Reflection/Projection/Thinking Out Loud

It’s difficult to write in any insightful way on a thing in progress.

Perhaps that explains the sad lack of posts hereabouts. There has been so much progress. I hope it isn’t self-flattering to say that so much more has already happened with Engine Books than I expected. (I don’t think it’s self-flattering because I don’t think it has as much to do with me as it does with the need, in our literary world, for more good small presses. Which isn’t to say that there aren’t already a ton of good small presses. There are.) The press will finish its first year in operation doing just a little bit better than breaking even, which I never imagined. This afternoon Andrew Scott took a photo of Patricia Henley’s Other Heartbreaks on the shelf at a Barnes & Noble I didn’t know had ordered copies. The books and authors I’ve signed for the coming year+ are as thrilling (to me, anyway) as any upcoming slate I’ve seen.

And as years go, this one has been extraordinary and difficult in both personal and professional ways. At the end of most years I find myself saying, “I hope the next one will be better.” 2011 is no exception, but for this: Everything I’ve done at the press, and you have done with me, has me feeling, for certain, that next year will be better. Even though this one was good.

There have been challenges, sure. One that won’t go away, that’s endemic to our literary culture–our culture as a whole, really–is resistance to the well-established fact that women are at a gender disadvantage, and so, resistance to the press’ promise to publish with gender parity. My thoughts on this are well-established. But at least once a month, it seems, some mansplainer comes along to shout SEXIST! at me. I’ve said before that some kind of conscious choice to publish as many women as men won’t help until editors of both sexes take the stories, the lives of women more seriously. And it turns out, as a matter purely of taste, and not of quality, the submissions I’ve received from women have more often than not appealed more to me as a reader and an editor than those from men. I’ve read terrific queries from male writers, books that will be published by excellent presses, books whose titles we will all know before long. Books that were not meant to be edited by me. There are many exceptions, of course, most notably Gregory Spatz’s unbelievably smart and moving collection Half as Happy, which we’ll launch in October. But it turns out that I may be most suited to edit the kind of books women writers are currently sending to me.* Perhaps, if we were starting out as equals, I would in fact be part of the problem.** But we aren’t. And we probably won’t be during my lifetime.

More than anything else, though, I’m pretty awestruck by where we’re heading, together. You know already that the titles EB published in 2011 are outstanding. The five scheduled, so far, for 2012 & 2013 are, really and truly, the best of their kind. They’re diverse and smart and generally amazing. I mean, I know I’m supposed to say that, but you’ll see. It’s totally true.

In three weeks, Engine Books will have its first anniversary. Can you believe it? It seems to me, now, like it’s been here always. You’ll want to join the Book Club soon–if you do it before the anniversary on January 21, you can choose any 2011 title for free, as a bonus, in addition to a discount on all four 2012 titles. But even better, you’ll be a part of the press, get to chat with the authors about the books, and have access to all kinds of secret goodies to come. Hop in, already. It’s gonna be a fun ride.

And, sales-pitch-free: Thank you. I am a deeply anti-sentimental person. But what really makes EB special is the community that has sprung up around it, and continues to grow. It’s you, and it will continue to be you, for another lovely year.

 

*There are a shitload of complicating factors involved here, not least of which the fact that male writers who read EB’s submission guidelines may be inclined to send their best work elsewhere. This reflection is in no way any sort of empirical anything. Also, (ahem), Fellas: If this describes you, bring/keep bringing it. You’ll notice an awful lot of wonderful books by men in my favorites list, in the EB submissions guidelines.

 

**Which is, essentially, the argument the mansplainers make: But! But! There’s no such thing as sexism anymore! You women (even if you don’t have babies) just make less money than us because you might have babies! Etc. And ladies aren’t getting published as often because they don’t submit as much, or write as well, or who fucking knows what the counter-whine will be next, but it will be just as myopic and demonstrably false as this crap. (Here’s a song for those mansplainers, by the way. It’s not by a lady, because I like stuff by dudes, too.)