February’s on us now, and the notable books due out this month are a wide-ranging group. There’s surreal fiction, including the first new collection from Kelly Link in several years; memoirs by two key figures in New York City’s music scene; astute takes on politics and literature from a writer who’s called cities on three continents home; and much more.
In our afternoon reading: an interview with Will Oldham, a review of Mark Doten’s debut novel, a recap of this year’s Moby-Dick Marathon NYC, Airbnb gets into publishing, and more.
The Source, which has its world premiere tonight at the BAM Fisher Fishman Space and runs through the 25th, blends the use of the human voice with a politically resonant topic. The Source is described as “a multimedia oratorio,” and takes as its focus Chelsea Manning, and the media’s response to her. To learn more about the project’s origins, I checked in with two of the people behind it, composer Ted Hearne and librettist Mark Doten.
In this episode, we get to know Mark Doten, senior editor at Soho Press and author of the forthcoming novel The Infernal. We talk about all sorts of inside baseball publishing stuff with Mark, not to mention working in plenty of craft talk as well. Mark is a joy to talk with and an endless well of knowledge. Look out for his book when it drops.
Perhaps you know Mark Doten from his work as an editor for Soho Press; he’s been involved with a lot books we’ve admired from said publisher in the last few years. Next year, his debut novel The Infernal will be released by Graywolf; the cover can be seen above. As befits the title, there’s an ominous green landscape and something connecting the letters that looks halfway between smoke and vines. The tone looks to be set nicely, in other words.