Three Things Thursday: Books, Quarterly, Books

I feel like this week has somehow gained momentum and now I feel like it is bearing down on me with a certain amount of fury. So this morning, I’ll offer a modest Three Things Thursday that focuses on my work as an editor and publisher.

Thing the First 

Last week, The Digital Press released its first novel, The Library of Chester Fritz by Brian R. Urlacher. Urlacher blends Chester Fritz’s early-20th century account of his travel to China with a story of Lovecraftian intrigue. Today, I posted a conversation that I had with Urlacher about the book, his background as an author, and his future plans for the world that he’s constructed. We also touched upon the influence of Urlacher’s training as a political scientist, the place of the book within the current trend toward “paranoid fiction,” and whether the book offers a subtle critique of contemporary capitalism.

Read the conversation here.  

Thing the Second

As readers of this blog know, October 1 is when the fall issue of North Dakota Quarterly goes off to its publishing partner at the University of Nebraska Press. This week, we published its table of contents and a brief editor’s note crediting the contributions of my practicum in editing and publishing.

I’m both happy with this volume and I feel more and more like I’m getting into a rhythm with publishing NDQ. This is the fifth volume to appear during my time as editor and I’m starting to reflect a bit on what I’ve learned so far doing this kind of work. Right now, I have three things in mind:

1. Expand the subscriber base. How do we get convert readers to subscribers? (And, if you think that reading an amazing collection of stories, essays, reviews, and poetry twice a year is great, perhaps you could subscribe?)

2. Ensure that NDQ has succession plan. I’m not particularly eager to step down as NDQ editor, but I want to make sure that when I do someone is ready to step into the position. A publisher friend observed recently that a journal is only as healthy as its editors and this nudged me once more to think about ensuring that the Quarterly has enthusiastic leadership after I’m done.

3. Special Issues, Novels, Translations, and the Archives. There is so much that we could do with NDQ from developing its “supplement” series (stay tuned) to trying to develop special sections and special issues to working hard to make our archive more accessible. It’s hard to develop a clear sense of priorities or even to discern whether “moving forward” is a useful metaphor for what we’re trying to do at the Quarterly.

Anyway, these are the things that I think about more and more as I get more weathering as editor. 

Check out the table of contents for issue 89.3/4 here.

Thing the Third

It is a pleasure to announce that Rebecca Romsdahl’s book Mindful Wandering: Nature and Global Travel through the Eyes of a Farmgirl Scientisthas nominated for a North Dakota Library Association Notable Documents Prize. 

Apparently, this year there is some kind of popular vote component. This means, if you have a moment, it would be awesome if you could do and vote for it. It’s a great book, written in a distinctive voice, and offering insights sure to resonate globally and locally. Vote here. It only takes a second.