Scenes: An interview with Tod Thilleman

Page 30 American Book Review Covers of recent releases SCENES Would you briefly describe Spuyten Duyvil’s history? Spuyten Duyvil was started 20+ years ago by a collective of poets and writers living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Eventually, M. G. Stephens, the principal responsible for its perpetuation up through the nineties, moved to Europe and left a bunch of ISBN numbers behind. Those numbers became the backbone of a list of small titles that grew out of Poetry New York journal and its collection of poets. Those small titles led to larger fiction and poetry projects, and the title list grew. How would you characterize the fiction you publish? We publish literary fiction, but we don’t ascribe to any genres or categories.The fiction we are interested in has to be original in voice, style, and subject matter . But originality is overrated, as is voice, style, and subject matter. If an author has actually read poetry, and not just contemporary poetry, then his or her prose tends to verbalize the page with more éclat. We usually don’t publish what might be categorized as “popular” fiction but look for work that delves into the complicated and complex lives and situations human beings get themselves into. And then out of. But simplicity has its virtues; simpletons could even be said to have a virtuous and more-than-interesting complexion when it comes to the literary. But writing is, beyond a doubt, a place where history comes to rest; judgment, as pleasure, lasts beyond a sentence or two. We are especially interested in providing a platform for work that probably will not get published by the commercial houses, but work that is artistically crafted and will engage readers. But there is no such thing as commerciality anyway; there is, somewhat, a place for observation, whether it succumb to snark and die, or grows on one like a spitting octopus. Who is your audience, and in what ways are you trying to reach them? Our audience is wide. Our audience is narrow. We appeal to both academic-type writing as well as the general reader. We ask each author to think about who their audience is/will be, and from there, devise a plan to try to reach readers via postcards, emails, book reviews, websites, blogs, social networking sites. People do still exist; they just aren’t that easily quantifiable anymore. If they were, a series of large ampersands dotted with ellipses would be their “market.” We are constantly looking at and evaluating new ways to reach readers. What is your role in the publishing scene? We try not to have any set role, other than to make as many worthy books available. Owning a printing press is tantamount to treason, these days. If we were to have a role, I’d say our role is to be inclusive, in opposition to what is thought of as the literary norm which is exo-ipso-blue-blood whitewash. Whatever that means. Spuyten Duyvil Tod Thilleman an interview with What’s in the future for Spuyten Duyvil? Just as technological options seem to be rapidly changing, what is in store for our future will follow those options made available. The future has nothing to do with where one wants to be, à la the advertising slogans, but rather where we WILL be, in spite of all things. Remember, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Just because we publish “imaginative” literature doesn’t mean we won’t take advantage of the first amendment. Should it last. But does the first amendment pertain to imagination anymore? Let’s pack the court with a vocabulary. Logo Adapter,” a meditation on inter-office romance in the shadow of 9/11, asks us to contemplate the banality of the workplace in the aftermath of a catastrophic event. What are the new rules after the world has changed in ways that the pretended normalcy of the workaday world hasn’t yet accommodated? This story includes an exchange between a male boss and his younger female employee, who lives in an apartment near Ground Zero, that expresses in miniature the reality versus non-reality questions that...