2023: my life as a publisher
2023 in publishing: new books in poetry and creative criticism from Tankebanen forlag.
It's strange how I can't stop thinking about Laika. People shouldn't think so much. “Time heals all wounds,” Mrs. Arvidsson says. Mrs. Arvidsson says some wise things. You have to try to forget.
In the middle of scholarship, conferences, seminars, exhibits, and sundry other stuff we easily forget that we also have a foot in the publishing industry. Tankebanen forlag is a publisher registered in Norway, which means that we dutifully send off packages of our books and journals once or twice a year to Norway’s National Library. They, in turn, ship copies of our publications to lending libraries so that the “general public,” so-called, may borrow our books and journal for free.
Public libraries are great things. While libraries have ancient roots — there are evidence of archives and libraries in Egypt and Mesopotamia — it appears that it was Gajus Asinius Pollio who founded the first public library in 39 BCE. The notion of a “general” public is particularly relevant here, as Pollio was, indeed, a general, and the “public” in his sense, while not strictly limited to generals, was severly circumscribed.
In more contemporary times there was once, amid a few very great corporations, a small publisher that issued one or two books a year, along with a peer-reviewed journal. This publisher, bearing the name of Tankebanen forlag, has come out with these fine books this year:
- Pintxos: Small Delicacies & Chance Encounters, by Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, a fine collection of thoughts, interventions, tidbits, and various other short texts, with references to art, philosophy, food, travel, and many other domains. Fun, explorative, and immensely readable this book is available in print and as e-book.
- A Listener and Other Poems about Musicm by Christopher Norris, is a series of finely crafted formal verse in a variety of verse forms, including the sonnet, terzanelle, quatrain, terza rima, ottava rima, and pantoum. The poems treat composers, such as Shostakovich and Philip Glass, and a great many music-related themes. Available in print and as ebook.
Back-copies of the print edition of our journal, which comes out with two issues per year, can be ordered from our distributor at the cheaply price of no more than €24.
Being a publisher is fun, fun, fun, but it doesn't really pay off in financial terms. However, should you feel that our initative in the industry is worthwhile, order our books or copies of the journal in print.
Thank you for your support, and happy holidays!
Posted 20 Dec, 2023. Modified 20 Dec, 2023.
