Sure, the New Haven Review's books have been out for a while. But that doesn't mean we can't revel in their release a few months after the fact. In a dramatic rescheduling of an event that was snowed out in March (raise your hand if you're still glad this winter is over), the New Haven Review will be throwing a triple-decker reading from How to Win Her Love, Blue for Oceans, and Kentauros, by Rudolph Delson, Charles Douthat, and Gregory Feeley, respectively. The readings will be held at the main branch of the New Haven Free Public Library, at 133 Elm Street, this Wednesday, June 22, at 6 pm. Your correspondent, alas, cannot attend, but can say with reasonable certainty that participants will be prepared to celebrate afterward, so please stick around. And thanks again to Carol Brown at the library for graciously hosting the event.
We Like Parties...and So Do Our Writers
From the New Haven Independent:
Westville’s Kehler Liddell Gallery has long established itself as a place to view masterful paintings, prints and sculptures, but its use as a space for a variety of cultural and community events continues to evolve. Tuesday night the gallery was host to a book launch party by New Haven Review Books—“the world’s latest small press for high-quality fiction, nonfiction, and poetry” according to Review co-founder Mark Oppenheimer....The press celebrated Tuesday night the release of its first three trade paperbacks, featuring the work of Brooklyn-based novelist Rudolph Delson, New Haven area poet Charles Douthat, and Hamden novella master Gregory Feeley. Douthat and Feeley were on hand to sign their books, read selections and mingle with well-wishers, as guitar and fiddle musicians Craig Edwards and New Haven Review co-founder Brian Slattery (of The Root Farmers), provided musical accompaniment.
Platters of exotic cookies dotted the gallery space, comfortable among new artworks of painter Frank Bruckmann and sculptor Susan Clinard, whose opening reception will be held Sunday, Dec.12 from 3 to 6 p.m. The powerful two and three-dimensional works created a haunting synergy while the authors read from the pages of their newly published books.
And there's more. Read the whole article here.
Oh, and thanks to David Sepulveda, journalist extraordinaire.
Review of Kentauros
Lois Tilton over at Locus magazine has posted a very nice review of Kentauros, our new book by Gregory Feeley. Here's just a little of what she has to say:
Every part of this work casts a light, provides a different insight. But these lights are all aimed in a single direction and not at the fantasy story told in the second and sixth chapters. They are aimed at illuminating the myth. A fantasy story is one way of doing this; a literary story is another, and the several essays cast separate lights of their own. Pindar’s ode, no more and no less, was doing the same thing, thousands of years ago (the Greek poets notoriously made stuff up as much as today's fantasy authors). This work is a set of floodlights, and it is the myth itself on the stage, wearing different costumes in each act.
Thank you, Ms. Tilton. And for those whose interests are officially piqued, please visit our store.
NHR Books: First Shipment
Pictured above, with seasonal vegetables, is the first shipment of preorders for our new line of books. All three titles—How to Win Her Love, by Rudolph Delson, Blue for Oceans, by Charles Douthat, and Kentauros, by Gregory Feeley—are represented; the books are being shipped everywhere from just down the street to one of the farther corners of the British Commonwealth. Those of you who ordered more than one book, live abroad, or, God help you, both, will receive your books in the delightfully puffy packaging that appears at the top of the stack. Those who ordered one book and live in the continental United States will receive your books in the sleek manila envelopes that appear at the bottom of the stack, reinforced with state-of-the-art mailing tape. Those of you who have not ordered books and are feeling entirely left out of the fun—no puffy packaging or sleek manila envelopes for you!—may rectify the situation by ordering at our store. And really, can you wait even one more minute? My dear reader, you cannot.
Thank you again to everyone—the printers, the designers, but especially the writers and now you, the readers—who made this happen.
New Haven Review Occasional Paper 2: Creepy Hollow
As the title of this post suggests, now and again we at the NHR get a piece that is perhaps too long for the blog, or too timely for our glacial twice-a-year publishing schedule, or just too much fun to keep to ourselves for long. Just in time for Halloween, greater New Haven-area novelist and critic Gregory Feeley regales us with a thoroughly original reread of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." I know, I know, you think you know everything there is to know about this shopworn piece of early American fiction. Think again. Feeley's first order of business: "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" isn't even a Halloween story. Download the paper here. You'll never think about Ichabod Crane's nose the same way again.