Poet of the Week: Michael Palmer

Posted by Tom Roberge on May 16, 2012

Due to popular demand, and as a concession to common sense, we've decided to put poems here on our website — one poet per week. A few months back we shared the wonderful news that poet Michael Palmer has been honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters with an award for general...

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Sebald on the Big Screen

Posted by Tom Roberge on May 3, 2012

If there's one novel that lends itself to cinematic exploration, it's W. G. Sebald's beloved masterpiece The Rings of Saturn. It's impossible not to crave to see what the narrator sees on his walking tour of the Eastern English Coast, and though the curious archive of photographs...

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Artist Appreciation: Tony Fitzpatrick, Fan of Roberto Bolaño and Tennessee Williams

Posted by Tom Roberge on April 26, 2012

I first came across Tony Fitzpatrick's wonderful collage art when this post came up in google alert for Roberto Bolaño. Explaining his "Bird for the Daughters of Juarez" (below), he writes: The underlying thematic device, for me, seems to be the world’s rapid...

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Found: One (1) Lusty Book in Our Library

Posted by Tom Roberge on April 20, 2012

Like all publishers, I believe, we have a library containing copies of every book we've ever published. And since it contains first editions of Lustig-designed titles by Ezra Pound, Tennessee Williams, Nabokov, and on an on, we like to show it off to visitors. All of that handling, however,...

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Poet of the Week: Xi Chuan

Posted by Tom Roberge on April 19, 2012

Due to popular demand, and as a concession to common sense, we've decided to put poems here on our website — one poet per week. This week's poet is Xi Chuan, whom translator Lucas Klein, in his introduction to Notes on the Mosquito, describes thusly: "Xi Chuan (pronounced...

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Poet of the Week: Kenneth Rexroth (In the Sierra)

Posted by Tom Roberge on April 12, 2012

Due to popular demand, and as a concession to common sense, we've decided to put poems here on our website — one poet per week. Wow, it's been a while since I posted one of these. Too long. Sorry about that. As you likely know, April is National Poetry Month. Not coincendtally,...

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In Memory: Christine Brooke-Rose

Posted by Michael Barron on April 10, 2012

Christine Brooke-Rose, the prominent English critic and experimental writer, died on March 21 at the age of 89. Brooke-Rose was born in Switzerland and educated at Somerville College in Oxford and University College in London. She taught English literature at the University of Paris from 1968...

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‘Microscripts’ as Wallpaper

Posted by Tom Roberge on April 3, 2012

Truth is we've been dying to find a reason to talk about the newly relaunched version of The Chicagoan, a beautifully produced and brilliantly edited magazine that published its first issue back in early March. It's gotten attention from far and wide, including The Chicago Tribune, Time...

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Remembering Jochen Greven

Posted by Michael Barron on April 2, 2012

On March 29, Jochen Greven, widely considered the world's leading Robert Walser scholar, passed away. Susan Bernofsky, who has translated several of Walser's books into English, has posted a touching, personal note of rememberence for Greven on her blog, Translationista. Posted below is...

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A Sneak Peek at Anne Carson’s New Book (the Real Thing!)

Posted by Tom Roberge on March 28, 2012

Presented with a minimum of commentary, Anne Carson's Antigonick. We posted a preview back in January, but now have in our possession the only pair of finished copies in the Western Hemisphere (the remainder are being shipped, via freighter, from the speciality printer in China and will...

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New Directions Mourns the Death of Antonio Tabucchi

Posted by Tom Roberge on March 26, 2012

On Sunday morning we learned that Italian author Antonio Tabucchi passed away after a battle with cancer.  Born in Pisa in 1943 to a horse trader, Tabucchi studied literature and philosophy and before returning to Italy to begin his own writing career. Over the years he won several...

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Poet of the Week: Dylan Thomas

Posted by Tom Roberge on February 16, 2012

Due to popular demand, and as a concession to common sense, we've decided to put poems here on our website — one poet per week. Now that Valentine's Day has passed, and now that it's turned cold and rainy, at least here in New York, why not hunker down with some poetry by Dylan...

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Awesome Author Photos: Nicanor Parra

Posted by Tom Roberge on February 9, 2012

One of the great unexpected pleasures of redesigning our website came as we uploaded author photos. Many of them are incomparably wonderful, and in what I hope will be a semi-regular feature on the blog, we'll point them out to you. Nicanor Parra. Theoretical physicist, cosmologist,...

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13 Ways of Looking at Nox

Posted by Tom Roberge on February 7, 2012

A few weeks back, I had the pleasure of talking to hundreds of booksellers — in groups of about eight at a time — about Anne Carson's forthcoming book, Antigonick. Of course I mentioned her previous book, Nox, and of course I ended up saying "beautiful book-in-a-box"...

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Poet of the Week: Forrest Gander

Posted by Tom Roberge on February 6, 2012

Due to popular demand, and as a concession to common sense, we've decided to put poems here on our website — one poet per week. This week, we present Forrest Gander. Following in the footsteps of many New Directions poets, Forrest is a Renaissance man with degrees in geology and...

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Rodrigo Corral: Novelist

Posted by Michael Barron on February 2, 2012

We aren't typically keen on bringing your attention to books published by other publishers, but we do make certain exceptions, and this certainly qualifies as one. If you ever turned over a New Directions book — after admiring the cover — to look for the design credit, then...

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A Sneak Peek at Anne Carson’s New Book: ‘Antigonick’

Posted by Tom Roberge on January 26, 2012

It's official: Anne Carson's new book, a new translation of Sophokles' Antigone called Antigonick (the title makes sense in the context of the new translation, I swear) is off at the printer, and should be landing on our fair shores sometime in late April. Similar to Nox, this is a...

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Tennessee Williams’ New Orleans’ Haunts

Posted by Tom Roberge on January 25, 2012

Last week, editor Barbara Epler and I were in New Orleans, where we were meeting (and wining and dining) booksellers at the American Booksellers Association's Winter Institute — sort of like Book Expo America minus all the glitz and carnival barking. While we were there, we took some...

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On Marginalia

Posted by Tom Roberge on January 3, 2012

In the January 1 issue of the New York Times Magazine, critic at large Sam Anderson opens his books and shares some marginal scribblings. Below is the printed version, and over on their website is a fancy multi-media version wherein Anderson talks about each note, including a...

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Poet of the Week: Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Posted by Tom Roberge on December 14, 2011

Due to popular demand, and as a concession to common sense, we've decided to put poems here on our website — one poet per week. Lawrence Ferlinghetti: poet, novelist, publisher, bookseller, social activist, and much more. An enduring American icon at a time when achieving such status...

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Video of Tomas Tranströmer Receiving his Nobel Medal

Posted by Tom Roberge on December 12, 2011

This will be the most heartwarming thing you see all day.

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Poet of the Week: Tomas Tranströmer

Posted by Tom Roberge on December 7, 2011

Due to popular demand, and as a concession to common sense, we've decided to put poems here on our website — one poet per week. This week, in honor of his formally receiving his Nobel Prize in Literature, we're sharing a singularly beautiful poem by Tomas Transtrômer....

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Awesome Author Photos: Clarice Lispector

Posted by Tom Roberge on December 2, 2011

One of the great unexpected pleasures of redesigning our website came as we uploaded author photos. Many of them are incomparably wonderful, and in what I hope will be a semi-regular feature on the blog, we'll point them out to you. With this installment of Awesome Author Photos, we...

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“The Adventures of Mao on the Long March”: A Primer

Posted by Tom Roberge on December 1, 2011

In advance of this Sunday's 40th anniversary marathon reading of Frederic Tuten's avant-garde novel The Adventures of Mao on the Long March (more information about the event can be found here), we thought it might make sense to say a few words about the unique novel.  First,...

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Poet of the Week: William Carlos Williams the Translator

Posted by Tom Roberge on November 30, 2011

Due to popular demand, and as a concession to common sense, we've decided to put poems here on our website — one poet per week.  As we are wont to do, we begin the Poet of the Week series with a post that bends the rules a bit. Rather than showcasing poetry by the...

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Awesome Author Photos: William Gerhardie

Posted by Tom Roberge on November 18, 2011

One of the great unexpected pleasures of redesigning our website came as we uploaded author photos. Many of them are incomparably wonderful, and in what I hope will be a semi-regular feature on the blog, we'll point them out to you.  Today we present William Gerhardie, an Anglo-Russian...

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From Our Library: “New Directions 22”, Featuring Richard Hell Before He Was Richard Hell

Posted by Tom Roberge on November 17, 2011

This is the Richard Hell everyone knows. Frontman for the seminal punk band Television (first known as The Neon Boys) and later for The Voidoids.                    He became a legend in the punk scene. Malcolm McLaren says...

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James Franco “in conversation” with Tennessee Williams? [Updated]

Posted by Tom Roberge on November 8, 2011

We can keep quiet on this odd bit of theater news no longer.  Multi-talented actor James Franco will make a one-time appearance in a commissioned play entitled Three Artists in Search of Tennessee Williams. Being staged this Sunday, November 13 at noon, the play is part of the Performa...

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Che Guevara + Jean-Paul Sartre

Posted by Tom Roberge on November 4, 2011

Last night I put on my favorite suit and made the trek to midtown to the Permanent Cuban Mission to the United Nations — housed in a spacious, if slightly rundown, building on Lexington Avenue a few blocks from the U.N. headquarters — to celebrate the publication of the new book Who...

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Found: One (1) Copper Printing Block

Posted by Tom Roberge on November 3, 2011

As you might have heard, New Directions has been publishing books since 1936, seventy-five years. And for the last forty or so years, we've been in the same 19th floor space on 14th Street in Chelsea, which means that a lot our history is still here, happily reminding us of the past. Our...

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We Threw Ourselves a Party for Our 75th Anniversary [Recap]

Posted by Tom Roberge on November 1, 2011

The night of Thursday, October 27 was rainy and chilly and the heat in the Great Hall at Cooper Union was basically nonexistant, but that didn't stop several hundred people from showing up to see our all-star roster of New Directions fans read from and discuss their favorite books in honor of...

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Video of Eliot Weinberger Reading at KGB Bar

Posted by Michael Barron on October 26, 2011

Eliot Weinberger and Lydia Davis read last night to a crowded audience in a dimly-lit KGB Bar for its "True Story Non-Fiction" series. Weinberger and Davis, having known eachother since highschool, exchanged humorous comments about who was the "cooler kid" back in the day...

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Siri Hustvedt on Susan Howe on Emily Dickinson

Posted by Tom Roberge on October 21, 2011

Back on September 17, Community Bookstore in Brooklyn celebrated their 40th anniversary with a reading at the Old First Reformed Church. I'm told 900 people were in attendance, and judging by the pictures here, I'm inclined to believe them. I was there, sitting near a column, my view of...

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Helen DeWitt, “Springtime for Hitler”, and Game Shows

Posted by Tom Roberge on October 17, 2011

As discussed in her interview with Bookforum's Morten Høi Jensen, Helen DeWitt cites Mel Brooks's 1968 film The Producers as inspiration for her second novel Lightning Rods. She says: It had been 18 months since my first agent told me she could get an advance so I could...

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A Toast to Tomas Tranströmer

Posted by Tom Roberge on October 10, 2011

To say that it's been a bit crazy around here since Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature last Thursday is a vast understatement. We were giddy, of course. Beside ourselves. There's nothing quite like the Nobel Prize to remind you — to reassure...

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Joe Strummer + Allen Ginsberg = Arthur Rimbaud (and methadone kitties!)

Posted by Tom Roberge on October 10, 2011

In terms of cultural popularity, the most enduring songs on Combat Rock — The Clash’s fifth studio album — are, in no particular order, “Rock the Casbah”, “Should I Stay or Should I Go”, and “Know Your Rights”. The best song on the album,...

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Welcome to Our Shiny New Blog!

Posted by Tom Roberge on October 8, 2011

There are lots of adages about change. It’s inevitable. It’s good. According to Heraclitus, it’s the only thing that endures. And according to Sam Cooke, it’s gonna come. So here we are, with a beautiful new website and a glossy new blog that we’ve decided to call...

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