CORRESPONDENCES
by Ben Greenman
ISBN 13: 9780978910334
$50.00
Publication Date: November, 2008
In November 2001, The New Yorker editor and author Ben Greenman helped put McSweeney’s book publishing imprint on the map with his debut short story collection, Superbad. He continued his Brooklyn publishing tour with Soft Skull in 2003 (Superworse), and then took a western detour to publish A Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both with the San Francisco-based publisher MacAdam/Cage. Now, Greenman returns to his home borough to help us launch a limited-edition series with the hand-crafted, letterpress accordion collection, Correspondences. Beautiful, intimate and mysterious, this latest work cements Greenman’s reputation as one of Brooklyn’s most beloved and gifted authors.
Correspondences provides a bittersweet glimpse at the lost art of letter-writing, and the manner and means by which emotions are conveyed in that form. The collection contains seven stories, all of which, in one way or another, speak to the disintegrating relationship between people–men and women, parents and children, authors and readers.
But the literal subject of the work is only the beginning of the discussion: Each hand-crafted, signed copy is composed of an unfolding chip-board casing built by letter-press maven Brandon Mise, which contains pockets for three accordion books bearing two stories each. The seventh story, which is written by Mr. Greenman with intentional gaps in the narrative, is printed on the casing and does something unprecedented: It invites the reader to contribute to the collection.The fourth pocket in the casing contains a postcard that the reader can use to fill in the gaps in Greenman’s narrative and send to Hotel St. George Press for possible publication in future online and paperback editions of the book. This experiment, code-named “The Postcard Project,” will incorporate work by authors and non-authors alike, resulting in an ever-shifting, community-created story. Learn more about the Postcard Project, overseen by Postmaster Greenman, by visiting our Mail Room.
In a changing publishing world, small presses are surviving–and flourishing–by embracing alternative models of publication. Correspondences treats the book as art object and the reader as community, all in the service of writing’s ultimate goal, whether through personal missives or full-blown fantasy–communication.
Order this book via PayPal–price includes $15.00 for shipping. To order outside the united states, please contact Aaron Petrovich at aaronAThotelstgeorgepress.com
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