What is particularly crucial to understand is that books were not dragged kicking and screaming into each new area of capitalism. Books not only are part and parcel of consumer capitalism, they virtually began it. In an essay for the Virginia Quarterly Review, former head of Soft Skull Press Richard Nash explores the business of literature […]
...moreMatt Runkle interviews Richard Nash for the Boston Review, who ran Soft Skull Press for eight years. Now he’s heading two other publishing ventures, Cursor (an online literary community where writers can post/discuss manuscripts) and their first imprint, Red Lemonade. It’s awesome to hear publishers say stuff like, “I’m tremendously optimistic about the future of […]
...moreThis week in New York The Rumpus throws an A Night Together with Sam Lipsyte, Michael Showalter, Lorelei Lee, Jeff Lewis, Jump-Off winners and more, Jamaica Kincaid and Rick Moody help collect Books for NY Schools, Richard Nash and Jim Hanas debate fiction and technology, Gary Shteyngart and Amy Sohn host a Shabbat dinner, Robert […]
...moreThe books blogs always like to talk about the future, but this week was like some sort of official book blog crystal ball week, what with this new decade they tell me we’re in now and everything. We’ve already linked to Richard Nash’s take on the next ten years, but the NBCC’s Critical Mass has lots […]
...moreWinter has finally come to south Florida, by which I mean it’s a nipple-hardening 51 degrees Fahrenheit as I type this and you can discern the locals from the transplants by the size (or lack) of the coats they’re wearing. Quoting Catullus in a text message can get you into trouble, depending on what part […]
...moreAs the New York Bureau Chief, I thought it might be a good idea to round up some notable literary and cultural events going on around New York that I think readers of The Rumpus would be interested in. So, I’ll start with some nightly, and sometimes daily, notables for this week: Monday, September 21, […]
...more“Soft Skull began at a Kinko’s in 1993 courtesy of Adobe and Xerox. It started with fewer resources and far less maturity and experience than, say, Seven Stories, Arcade, Manic D or New Press. But we all benefited from the collapsing barriers to entry into the publishing business. Distributors like PGW, IPG, Consortium, SCB arose […]
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