachel Barenblat (left) author of 70 Faces:Torah Poems, and me, Beth Adams, the book's editor and publisher (at right above). Dave is a great host, and the three of us had an excellent time talking about Rachel's new book, listening to and discussing some of her poems and the texts they respond to, and the often-difficult subjects they bring up and address.
We talked about the patriarchy and violence of the Bible and the problems modern people have relating to a God who supposedly ordered/allowed the wholesale destruction of groups of people, or the dispossession of their land, and how these scriptures relate to the current political situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories -- all subjects that Rachel takes on in her poetry, and are of great interest and concern to me because of my long-term marriage into an Arab-Armenian family. In fact, this sense of grappling with difficult issues and trying to build bridges is a big part of my purpose here at Phoenicia, and one of many reasons why I wanted to publish this book of Rachel's. At the end of the interview, the conversation turns to publishing and we talk about Phoenicia's first year, what we've learned from it, and our plans for the future. We thank Dave for his generosity in hosting this interview, and hope you'll enjoy it. Note: if you don't want to download the whole podcast, there's a "pause" button on the audio player window, and you can listen in sections if you wish - it will start up where you left off. |
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