Black Ink

The Jamaica Observer looks at why the Caribbean—particularly Anglo-Saxon islands—have such trouble selling books and the idea of publishing to its citizens.  As someone hailing from a Caribbean background and culture, all I can say is that it is the same reason that has existed since the beginning of time—if you’re poor; books end up being a luxury.  I’m always disheartened by the fact that there is no emphasis on building libraries, which would allow greater access to books for those who cannot afford hardcover or paperback.  I know this has to do with lack of funding for libraries, but somehow I think that if parents demanded more for their children’s education and culture the various West Indian governments would be fostering a more literate and well-rounded society:

We're talking about a situation where writers and artists help create the nation and its thinking and where their contribution is as vital as bread and wine. In Kingston, the metropolis of the English-speaking Caribbean, you can count on less than one hand the bookshops that offer the equivalent or even attendants who know anything about the books (unless they're schoolbooks).

The University Press, for example, tries hard to produce elegant, well-designed books but who reads them? Furthermore, who can afford them when you can hardly repay your student loan and buy lunch?

Even 'paperbacks', once proposed as a cheap method of making titles available, indicate the difference in thinking. The original paperbacks were the ones we were describing, printed simply on low-grade paper sometimes the pages left uncut.

"Anglo-Saxon paperbacks" are now almost as expensive as the prestige hard-cover edition with its glamorous laminated (and sometimes quite misleading) cover designs. They look good and feel good. Do they get read? Can they be afforded? Some of the locally published paperback fiction and poetry will carry a price tag of anything between $500 and $1200.Other "prestige" publications can run to $4000 or whatever.

The last letter I wrote longhand was to my favourite author Jamaica Kincaid.  The letter was more about why she has been my greatest literary influence and less to do with the art of writing novels, poetry and the like.  I mailed this letter to her publisher so I have no idea whether or not she received it, but I can agree that letter writing really is a distinct form of communication that has more resonance than text messaging or emailing as this article in the New York Times points out.  I don't know how many modern-day poets use letter writing to discuss their writer's block, rejection letters or latest epic project, but I'd be very interested in reading them and any correspondence between artists for that matter.

It seems that some writers have already found a new method for luring agents and publishers.  Weblogs are just not cutting it anymore.  Writers are now taking their creativity one step further by Podcasting their stories and novel excerpts:

As recently as this time last year, a podcast—a digital audio program that lives on the Internet—would have meant very little to most people. But today there are thousands of websites devoted to the technology; major media outlets have started releasing some of their broadcasts via podcast; and even cult favorite Neil Gaiman has posted the first few chapters of the audio version of his Anansi Boys on his blog. Sigler's podcasting got him a deal with the publisher Dragon Moon Press after the publisher heard his audio version of EarthCore. And a new site, Podiobooks.com, has launched, with five titles already available for download. Its co-founder, Evo Terra, a podcaster for the online talk show The Dragon Page, notes that, as of this writing, 19 new authors have signed on to release free audio versions of their books through the site.

(via TheBookStandard)

Kyu will probably be elated about this latest news.  What do you get when you combine the production talents of Francis Ford Coppola, the vision of director Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries), and a Jack Kerouac novel?  You get On the Road on the big screen:

Salles and screenwriter Jose Rivera will cast the film in 2006, according to industry journal Hollywood Reporter.

"We've never quite found the right combination of director and writer to do it justice until now," Coppola said.

(via BBC News)

An author named Bret Easton Ellis is featured in a new book by Bret Easton Ellis.  Confused?  Is this an autobiography or a novel about Ellis' quest to fuck with the minds of his readers, as he always does?  An article in the New York Times tells us that he probably never went to Sunday school and that he's seeing his earlier novel, American Psycho, in a whole new light:

Mr. Ellis refused to back down at the time. "I was not trying to add members to my fan club," he told The New York Times in 1991. "You do not write a novel for praise, or thinking of your audience. You write for yourself; you work out between you and your pen the things that intrigue you."

But while working on "Lunar Park," he re-read the earlier book and saw it in a new light. "When I got to the violence sequences I was incredibly upset and shocked," he said, in a surprising public retreat. "I can't believe that I wrote that. Looking back, I realize, God, you really sort of stepped over a line there."

"I guess the mistake I made," he added, matter-of-factly, "was being very punky, nihilistic and very transgressive at 23, 24, 25, thinking that this conceptual novel, no matter how violent it was going to be, was really not going to scare anyone."

A different author might have opted never again to dwell on that subject matter. But not Mr. Ellis. In "Lunar Park," the writer Bret Easton Ellis is being haunted by his own creation: someone is acting out the murders of "American Psycho." Was this some strange compulsion? Did he force his readers to return to the scene of his crime? "Maybe I did," he said. "I mean I don't know. It just seemed like an interesting idea. One in a series of steps that led to what became kind of a mock autobiographical novel." But who, exactly, is being mocked?

A new book about two Virginian slaveholders examines their moral struggles with the slave trade during the 18th century:

Carter left no detailed statement of his antislavery feelings. Randolph, an 18th-century archetype of white liberal guilt, wrote an effusive apology in his will, seeking to ''beg humbly beg'' forgiveness from ''an unfortunate race of bondmen, over whom my ancestors have usurped and exercised the most lawless and monstrous tyranny, and in whom, my countrymen (by their iniquitous Laws, in contradiction of their own declaration of rights, and in violation of every sacred Law of nature; of the inherent, unalienable & imprescriptible rights of man; and of every principle of moral & political honesty;) have vested me with absolute property.''

(via NYTimes)

I'm not mad at Karinne Steffans.  Some may say she's a liar, but in my opinion, if you lie down with dogs you wake up with fleas.  Eazy-E learned that lesson the hard way.  It was only a matter of time before a groupie made these backstage hip-hop experiences more public.  In fact, I'm surprised it did not happen earlier or more frequently.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that there's no longevity or retirement money as a soft-porn music video model/dancer/actress.  I'm not going to spend my good hard-earned money on Confessions of a Video Vixen.  I'm sure there will be plenty more major-selling books of this kind from Steffans in the future, whether it's a sequel or commercial fiction.  She claims to have a new level of consciousness at the age of 26.  There are some women twice as old who still can't get it together:

In her memoir, Steffans describes her difficult childhood and helter-skelter life in hip-hop’s inner circle. She grew up in St. Thomas with a mother who was domineering and abusive, and a father who was largely absent.At 10 she moved to the United States and didn’t fit in, with her accent and outdated clothes. At 13 she was raped by a guy she met at a house party. By 16 she was a stripper, pulling down a grand a night. At 17, she moved in with Kool G Rap, a fading rapper 10 years her senior. The union produced one child, a son to whom Steffans dedicates her book, and introduced her to the increasingly commercial world of rap music…This book has earned her titles: gold digger, snitch, liar, feminist, survivor. Steffans has heard it all, and even had her life threatened (hence the bodyguard).But she has claimed a new label for herself.“I’m an author, that’s what I’ve always been in my head,” she said. “I’ve never been a model; I was an actress for like a minute; but I’ve always been a writer. That’s where I’m going to stay. There will be plenty of books to come.”

(via The Journal Gazette)

Terry McMillan's latest novel The Interruption of Everything may not be garnering the type of glowing reviews she's had with her previous work, but the bestseller lists don't lie.  The book is doing really well.  All this despite having a nasty divorce play out in public for the world to see:

For those who think of Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1996) as cotton candy, it may come as a surprise to learn that one of McMillan's early mentors was the radical black novelist Ishmael Reed. Like Reed, McMillan became ensconced in the ongoing battles over the shape and tenor of black literature—though she chose a far less engaged course than her mentor, one that would earn her, as one of her lightly fictionalized heroines humbly put it, a "shitload of money."

(via Slate)

Ebony magazine may be nearing retirement age, but it has no intention of ceasing publication.  For a magazine that's 60-years old it sure is looking real youthful.  I have to admit that during the late 90s the magazine had me worried.  It was looking really old and uninspired.  Somehow they were able the follow the path of Seventeen and other mags by giving itself a facelift.  It's looking better than ever:

Headquartered in Chicago, Ebony remains the largest black-owned magazine in the world and has published more features on black women, men, children and families than any other magazine. In July 2003, Ebony debuted a new look that offers more color pages and features.

Ebony has survived -- and flourished -- at a time when several other black-owned media organizations have either sold their majority shares or partnered with white-owned media conglomerates, like Essence magazine, which is now owned by Time Inc., and BET, which was sold to media giant Viacom.

(via Black America Web)

Who knew that Charles Dickens and Saul Bellow would be the inspiration for a new book by a 50-year-old incarcerated drug lord:

The former drug kingpin, whose enterprise raked in millions in the 1980s and 1990s, has published an account of his life as it progressed from Arkansas to Des Moines drug houses to prison.

The book is out now. Clark is expected to be out in 2010.

"This is a dream for him," said Karen Daughenbaugh of Des Moines, a friend of Clark's who typed the manuscript. "He worked on it for five years."

Of course it took him five years.  Can someone tell me what else the dude would be doing in his spare time?

(via Des Moines Register)

Canada has a new Governor General.  Why this position still exists even though the Queen is of no importance to most of us, I do not know.  Frankly, I agree that it is a waste of taxpayers' money.  But just read some of the bigoted bullshit coming from some Canadians about the Prime Minister's decision to appoint a multilingual, black, female immigrant to the position:

Paul Martin's choice is a blatant kow-towing to almost every possible minority group -- women, blacks, immigrants, Quebeckers. Too bad the future GG isn't handicapped. Maybe a background as a journalist counts in that area. It's wonderful to be inclusive and tolerant. But what's wrong with someone who was born on Canadian soil and who happens to live outside Martin's focus area of Quebec?
Don't we have some notable Canadians who have contributed to our development, who have earned us a place on the world stage, who are "real" Canadian heroes?
If the Governor General is supposed to be a rallying point for national unity and spirit, Martin has failed miserably in his choice.
Sheila Hannon

 

Another woman, another media person, and another who was not born in Canada. Surely, there must be some Canadian born person that could represent the Queen?
Susan Marsh

This is 2005.  Are these bitches for real?

(via The Globe and Mail)

Before you begin reading I just want to mention that all good and vile things (think Dave Chappelle's R. Kelly-music-video parody) must come to an end.  Please have a moment of silence for Chappelle's Show.

(insert "moment of silence" here)

Now, I was going to skip blogging today altogether, as I've been busy working on the research for my book.  Yes, the procrastination has been waning.  I'm hard at work interviewing people, reading plenty of books and the like.  I surfed on over to Bookninja and followed a link to an article about a new—and modest—black publishing upstart out of the British Columbia area by two black Canadian authors: Wayde Compton and Karina Vernon.  Commodore Books—which I'm sure will be of as much interest to black literary folks from California and Washington—will serve black writers in Western Canada.  I did some more snooping on the Net and found this press release via thinkubator:

You are invited to the pre-launch of COMMODORE BOOKS

Wednesday 22 June 2005
Honey Lounge
455 Abbott Street (at Pender)
7PM

The introduction of Commodore Books* to the literary scene marks a historical turn in black cultural production in Western Canada. While Canada has been blessed in the past by black-owned book publishers -- most significantly, Williams-Wallace and SisterVision -- there has never existed a publishing house operating under the control of a black editorial collective west of Ontario -- until now. Our aim is to publish two books per year, in spring and fall, beginning with our inaugural fiction title, Adventures in Debt Collection, by Fred Booker, slated to appear in September 2005.

Booker will read live at this event, where pre-sales and subscriptions to the series will be available. Join us in celebrating the foundation of Commodore Books, alongside the launch of new Roy Kiyooka books from NeWest Press, and the latest issue of West Coast Line. Your support now will greatly aid the success of this project in the future. Commodore Books is affiliated with the West Coast Review Publishing Society -- a non-profit society; money from sales goes only to the authors and towards funding further publications.

*Our name recalls the Commodore, the paddle steamer which transported thirty-five black migrants from San Francisco to Victoria 147 years ago, during the Gold Rush; this small pioneer committee became the nucleus of British Columbia's first black community.

I enjoyed Esi Edugyan's debut novel and, as an inhabitant of the east coast, I am very much interested in seeing what other black experiences will come out of the west:

Wayde Compton and Karina Vernon, two of the principals behind an ambitious project called Commodore Books, cheerfully acknowledge as much over lager and wine at a Commercial Drive pub on a warm June evening. They banter a bit over a statistic they've heard, which posits about 17,000 African-descended British Columbians, out of 3 million and change total. "Definitely debatable," says Vernon.

But belonging to a minority that's tiny in numbers doesn't mean you're short of stories-in fact, as the respected poet, anthologist and researcher Compton makes clear, the opposite may be true. And Commodore Books aims to find out.

(via The Vancouver Courier)

It seems that on the Midwest side of things Chicago's talk show queen is on the move again.  Oprah's film production company now has the rights to Toni Morrison's novel Paradise.
(via The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)