Small Press Joy Part 2
Plus thoughts on libraries and book censorship
Small Press Joy with a Chapbook
I wrote an offbeat little book called The Mortality of Dogs and Humans. It’s only 70 pages long, so it wasn’t going to be published traditionally. I was delighted when Bamboo Dart Press picked it up. They are expanding the definition of a chapbook and publish far more than poetry. I often take their little books on overnight trips and find them the perfect length for a single night’s reading.
Here’s the back cover copy, which I think gives the reader a good idea of the book:
Making Book Cover Choices
Deciding on the cover was interesting. Bamboo Dart publishes a lot of experimental and multi-genre work. Since the book discusses mortality, we were thinking of having a partial image of Zainy (the dog on the cover), fading, with a timepiece in the background, maybe just a watermark. But this seemed too much like science fiction to me. Or maybe too eerie since the tone of the book is very positive.
Ultimately, all we had to do was answer the question: What do dog lovers like to see?
Answer: Dogs!
If you love dogs, you know that seeing one sparks joy.
Here’s the photo of an elder Zainy used for the watercolor (by Laura DeKloe) that became the cover image.
For a red hot minute, Mortality of Dogs was the #1 new release in Amazon’s Pet Loss Grief category. This fall semester, a long excerpt will be read in a community college English class as part of an autobiography unit. It’s a small book from a small publisher, and continues to bring small joys.
Celebrating Libraries and Librarians
I had the opportunity to guest edit a special ‘libraries and librarians’ issue of Inlandia: A Literary Journey. It’s launching soon. I also had the opportunity to write an essay about my own experience with the decision to withdraw a book from the collection. It was a thoughtful and time-consuming process—as it should be. While the book censors are labeling librarians as pedophiles and more, I’m hoping the essay will show the reader what librarians really do in this aspect of their job. The journal issue with my essay will be available September 23.
Libraries and Book Censorship
This article from the New York Times is about John Green’s books being censored in Indiana, but it has some news about other recent book censorship.
As a high school librarian, I was thrilled with TFiOS. It brought so many teens into the library, students who weren’t readers. Once they got through TFiOS, they came back asking for books ‘like it.’ We’ve got to remember that ‘home run’ books develop readers. I sometimes think that the censors don’t want young people to read at all.
