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Troy
Veteran Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 655
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 05, 2007 - 09:46 pm: | 
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Needless to say I saw this trend years ago. I plan to attend this event.
I will also be participating in a panel discussion, during the Harlem Book Fair, on the subject of book reviews.
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For Immediate Release
Contact: John Freeman, jfreeman4@nyc.rr.com, or Tim W. Brown, tim.brown@bofasecurities.com
INDEPENDENT PRESSES URGE: “SAVE OUR BOOK REVIEWS!”
As part of the ongoing “Campaign to Save Book Reviews” sponsored by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), the New York Center for Independent Publishing (NYCIP) is hosting a “Save Our Book Reviews!” panel discussion in partnership with NBCC. The panel will be held on Wednesday, June 13, at 6:30 p.m. in the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen Library, 20 West 44th Street (between Fifth and Sixth Avenues), in New York, NY. Admission is free. The public may call 212-764-7021 for more information.
The panel features a variety of speakers to whom the issue is vitally important, including: Dan Simon, publisher of Seven Stories Press, whose list of illustrious authors includes the late Kurt Vonnegut; Sarah McNally, owner of McNally-Robinson Booksellers, a strong retail supporter of independent presses; Hannah Tinti, author of Animal Crackers and editor of One Story; M.A. Orthofer, managing editor of The Complete Review, a comprehensive book review web site; Tim W. Brown, freelance reviewer and NYCIP Executive Council member; and John Freeman, President of NBCC, who is spearheading the Campaign and moderating the panel.
Over the past five years, one by one, newspapers have begun to forsake books and their readers. At dozens of papers book coverage has been cut back or slashed altogether, puffed up with wire copy, or generally treated as expendable. The board of the National Book Critics Circle has launched its Campaign to try to combat these changes. “Shrinkage of review space affects independent presses inordinately, because the books that get bumped off book review pages are the smaller, less-mainstream ones,” said Freeman.
“The Center for Independent Publishing is 100% behind NBCC’s effort,” said Brown. “It has tremendous implications not only for our independent publisher membership, but also for readers of independently produced books who have few outlets available to learn about new titles.”
Founded in 1974, the National Book Critics Circle is a non-profit organization consisting of nearly 700 active book reviewers who are interested in honoring quality writing and communicating with one another about common concerns. The centerpiece of NBCC activities is the annual awards for the best book in five categories: fiction, general nonfiction, biography/autobiography, poetry, and criticism.
The New York Center for Independent Publishing, an educational program of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, was established in 1984 to help independent publishers reach a wider audience for their books and to provide information and draw public awareness to the offerings of these presses. The Center encourages excellence and free expression in publishing through workshops, lectures, book fairs, exhibits and its Reference Center on Writing and Publishing.
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Panel Participants
In 1995 DAN SIMON founded Seven Stories Press, an independent publishing company that concentrates on fiction and timely, informative nonfiction. His books include Run, Run, Run: The Lives of Abbie Hoffman, co-authored with Jack Hoffman (Tacher/Putnam, 1995), Van Gogh: Self Portraits by Pascal Bonafoux, translated by Daniel Simon (Wellfleet Press, 1989), Nonconformity: Writing on Writing by Nelson Algren, edited by Daniel Simon and C.S. O'Brien with an afterword by Daniel Simon (Seven Stories Press, 1996), and the 50th Anniversary Critical Edition of The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren, edited by Daniel Simon and William J. Savage (Seven Stories Press, 1999). In 1996 Simon was named a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, by order of the French Minister of Culture.
SARAH McNALLY is the owner/manager of McNally Robinson Booksellers’ New York location. Based in Winnipeg, Alberta, McNally Robinson is Canada’s largest independent bookstore, consisting of five locations in Winnipeg, Calgary, and Saskatoon in addition to New York City. McNally Robinson is proudly independent and family-owned. Their stores are characterized by warmth, personal service, and local community involvement. Decisions, including what books to stock, are determined by the needs of the communities the individual stores serve.
HANNAH TINTI’s work has been published in Story, Alaska Quarterly Review, Story Quarterly, Sonora Review and is forthcoming in Epoch. She earned her M.A. from New York University's Graduate Creative Writing Program and has received residency fellowships from the Blue Mountain Center and Hedgebrook. Her first book, a story collection called Animal Crackers, was published by Dial Press in March 2004 and was a runner up for the 2005 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. One of the stories (“Home Sweet Home”) appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2003. Tinti is now at work on a novel called Resurrection Men, also forthcoming from Dial Press.
M.A. ORTHOFER is the managing editor of The Complete Review, a comprehensive online source of reviews covering a broad spectrum of books, including works of fiction, nonfiction, biography, poetry, drama, philosophy, literary criticism, and science.
TIM W. BROWN is author of two novels, Deconstruction Acres (1997) and Left of the Loop (2001). A third novel, Walking Man, is forthcoming in 2008. Brown’s book reviews, mainly of independent press titles, regularly appear in such publications as Rain Taxi, The Bloomsbury Review, The Writer, Small Press Review, American Book Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Chelsea, Pleiades, Colorado Review, The Journal of American Culture and Columbia Journal of American Studies. He serves on the Executive Council of the New York Center for Independent Publishing, and he is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
JOHN FREEMAN (moderator) is President of the National Book Critics Circle. His reviews, essays and interviews have appeared in more than 175 newspapers and magazines around the world including The Sydney Morning Herald, La Vanguardia, the London Times, The Believer and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in New York City.
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4879
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 07, 2007 - 09:09 am: |
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The gripe is that newspapers are no longer giving space to book reviews? While you're there please convey the following Mzuri newsflash:
Newspapers are falling by the wayside and will be obsolete within the next ten (10) years.
http://www.slate.com/id/2144201
http://tinyurl.com/2jfs5d
Newspapers are being superceded by the internet. Worry about something else.
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Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4604
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 07, 2007 - 11:00 am: |
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Newspapers are falling by the wayside and will be obsolete within the next ten (10) years.
(Ridiculous. They said the same thing about radio. It is going strong. People are even paying to get it.
The elites will read the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post. Some others. The rest of the papers will be advertising.
Newspapers are going to change. They are going to be primarily entertainment and advertising. They are practically all advertising now.
Mzurigirl sits around in the house all day in her bathrobe. She doesn't realize not everybody is staring at a computer screen all day--and that more than half the people don't look at one at all and that they are going to need another source of advertising--and sports. And crossword puzzles. And their local movie listings.
But I digress. Our original subject, before we were so rudely interrupted was the disappearing book review.
There will still be places they will appear. Publishers weekly. Entertainment Weekly. The New York Times Review of Books. Academic Journals.
The rest are going. One place you can place review is on the Internet (why didn't you suggest that, Mzuribrain?) Or to start up review magazines or to hand out broadsides with reviews on them.
One thing for sure, book readership is going down, so will book reviewing.
After all, none of these places cancelling the reviews is being besieged by angry crowds demanding they be put back.
Nuff said. |
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