tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78815638611317036032023-11-15T06:30:11.059-08:00Pushing the MarginsShining a light on the best in great writing from America's diverse communities.Linda Rodriguezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913741596693442469noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-28512554532175288172022-03-01T21:34:00.000-08:002022-03-01T21:34:42.934-08:00Publishing and the Ukraine War<p>Ukraine's International Book Arsenal Fair was to take place in May in Kyiv. The festival's organizers issued <a href="https://publishingperspectives.com/2022/02/a-message-from-ukraines-book-arsenal-festival-in-kyiv/">a statement with suggestions </a>on what people in the book industry could do to help Ukraine during this time of war. </p><p>Also, Frankfurt Buchmesse issued<a href="https://english.lithuanianculture.lt/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Frankfurt-Book-Fair-s-response-to-the-open-letter-from-the-Baltic-cultural-institutions.pdf"> a statement in support of Ukraine</a>, as have the London and Bologna fairs. <br /></p><p><i>Publishers Weekly </i>included <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/international/international-book-news/article/88619-russia-s-war-of-words-with-ukraine.html">an article describing some of the challenges</a> that have been facing Ukrainian publishing for the past decade, including Russian efforts to undermine the industry in Ukraine. </p><p>Publishing Perspectives features <a href="https://publishingperspectives.com/2022/03/ukrainian-publisher-julia-orlova-a-reading-nation-under-attack/">an interview with Julia Orlova</a>, CEO at the Kharkiv publisher Vivat. (Kharkiv has sustained massive bombardment, including cluster bombs.) But she also describes how prior to the invasion, <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">at President Zelensky's initiative, “Every vaccinated citizen of Ukraine was made eligible to receive an electronic 1,000 hryvnia (US$33.29) Any citizen could spend these funds on certain categories of goods, including books. More than 30 percent of our people spent this money on books.” Yet another reason to care about the fate of this nation of readers!<br /></span></p>Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-59460173405006469672022-02-15T19:42:00.001-08:002022-02-15T19:42:17.924-08:00Farewell to Jason Epstein<p>Jason Epstein, on top of all of his other achievements in the publishing universe, was the author of <i>Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future</i>. Part memoir and part nonfiction introduction to the field itself, the book seamlessly combines a nuts-and-bolts look at some of the inner workings of book publishing, but it also strings together some of the great stories that Epstein recalls from his legendary career, and it is stories like these that ignited in many of us the dream of working in the field. It is hard to believe<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/books/jason-epstein-dead.html"> he is gone at 93</a>. <br /></p>Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-4947804666813726622022-02-08T20:21:00.000-08:002022-02-08T20:21:52.771-08:00The Scariest Author Reading Story Ever<p>In the book business, we are used to hearing stories about small turnouts at readings, signings, and other author appearances. It comes with the territory. We also hear about all kinds of mishaps that can happen on the road for writers. But<a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/02/05/my-reading-from-hell-a-writers-road-to-self-promotion-is-paved-with-live-in-person-disasters/"> this story by D. Watkins</a> has got to be one of the most memorable we've ever heard. </p>Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-18935644038412251442022-01-16T14:25:00.002-08:002022-01-16T14:25:26.956-08:00How many books does it take? <p> This <i>New York Times</i> article <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/24/realestate/why-do-people-keep-books.html?searchResultPosition=1">"How many books does it take to make a place feel like home"</a> has generated a lot of attention among book lovers online. It's a compelling question. One number that gets mentioned in the article is 1,000. But of course, there are a lot of considerations to take into account for each of us in coming up with our own number. But on the other hand, how many books is too many? The photos in this article of luxurious, commodious, and even ostentatious shelving remind us how book ownership not only implies the resources to amass the books themselves but the resources needed to shelter and display them. How many of us have boxes of books that we may nominally own, but since they are packed away, we don't have easy access to them, nor can we really derive much pleasure from their presence. Perhaps the worst sign of too many books is when one must go to the library to get a book because our own personal copy is submerged in archived boxes instead of being available on our shelves. That very thing has happened to, ahem, some of my best friends. One thing that many of us agree on, though, is that our books on display on our shelves can reflect back to us who we are, what flights of the imagination give us pleasure, and what books have woven themselves into the fabric of our lives. <br /></p>Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-57151043630724893902018-05-25T17:25:00.000-07:002018-05-25T17:25:40.024-07:00Latino 247 podbean features Woven Voices AuthorsLatino 247 recently posted <a href="https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-6vtvh-9067f2" target="_blank">this short video </a>featuring the late Anita Vélez-Mitchell, her daughter Gloria Vando, and her granddaughter Anika Paris, authors of the Scapegoat Press anthology <i>Woven Voices: Three Puertorriqeña Poets Look at Their American Lives,</i> edited by Linda Rodriguez.Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-19287357376583795142017-11-18T12:28:00.001-08:002017-11-18T12:28:12.547-08:00St. Louis publisher loses 200,000 books in fireReedy Press, which publishes books on St. Louis and regional history, lost its warehouse in a five-alarm fire that consumed 200,000 books, reports the<a href="http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/after-loss-of-books-in-fire-st-louis-publisher-to/article_cf868e85-4ec8-532e-907c-396ee7c66865.html" target="_blank"> St. Louis Post-Dispatch</a>. It is hard to imagine a worse catastrophe for a book publisher to face. The article reports that the venerable Left Bank Books has offered to help with an event to support the publisher as it works to get back on its feet. Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-61684380674964363022017-11-05T16:55:00.003-08:002017-11-05T16:55:44.844-08:00The Afterlives of Discarded booksThis article in <a href="http://themillions.com/2017/10/books-out-of-place.html" target="_blank">The Millions</a> ("Books Out of Place"by Rajat Singh) is a lovely meditation on discarded books. The author mentions the reverence for books in the Hindu tradition. I was reminded about how Jews perform burial rites for a Torah scroll when it wears out and can no longer be used. Here in Kansas City, <a href="http://www.bookskc.org/" target="_blank">BooksKC</a> has collection boxes that accept donations of used books that go to benefit Ability KC's programs for individuals with disabilities. What to do with books one can no longer keep can be an agonizing decision, especially if they are not pristine and popular. The <a href="http://kclibraryfriends.org/donations" target="_blank">Friends of the Kansas City Public Library</a> also accepts donations of used books, as do several other charitable causes. But Singh's reflections about book spirit are poignant.Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-20181585796631466182017-10-14T16:01:00.002-07:002017-10-14T16:01:25.046-07:00Linda Rodriguez speaks about plotting, based on her new book<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOzg8uyiviw" target="_blank">This video features Linda Rodriguez </a>speaking about plotting, in a talk based on her new book <a href="http://www.scapegoatpress.com/plottingcharacterdrivennovel.html" target="_blank"><i>Plotting the Character-Driven Novel</i>.</a> Patrick Balester recorded her talk at a meeting of the Border Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crime earlier this year. Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-65682342147585524382017-09-03T19:10:00.001-07:002017-09-03T19:10:14.065-07:00Interview with Houston Poet Laureate on NPRWeekend Edition today aired <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/09/03/548255831/poems-for-houston" target="_blank">an interview with Gwendolyn Zepeda</a>, Houston's poet laureate, about her perspective on the flood and its aftermath. As a general rule, I've found that if you want to know what's going on someplace, talk to a poet there. Zepeda makes some good points.Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-4772129072534150332017-08-20T20:26:00.000-07:002017-08-20T20:26:03.723-07:00Dictionary of regional English may suspend researchA great dictionary doesn't write itself--it takes a team of trained and committed researchers. The Dictionary of American Regional English is facing <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dictionary-of-american-regional-english_us_599199fee4b08a247275c897" target="_blank">a possible end to its funding</a>, and that will be a loss to an entire branch of linguistic knowledge. That will be a loss to everyone who cares about the dynamic and diverse ongoing evolution of the English language. Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-85148088233132032552017-08-03T20:35:00.000-07:002017-08-03T20:35:09.496-07:00Thinking about Emma LazarusThis <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6359435" target="_blank">All Things Considered piece from 2006</a> examines Emma Lazarus' place in American letters. Stephen Miller's denial of any standing for her poem "The New Colossus" yesterday since it was added to the statue many years after the statue was built made me remember how great this poem really is, whether it has any official standing or not.Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-43638939580230823882017-07-16T17:26:00.004-07:002017-07-16T17:26:35.522-07:00Anita Velez-Mitchell Play Temple of Souls July 19-23Anita Velez-Mitchell's play <i>Temple of the Souls</i> is being performed off-Broadway July 19-23! For more information, <a href="https://www.templeofthesouls.com/?utm_campaign=Two%2BWeeks%2Bto%2Bgo%2Bto%2BOff-Broadway&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Two%2Bweeks%2Bto%2Bgo%2Bto%2BOff-Broadway" target="_blank">see the play's website</a>. Anita was a contributor to the Scapegoat Press anthology <i>Woven Voices</i>. From the website, what people are saying about the play: <span style="font-family: enriqueta, serif; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;"> “<i>Temple of the Souls</i> is a story of forbidden love set deep in the mystical forest of Puerto Rico. A tour guide leads visitors through sacred grounds into an a ancient cave inhabited by Taíno spirits, the indigenous people who once ruled the island. Two tourist are magically transported back in time to relive the story of star-crossed lovers, Guario, a young Taíno runaway, and Amada, the daughter of a Conquistador. They meet at the joyous San Juan Bautista Fiesta, which quickly turns into a carnival of danger as they face racism and greed. Their love is stronger than death and they escape to the top of El Yunque m</span><span style="font-family: enriqueta, serif; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">ountain, and the Temple of the Souls, where nightmares and dreams come true."</span>Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-40906027831219644642017-07-09T14:38:00.001-07:002017-07-09T14:38:40.280-07:00Writers Place and Kansas City<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Writers Place is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and I was just looking at <a href="http://kcstudio.org/the-writers-place-celebrates-20-years/" target="_blank">an article about its 20th anniversary</a> that appeared in <i>KC Studio </i>magazine in 2012. The article opens with a description of an event celebrating Scapegoat's <i>Woven Voices: 3 Generations of Puertorriqueña Poets Look at Their American Lives,</i> by Anita V<span style="font-size: 11pt;">élez-Mitchell, Gloria Vando, and Anika Paris (edited by Linda Rodriguez). Though Anita is no longer with us, her influence continues to be felt. More about her in my next post. </span></span><br />
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Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-63348877305302680572017-06-18T17:07:00.003-07:002017-06-18T17:07:59.063-07:00Goat CrossfitHere is a fun and thoroughly novel approach to fitness--<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC6qrH-cYKs" target="_blank">goat crossfit</a>!Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-67912350665750016202017-06-11T15:42:00.000-07:002017-06-11T15:42:29.086-07:00New Memoir about Menominee Cuisine Follow<a href="http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com/2017/06/books-of-interest-from-writers-of-color.html" target="_blank"> this link</a> to read a review of <i>Good Seeds: A Menominee Indian Food Memoir</i> by Thomas Pecore Weso.Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-34576960106991493242017-06-10T17:23:00.003-07:002017-06-10T17:23:56.159-07:00In NY Times, Galchen and Holmes consider appropriationThis week, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/books/review/bookends-cultural-appropriation.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a> featured reflections by Rivka Galchen and Anna Holmes considering the boundaries and challenges of cultural appropriation. One thing that both writers clearly understand and respect is that artistic creation carries responsibilities for the artist. It reminds me that there is no true freedom without responsibility--they are flip sides to each other,Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-6190851175386698012017-06-03T19:04:00.000-07:002017-06-03T19:04:58.128-07:00Kathleen Ossip on Why Poetry MattersKathleen Ossip offers a perceptive comment in <a href="https://electricliterature.com/why-all-poems-are-political-47e714028853" target="_blank">Electric Literature</a> on the importance of poetry. I love her observation that "<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.392px;">After all, the </span><span class="markup--em markup--pullquote-em" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.157; background-color: white; font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1; letter-spacing: -0.392px;"><i>New York Times</i></span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.392px;"> never asks 'Does football matter?' or 'Do restaurants matter?' or 'Does television matter?'</span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); letter-spacing: -0.392px;">” </span> </span>Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-8062797000338101852017-05-31T19:08:00.002-07:002017-05-31T19:08:42.322-07:00Tree-climbing Goats!Here is <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/05/31/530862553/do-tree-climbing-goats-help-plant-new-trees" target="_blank">a link to a great NPR story</a> about tree-climbing goats in Morocco. Their intrepid pursuit of fruit even to the edge of upper tree limbs is inspiring. And according to witnesses on the scene, they never fall. Let their nimbleness of hoof be a model for us all.Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-24107221551739205982017-05-21T13:36:00.000-07:002017-05-21T13:36:37.610-07:00Interview with Francisco Aragon, Freedom Plow Award finalist<a href="http://ht.ly/pOoS30aws6f" target="_blank">Here is a link </a>to an interview with Francisco Aragon (author of Glow of Our Sweat from Scapegoat Press) about his bridge-building work between Latinx artists and poets and non-Latinx students and with confronting the erasure of Latinx GLBT identity. This interview ran last month in Split This Rock's Blog This Rog and in <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2017/04/split-this-rock-interviews-freedom-plow-finalist-francisco-aragon/" target="_blank">Harriet </a>at the Poetry Foundation.Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-49694003254182284732017-05-13T18:21:00.000-07:002017-05-13T18:21:12.795-07:00Cultural appropriation in the news<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
issue of cultural appropriation is getting some significant press attention
this week. On <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxymaqQUgcU&feature=youtu.be">Canadian
Broadcasting</a>, two writers faced off concerning the editor of <i>Write Magazine</i>’s flippant call for a
cultural appropriation prize to encourage writers to imagine subjects outside
their own cultures—and how some of Canada’s most influential editors actually pledged
money for this award. In the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-lefts-misguided-obsession-with-cultural-appropriation/2017/05/12/59e518bc-3672-11e7-b4ee-434b6d506b37_story.html?utm_term=.190ddbbe8d68">Washington
Pos</a>t, George F. Will dismisses what he calls “the left’s obsession with
cultural appropriation” as “authoritarianism leavened with philistinism.” But I
think that to countenance cultural appropriation, which almost invariably
traffics in lazy stereotypes and factually baseless fantasies, is itself a form
of philistinism. <br />
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<!--[endif]--></span>Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-6284291112378996562017-05-06T16:15:00.001-07:002017-05-06T16:15:07.730-07:00Great list of recent Latinx Lit compiled by Ruben QuesadaRuben Quesada has assembled <a href="http://queenmobs.com/2017/04/100days-latinxbooks/" target="_blank">a comprehensive list of Latinx books published since 2013</a>. I confess to a real weakness for bibliographic lists (I am one of those people who upon first picking up a nonfiction title will open it to the back and browse the bibliography and citations.) So I enjoyed reading this list and feel energized to hit the ground reading this summer! Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-41252392631414994832017-04-30T12:23:00.002-07:002017-04-30T12:23:20.744-07:00A Century of Hogarth PressHogarth Press, the publishing house founded by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, celebrated its 100th anniversary last week. The Guardian ran <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/24/a-publisher-of-ones-own-virginia-and-leonard-woolf-and-the-hogarth-press">this fine article</a> that takes a look at Hogarth's legacy. Although it is now part of the Penguin/Random House empire, its improbable emergence is one of the great publishing success stories of the 20th century. Virginia and Leonard printed and bound the early books themselves. They ended up bringing Sigmund Freud into print in English and other works on psychoanalysis, other works in translation, and many giants of literary modernism and the Bloomsbury group, including Katherine Mansfield, T.S. Eliot, Christopher Isherwood, and many others. J. H. Willis has written <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Virginia-Woolf-Publishers-Hogarth/dp/0813913616/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493579936&sr=8-1&keywords=leonard+and+virginia+woolf+as+publishers">a fascinating book</a> about the history of Hogarth's origins.Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-2500947810049255042009-04-04T17:16:00.000-07:002009-04-04T17:19:55.131-07:00New Poet laureate chosen!It's not April Fool's Day anymore, but this is still funny. Read more here:<br /><br /><a href="http://http//ofkells.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-poet-laureate-named.html">http://http//ofkells.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-poet-laureate-named.html</a>Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-33924596826328679732009-03-22T20:56:00.000-07:002009-03-22T21:01:24.788-07:00A Blog About Writers, Books, and Those Who Love ThemWe will be periodically posting about books, about writers, about the literary life, and about the joys and vicissitudes of publishing. We are a small independent press.Scapegoat Presshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01827243277105070421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881563861131703603.post-40259510621597487912009-03-20T15:37:00.000-07:002009-03-20T15:39:05.538-07:00Scapegoat Press Begins BloggingThis will be the Scapegoat Press blog.Linda Rodriguezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913741596693442469noreply@blogger.com0