So Ampersand hasn’t spent nearly enough time talking about New Directions. Or László Krasznahorkai. And I’m (Stefan here today) dying to tell you something wonderful he said.
So firstly, here’s my pointer to a great Three Percent podcast on New Directions’ long-term commitment to Krasznahorkai and on how publishing works in big and in independent houses. And on how Susan Sontag used to scout for New Directions. It’s a good podcast series if you like listening to unguarded publishing folk chew the fat and spill the beans. If you don’t know what Tracked Changes in Word is and want to hear what Publisher Rage is before it’s too late, listen too. In the podcast, ND’s Tom Roberge and Chad Post from Open Letter Books (which by the way deserves its own post another time, great books!) also talk about who recommends books to publishers. I was certainly grateful the German poet Volker Sielaff told me about Krasznahorkai a little before I started And Other Stories. Sadly, it was just too late to publish him in the UK.
But back to New Directions: here’s a photo of some of the good new-ish reasons why New Directions will continue to be such a favourite publishing house of so many people. Looking forward to reading them all!
But I couldn’t finish without telling you a story about what László Krasznahorkai said to me at the New Directions party during BookExpo America (BEA).
I was wearing a sticker that said ‘I Love Books’ that Will Evans had given me at the fair. (Yes, the same Will Evans whom Chad and Tom were talking about in the podcast. Will who has set up this great new press Deep Vellum. In Dallas. Don’t hold that against him. Go and subscribe to its books!)
So, anyway, I was introduced to our long-haired hero (no, Will Evans doesn’t have long hair, just an excitable moustache) and he saw the sticker I still had on.
‘You love books. But do you really?’ (Hungarian accent.)
With my bourbon in hand, I replied that no, I was just here for the drinks. (Although the bourbon could have been better. But who really cared.) After asking me where to get a drink, he replied with his gallows humour:
‘I don’t love books. Books are my problem.’
How fitting of him to say so. And how true.