MITPressLog

Miami Book Fair International

The 26th annual Miami Book Fair International kicked off this week, and tomorrow its Street Fair begins. The Street Fair includes the Festival of Authors, with more than 350 authors reading and discussing their work, along with about 250 publishers, booksellers, and exhibitors. A good time should be had by all.

Abdellah Taïa, author of Salvation Army, and one of the "Best 39 Arab Writers Under 40", will be part of the session "An Evening of Francophone Literature" on Friday at 8pm. If you're in the Miami area, be sure to stop by.

Journalist Amira Hass wins IWMF Lifetime Achievement Award

Israeli journalist Amira Hass (author of Reporting from Ramallah) is best known for her reports on Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza - and for living in those places while writing about them. She was recently honored with a lifetime achievement award from International Women's Media Foundation:

For almost 20 years, Amira Hass has written critically about both Israeli and Palestinian authorities. A reporter and columnist for Ha’aretz Daily, she has demonstrated her ability to defy boundaries of gender, ethnicity and nationality in her pursuit of the truth in her reporting. In covering the Palestinian Occupied Territories, her goal has been to provide her readers with detailed information about Israeli policies and especially that of restrictions of the freedom of movement. For many years, she made her home first in Gaza City and then in Ramallah.

Watch Hass's acceptance speech here, or read more about her and the award in The Guardian, Huffington Post, or Democracy Now!.

Two Nobels Among Us

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, University of California at San Francisco, Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins and Jack W. Szostak, Howard Hughes Medical Institute won the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.

MIT Press boasts the recent paperback reissue of the compelling biography, Elizabeth Blackburn and the Story of Telomeres.  University of San Francisco author Catherine Brady tells the story of Elizabeth Blackburn's life and work and the emergence of a new field of scientific research on the specialized ends of chromosomes and the telomerase enzyme that extends them.  In honor of the occasion, here's a brief excerpt from the book looking at the young and highly motivated Blackburn: 

Like many other seventeen-year-old girls in 1965, Elizabeth Blackburn listened to the records of the Beatles and Peter, Paul, and Mary and wore the miniskirts that were just coming into fashion, but she felt so shy in the presence of boys that she could not look them in the eye. Rigorously schooled by her mother in polite manners that sidestepped confrontation, Elizabeth was a model student who seemed readily guided by her teachers. But her delight in books exceeded the bounds of obedient studiousness—in particular, she was thrilled by her recent discovery of a biology text complete with detailed illustrations of amino acids, strung together in long chains and then folded up into complex three-dimensional shapes to form enzymes and other proteins. For Liz, these elegant structures had a teasing beauty, promising tantalizing clues to the processes of life and yet also enfolding that mystery. Even the names of the amino acids—phenylalanine, leucine—struck her as poetic. Though she confessed her fascination to no one, she traced drawings of amino acids on large, thin sheets of white paper and then tacked them up on her bedroom wall.

From the start she carefully protected the passion that would shape her life as a scientist, her fierce determination often masked by a polite, acquiescent demeanor. The nice girl who remained silent when confronted or thwarted purchased the freedom of a secret, willful, essential self. Blackburn’s first clear memory dates to when she was about three years old. Playing in the yard behind her family’s house, she had found a bull ant and was handling it gently, talking to it as it crisscrossed her palm and the back of her hand. When her mother came on the scene, she brushed the insect from Liz’s hand and vehemently warned her never to touch these insects, whose bite could result in a painful welt. Surprised by her mother’s concern, Liz obeyed. But she remained stubbornly and silently certain that the ant could not hurt her.

We'd also like to tip our hat to Jack Szostak, who is a contributor to Protocells: Bridging Nonliving and Living Matter, and Carol Greider. 

Iceland @ X

Artbook @ X is a temporary art book store located in the heart of Chelsea in New York, in the building that formerly housed the Dia Center for the Arts. The bookstore is part of X Initiative, a not-for-profit initiative of the global contemporary art community.

This is how Artbook @ X describes themselves:

Launched at the invitation of X Initiative on May 16, 2009 and scheduled to operate through March of 2010, Artbook @ X offers a comprehensive and sophisticated selection of books, DVDs, CDs and ephemera related to current, recent and upcoming shows in the neighborhood, around New York and at important international venues. The store also specializes in critical theory from rising and established writers and curators around the world, and studies of important contemporary groups and trends. Curated sections and special offers abound.

This evening from 7-9pm, Artbook @ X is hosting a book party and signing for Eileen Myles's latest book, The Importance of Being Iceland (recently reviewed in TimeOut NY). Please stop by to check out the space and pick up a copy of the book! There will be a five minute reading from Eileen Myles at 8:30. The bookstore is located at 548 W. 22nd Street. If you can't make it, you can order a pre-signed copy by emailing [email protected] - but we hope you can make it. Click on the image below for more information.

Asylum: Three Weeks On Press in China

Have you ever wondered how books are printed and bound?  Chris Payne was was kind enough to share his first-hand experience at Everbest, where he supervised the production of his new book, Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals. 

Not long after we had finished my second book, Asylum, I received a call from my agent-editor-book designer, Scott-Martin Kosofsky, whose first words were: “ I hope your passport’s in order because you’re going to China next week”.  The printing company, Everbest, needed me “on press” to OK final proofs.  Given the number of photographs in my book, I was not surprised.  I was not disappointed either: seeing my work finally printed would be a dream come true.

This was my first time being on press and also my first trip in China. The headquarters of Everbest are in Hong Kong, but the printing plant is located in Nansha, on the mainland just across the border. The plant looks like every other factory in the area: boxy, built of concrete, and clad entirely in the same small ceramic tiles used in bathrooms.  Despite its drab appearance, the interior is a beehive of activity.  Unlike many printing companies, Everbest binds their books on site, so every aspect of book making is contained under one roof. They even have their own power plant.  

Everbest employs close to 1,000 workers, most of whom have migrated from rural villages to work here for higher wages.  They are predominantly young, in their 20s, and work 12 hour shifts, six days a week.  To save money, almost everyone lives in the dormitory next to the factory, where they share meals in a communal canteen.  Their schedule seems grueling, but I was told that given the opportunity, these people would gladly work overtime. 

 

Eileen Myles hits the road

BUST magazine calls her the "rock star of modern poetry". And now your favorite poet, Eileen Myles, just might be visiting a city near you, reading from her latest book of essays The Importance of Being Iceland. Be sure not to miss it! Below are some 2009 venues and dates (with more to be added soon):

Seattle WA: Henry Art Gallery Three Days of Poetry, August 14-17
San Francisco CA: Books & Bookshelves, August 18, 7:30 PM
Portland OR: Powell's Books on Hawthorne, August 20, 7:30 PM
Coney Island, Brooklyn NY: Coney Island Performance Festival (at the NY Aquarium!), September 13
New York NY: Bluestockings Books, August 26, 7:00 PM
Brooklyn NY: Spoonbill & Sugartown, September 15
Los Angeles CA: Skylight Books, September 20, 5:00 PM
Washington DC: Bridge Street Books, October 4, 7:00 PM
UPDATES:
San Francisco, CA:Moe's Books, August 17, 7:30 PM
Brooklyn NY: Light Industry, September 1
New York NY (Chelsea): Artbook @ X-initiative, September 10, 5:00 PM
Toronto Canada: Harbourfront Centre, September 16, 7:30 PM
Brooklyn NY: Unnameable Books, September 18
La Jolla CA: D.G.Wills Books, September 19, 7:00 PM
New York NY: Dixon Place, September 29
Los Angeles CA: China Art Objects Gallery, October 9, 8:00PM
Seattle WA: Elliott Bay Book Company, October 10, 7:00PM
Milwaukee WI: Woodland Pattern Book Center, November 14, 7:00PM
Chicago IL: Myopic Books, November 15, 7:00PM
St Louis MO: Left Bank Books, November 19, 7:00 PM

Democracy Now! Interview with Iranian Dissident Journalist Akbar Ganji

Iran’s preeminent political dissident, investigative journalist Akbar Ganji was in front of the United Nations on Thursday, leading a 3-day hunger strike to demand the release of all prisoners of conscience in Iran. In 2001, Ganji was imprisoned for six years for writing about the murders of dissident intellectuals and was finally released after an 80 day hunger strike. Leili Kashani interviewed Akbar Ganji for Democracy Now! about the demands of the strike as he stood in front of banner with a list of the names of known political detainees in Iran. (Translated by Faramarz Farbod). 

HOT! Festival in New York

The HOT! Festival is a month-long showcase of queer performances in New York's Dixon Place. This year, two fall Semiotext(e) authors are taking to the stage: Penny Arcade and Bruce Benderson.

Penny Arcade is presenting the centerpiece of the festival, a new peformance called "Old Queen", about the legendary "old queens" of the Lower East Side:

Old Queen, Arcade's theatrical memoir, evokes the magic and memory of the gay men who raised her: from little known figures like Jamie Andrews, who would shortly later transform David Bowie from a folksinger to a glitter glam rock star. He was the gay man who took her in off the streets, gave her a place to live, and took her from performing on the streets to the stages of The Playhouse Of The Ridiculous and the Warhol Factory. These men range from Jackie Curtis, Bobby Beers, Ritta Redd, Herbert Hunke, Joel Markman, to seminal figures like John Vacarro, Charles Henri Ford, HM Koutoukas, Taylor Mead, Jack Smith, and Andy Warhol. Old Queen is the latest offering from a veteran playwright and performance artist at the peak of her powers. Expect Arcade's signature blend of spot-on impersonations, trenchant wit, and theatrical political humanism. It's an intoxicating combination you won't want to miss! Two special performances where Penny develops the work in front of you!

Old Queen runs until July 25th - don't miss it!

Penny's autobiographical work, Bad Reputation, is coming out from Semiotext(e) this October.

On Thursday, East Village Boys present writer Bruce Benderson, winner of France's Prix de Flore prize. He will be reading from his book Pacific Agony (coming out this September from Semiotext(e)). Pacific Agony is a satirical travelogue through the Pacific Northwest. Miss Nancy Matthews will play the role of "Narcissa Whitman Applegate, of the Daughters of the Oregon Trial Historical Committee". From the book:

I gazed out my window on the sea of dark clouds as my shaking seat jiggled the image into double vision; and I pictured the flat, geometrically divided western landscapes below, wondering why anyone still bothered to travel in this cookie-cutter country. What was the use of visiting identical reproductions of the same Wal-Mart or adding new encounters of equally streamlined mentality to the roster? As far as I was concerned, everything had been shorn from the same cloth, woven for years in the drab bungalows of suburban North America.

Should be a good time for all - you can buy tickets at the HOT! Festival website.

Defending Digital Rights

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is marking their 18th year of defending digital rights with their biggest bash yet, at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco!  

Special guest is our own Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid.  He'll be rocking with help from mashup party pioneers Bootie, copyfighter and Surya Dub DJ Kid Kameleon, and EFF's Tones and Qubitsu.  Sounds like quite a show.

The party goes from 8 pm until late. EFF will be asking for a $25 donation at the door to fund their good work defending your digital freedom, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please RSVP to [email protected]. 21+ only, cash bar. The first 400 people through the door will receive a free mix CD from DJ Spooky. 

And if you are over in the East Bay and want to prep for tomorrow's festivities, Paul will be speaking about his book, Sound Unbound at Diesel Books in Oakland tonight at 7:00 pm.  Directions and more information can be found here. 

Krugman Wins Nobel Prize in Economics

Paul Krugman was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics this morning, according to a Reuters article posted this morning.  Krugman is a New York Times columnist, professor of economics and international affairs  at Princeton University, and staunch Bush critic.  He is also the author of several MIT Press classics, including:  Geography and Trade, Rethinking International Trade, The Age of Diminished Expectations, Development, Geography, and Economic Theory, and Pop Internationalism.  He was favored to win the award, but told Reuters it came as a surprise: 

I rushed to take a shower … I called my wife and I called my parents. I've not yet managed to get myself a cup of coffee,” he said.

But lack of caffeine did not stop him offering an ad-hoc diagnosis of how the world economy was faring.

"We are now witnessing a crisis that is as severe as the crisis that hit Asia in the 90's. This crisis bears some resemblance to the Great Depression."

Praising world leaders' efforts to staunch the financial bleeding, he added: "I'm slightly less terrified today than I was on Friday."

Congratulations Professor Krugman!