Senior Editor Jason Gardner picks his favorite book of the fall, Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes—A Year Alone in the Patagonia Wilderness by Robert Kull (978-1-57731-632-9), reviewed in the September/October issue of ForeWord.

Jason Gardner, Senior Editor

How long have you been with the company?
I’ve worked for New World Library for twelve years. I’ve been acquiring books for the last ten.

What is the book you are most excited by this season, and how did it come to your attention?
Of course I’m excited about all my fall books, but I’m probably most personally excited about Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes--A Year Alone in the Patagonia Wilderness by Robert Kull. I’ve always loved writers who approach the natural world from a mystical or spiritual perspective (for lack of better words), particularly Buddhist-leaning writers Peter Matthiessen, Gary Snyder, and Jim Harrison. So I was excited when Christian de Quincey, a writer and agent who formerly worked as managing editor at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, sent me Robert Kull’s manuscript. Kull traveled to a remote island off the coast of Patagonia with supplies to live by himself for an entire year. The manuscript was adapted from his journal, which also became his PhD dissertation. In addition to the raw, vivid details of his daily life—both inner and outer—Bob interweaves philosophical meditations on what solitude means in this increasingly connected technological world. His goal was to explore the very things we typically try to avoid in our busy lives, whether they’re physical or psychological. In the end it’s both an examination of human consciousness, an experiment in awareness, and a beautiful description of wildlife, terrain, and weather.

What can you tell us about the author?
Check out Bob’s bio: “Born in Ventura, California, Robert Kull has spent years wandering North and South America working as a scuba instructor, travel guide, construction worker, logger, community organic gardening teacher, truck driver, bartender, dishwasher, firefighter, photographer, and professor. In 1985 he lost his lower right leg after a motorcycle crash in the Dominican Republic. He began undergraduate studies at age forty and now holds a PhD from the University of British Columbia.” Clearly, Bob approaches life a little differently and maybe has the ideal background for this kind of undertaking. He’s been giving a slide show describing his year alone, which audiences have really responded to.

Who will enjoy this book?
We struggled a little in deciding where to shelve this book since it includes elements of several genres: Jon Krakauer--like adventure reportage, armchair travel, nature writing, and philosophical/spiritual explorations of consciousness. In the end, nature writing made the most sense, but I think the book could appeal to readers interested in any of these subjects.

What can you tell us about the (excerpt) published online?
The book consists of journal entries, interspersed with interludes on such topics as other solitaries, solitude and meditation, and technology and desire. The excerpted introduction gives a great overview of Bob’s motivations and preparations for this adventure.

Senior Editor Shana Drehs talks about a new novel that’s close to her heart, To Catch the Lightning by NPR’s Alan Cheuse.

Name and Publisher:
Shana Drehs, Senior Editor, Sourcebooks

How long have you been with the company?
I came to Sourcebooks two years ago after several years at Crown. I’m glad I’ve had the chance to experience publishing from both the conglomerate and independent sides as it’s been quite an education. Sourcebooks is a leading independent publisher and the passion for books and authors is contagious here. Despite these tough times in the economy and industry, fortunately we are producing solid results. Based on recent BookScan data, Sourcebooks’ in-store sales through the register have increased 40% since 2005. And during the first half of 2008, Sourcebooks had the second-highest growth of any large publisher--we outgrew the market three-fold!

What is the book you are most excited by this season, and how did it come to your attention?
I have to say that it’s hard to pick one book out of our fall list as they’re all so compelling. From Nikki Giovanni’s innovative, mixed-media children’s picture book, HIP HOP SPEAKS TO CHILDREN, to the visually stunning coffee-table photography book and audio CD, COUNTRY MUSIC: THE MASTERS, by renowned country music icon Marty Stuart, this fall season is by far Sourcebooks’ strongest fall season to date. But the one title that’s very close to my heart is TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING, by Alan Cheuse. Of course, we’ve had a relationship with Alan for years as he is known as the “voice of books” for NPR, but this is the first book of Alan’s we’ve had the chance to publish, and we’re absolutely delighted. We began talking to Alan about the novel at BEA in 2007, and it’s been a fascinating journey into history ever since.

What can you tell us about the author?
Alan Cheuse has been working on this book for nine years – his focus and drive to craft a poetic novel drawn from the real life of frontier photographer Edward Curtis has made this a layered, intricate story of choice and sacrifice. This is Alan’s ninth book, and I think this is the one he’s been destined to write. His short fiction has appeared in places such as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and The Antioch Review, among other places. He teaches in the Writing Program at George Mason University and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. He is a regular contributor to NPR’s “All Things Considered,” which you can listen to online at www.alancheuse.com.

Who will enjoy this book?
Anyone interested in American history and in stories of how obsession can drive us to do great things and make terrible sacrifices. I think anyone who enjoyed the work of Charles Frazier (who called TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING ”compelling fiction that digs deep into the mystery and sacrifice and selfishness of creative vision.”) would love this. Alan has created a masterful portrait of the legendary Edward Curtis and his quest to capture the past, to document and photograph the fading way of life of the American Indian. It’s about a landscape of unparalleled beauty and tradition, about the dreams that haunt us and the spirits who guide us. Women will love the enduring power of the muses that speak to Edward and the unmistakable pull of family, and men will undoubtedly be engrossed by the hardscrabble determination bound up with a drive to do something big, something that leaves a permanent mark on the world.

ForeWord reviewed To Catch the Lightning in this year’s Sept/Oct issue, as well as Cheuse’s 1999 title from Southern Methodist, Lost and Old Rivers.

Interview by Editor-in-Chief Heather Shaw

This week, Heather Lundine, Acquisitions and Editor-in-Chief of University of Nebraska Press, introduces her favorite title of the season.

How long have you been with the company?: Almost 5 years

What is the book you are most excited by this season, and how did it come to your attention?: Corkscrewed by Robert Camuto. This came through an agent as a submission for our At Table series

What can you tell us about the author?: Robert is a freelance writer — he does food and travel writing for Washington Post, Wine Spectator, and other great publications. He, his wife, and son moved from Texas to France a few years ago.

Who will enjoy this book?: Wine enthusiasts, francophiles, people who like travel books; it’s really a great book filled with funny and endearing characters, so I think it’s appeal could exceed its genre and topic

What can you tell us about the excerpt published online?: The excerpt comes from the book’s introduction. While it’s a bit different from the body of the work (which is more focused on these interesting, passionate, independent vintners across France who are making very personal, small batch wines), it is a great welcome to the author’s sensibility, humor, and motives.

Corkscrewed by Robert Camuto is available wherever books are sold or from the University of Nebraska Press 800.755.1105 and on the web at www.nebraskapress.unl.edu. Corkscrewed is copyright 2008 by Robert V. Camuto. All rights reserved.

Join Gayle Wattawa, Acquisitions Editor at Heyday Books, in her enthusiasm for their new title, Edges of Bounty: Adventures in the Edible Valley (978-1-59714-108-6) by Californian William Emery with photographs by Scott Squire. An excerpt from Edges of Bounty: Adventures in the Edible Valley is available for one week via the link in the right column.

How long have you been with the company?
I’ve worked for Heyday for almost five years and loved every minute of it.

What is the book you are most excited by this season, and how did it come to your attention?
I’m most excited by our upcoming Edges of Bounty (November) by William Emery with photographs by Scott Squire. William is actually the former acquisitions editor at Heyday Books and a wonderful friend. He and Scott, an accomplished documentary photographer, traveled all around California’s Central Valley and sought out people who are intimately and passionately involved in the relatively small-scale production of their own food: a beekeeper able to snatch a honeybee from midair to show William and Scott the honey inside, a woman who takes wonderfully bizarre ingredients—beets! avocados! rosemary!—and makes popsicles from them, a crew preparing a sumptuous sopas dinner for a thousand Portuguese immigrants, and a “river rat” and self-proclaimed liar who gets up every morning, puts on his duct-taped-together shoes and opens a trap door on the floor of his house to fish the Delta (where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers meet)—these are some of the offbeat characters that populate the book and open their worlds to—and share their bounty with—these two strangers. The writing is gentle, humorous, insightful, probing, and deeply poetic, as are the accompanying photographs. And the food that’s discussed! It’s quite the experience, and it perfectly illustrates the kind of work that we do best—exploring all things California, from the obvious stuff like the Gold Rush and Yosemite, to the lives of those working in roadside produce stands.

What can you tell us about the author?
William is one of those authors that’s so fun to describe: he grew up a farm boy in rural Kansas, studied Russian language and literature, worked as a vacuum salesman and an early-morning donut fryer, dabbled in publishing for a couple of years and added some spectacular writers to our list, and then left to pursue his own writing, dividing his time between the Bay Area, where he bartends at a local pub, and Kansas, where he’s growing different kinds of grapes for the establishment of a winery. He’s deeply curious and a great lover of all things food-related. What better person to write a book like this? Scott is a Seattle-based photographer who has traveled extensively, documenting places like Romania and Cairo, tirelessly exploring social justice issues word-wide.

Who will enjoy this book?
Really anyone at all interested in food would enjoy this: anyone who likes going to farmer’s markets, who is curious about food production, who wonders where the ingredients to the dishes served at high end restaurants come from, who loves great travel writing, who fantasizes about making his or her own cheese and honey, who loves the idea of self-sufficiency, who is interested in life in non-coastal California, and also anyone who has never seen what a field of rotting melons looks like (absolutely horrifying but also strangely beautiful).

What can you tell us about the (excerpt) published online?
This excerpt is the first chapter (“The Bearer of Strange Melons”) from the first part (“Farmers”) of Edges of Bounty. William and Scott set off on their vaguely planned journey, meeting up with Mike Madison, a melon farmer engaged in “guerilla agriculture.” Edges of Bounty will be available in November. It’s an 8x10, 224-page trade paperback with 90 full-color photographs and a list price of $24.95.

This week, Other Press editor Corinna Barsan talks about her favorite pick for fall, The Common Bond (978-1-59051-306-4). The novel by Donigan Merritt is about a “man’s attempt to surmount grief and guilt, recover his past, and claim a future” after the death of his wife. An excerpt from The Common Bond is available for one week.

I’m excited by a number of books this fall, Randa Jarrar’s A Map of Home and Michael Greenberg’s Hurry Down Sunshine, but I have a soft spot for Donigan Merritt’s The Common Bond. It’s the second of Don’s novels that we’re publishing. The previous title, Possessed by Shadows, came out in 2005. I hadn’t read Don’s work before coming to Other Press so when The Common Bond landed on my desk I was in for a treat. By chapter four I was already living with the protagonist in Hawaii and completely invested in the characters and their stories. There was no question that it was a book I wanted to edit and an author I wanted to work with.

Donigan Merritt is a man of the world and a man who has worn many hats, which is certainly reflected in his writing. He was raised in the southern town of Magnolia, Arkansas but he didn’t stay put for long when wanderlust took him to Hawaii, Iowa, Bratislava, Slovakia, and Berlin, Germany, among other locales. Since leaving his hometown, Don worked such diverse jobs as airport cargo loader to paratrooper in the Army to philosophy professor. Lucky for us, he’s also a writer. The Common Bond draws on some of Don’s own experiences when he lived in Hawaii working as a deckhand on a sport fishing boat and then as a captain after he received his Coast Guard Captain’s license. You can read a little about his days living in Kona on Don’s blog and also keep up with his latest news at http://doniganmerritt.typepad.com

In this excerpt of Chapter Two, Morgan Cary has just arrived back home in Hawaii after being away for roughly a decade. His wife has recently died, and he is returning to the ghosts of his past within the lush backdrop of the island and inside the walls of the Sunset Lanai motel.