NYCIP presents “Comics History/New York History” on October 20th at 6:30pm!

New York City was the birthplace of the modern comic book, and the city has had a starring role in some of the greatest and most influential work the medium has produced. The New York Center for Independent Publishing will be presenting a series of events looking at the rich history of Comics and the City. Join us at our historic building at 20 West 44th Street as we explore the city through comics, from Riverdale to the Baxter Building, from Dropsie Avenue to Forest Hills, to untangle the relationship between the world’s greatest city and the comics that chronicle its history. Visit our website at http://www.nycip.org for more information!

New York Comics as New York History
Tuesday, October 20, 6:30 pm
Comics historian Kent Worcester will explore the connection between the city’s familiar streetscapes and the development of the comic book from the 1930s and 1940s to the post 9/11 era – looking at the ways comics history has mirrored the ups and downs of the quintessential American metropolis.

Revered Independent Publisher, Esther Margolis of Newmarket Press, Receives Distinguished Publishing Award on Monday, November 10th

The New York Center for Independent Publishing (NYCIP) is delighted to announce that it will honor Esther Margolis, founder of the esteemed Newmarket Press, with the Poor Richard Award at its annual Benefit and Cocktail Reception. The event will take place on Monday, November 10, 2008, from 6pm to 8pm at the NYCIP, The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, 20 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036.

The Poor Richard Award is a prestigious honor, named for the famous almanac published by Benjamin Franklin, the renowned Founding Father and independent publisher. The Award is given to a publisher who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of independent publishing. The path forged by Esther Margolis and Newmarket Press, innovative and entrepreneurial, truly embodies the spirit of the Poor Richard Award. Previous pre-eminent awardees have included Peter Mayer, Morgan Entrekin, Peter Workman, André Schiffrin and Barney Rosset. The award will be presented to Esther Margolis by Daisy Maryles, Executive Editor of Publishers Weekly.

Esther Margolis is president, publisher, and majority owner of Newmarket Press, now in its 26th year with over 300 books published since its first list in 1982. She founded Newmarket as a publishing and communications company, with Newmarket Press as its publishing arm, after 17 years at Bantam Books, where she started as a promotion assistant. She became Bantam’s first publicity director, later its first woman vice president, and ultimately a senior vice president, one of Bantam’s five top officers, and its first division head for marketing, publicity, and communications worldwide.

Esther’s Bantam experience led her to establish her own company with an eye toward identifying unique books and authors and to publish them with strong, continuing publicity and marketing support. She was the one to discover and, with her expert staff, successfully publish the first books by Dr.Georgia Witkin, Suze Orman, Gene Hackman and Dan Lenihan, Stuart Avery Gold, and Daphne Oz. Early on, she acquired Lynda Madaras’s fourth book from a proposal for a “girl’s book on puberty”, which together they built into the acclaimed What’s Happening to My Body? evergreen series of books on puberty for boys and girls. In 2006, she quickly recognized the SuDoku fad and Newmarket became one of the first U.S. publishers of SuDoku puzzle books. Her understanding of the cross-media and cross-marketing benefits of working with the Hollywood film community led to Newmarket becoming a leading filmbook publisher, with its acclaimed series of Newmarket Shooting Scripts and Pictorial Moviebooks.

Newmarket Press now publishes about 30 mainly non-fiction books a year—about half in the area of entertainment, mainly on film and television, and half in the areas of childcare & parenting, psychology, business, health & nutrition, biography & memoir, personal finance, and popular self-help & inspiration. Newmarket Press is distributed to the trade by the Perseus Distribution Group.

Also a committed educator, Esther has lectured on publishing, publicity, and marketing at the University of Denver, Radcliffe, Stanford, New York University, and CUNY, and is the co-founder and co-director of the University of Michigan Introduction to Book Publishing Workshop. She serves on the Trade Executive Committee of the Association of American Publishers and the American Advisory Committee of the Jerusalem International Book Fair. She is a member of the Women’s Forum, the Women’s Media Group, and Writers Guild of America.

The NYCIP’s mission is to help independent publishers reach a wider audience, encouraging public awareness to their unique offerings. NYCIP supports excellence and free expression in publishing through workshops, lectures, book fairs, exhibits, and its reference center on writing and publishing. The Center is an educational program of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, a non-profit organization, dedicated since 1785, to the mission of providing educational and cultural resources.

For information on the Benefit please contact the NYCIP at 212-764-7021 or contact@nycip.org.

Focus on The Nation Magazine: Politics at the Center of the Storm

The popular Tuesday evening lecture series, Labor, Landmarks, and Literature, concludes on Tuesday, March 25th at 6pm at The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen in midtown Manhattan. This is the fourth and final lecture on the Literature component of the series, which this year is focusing on one of the country’s most highly regarded weekly magazines, The Nation. The lecture entitled “The Nation: Politics at the Center of the Storm,” will be given by John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation.  

A pioneering political blogger with The Nation’s “Online Beat” and the magazine’s Washington correspondent, John Nichols is one of America’s most respected political writers and experts on impeachment and the Constitution. Mr. Nichols will share stories from the center of the political world, describing life as a Nation correspondent and offering his insights into the 2008 election.  John Nichols is the highly respected and oft-quoted Washington correspondent for The Nation. He began writing The Nation’s “Online Beat” in 1999, and his articles have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and dozens of other newspapers. Nichols is the author of The Genius of Impeachment, as well as a critically-acclaimed analysis of the Florida recount fight of 2000, Jews for Buchanan, and a best-selling biography of Vice President Dick Cheney, Dick: The Man Who is President. 

The Nation has engaged the mind of the American public for over 140 years through its coverage of such areas as politics, culture, books, and the arts. Today, The Nation occupies an important place within the political arena with its in-depth discussion of current events, enabling it to thrive online as well as in print.

Advance reservations are strongly recommended, as seating in The General Society Library is limited. Tickets are $15 for non-members, $10 for members, and $5 for students. To register, visit http://generalsociety.org/events/default.asp and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

All lectures will take place at The General Society Library, at 20 West 44th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. 

31 Cutting-Edge Authors from Indie Presses at The Bowery Poetry Club

March is Small Press Month, a month-long celebration of the books published by small independent presses with events taking place across the country. To kick things off, on March 6^th The Bowery Poetry Club in New York City will be hosting a not-to-be-missed marathon reading starting at 7 pm with top writers from the indie literary scene. Come hear readings by:

Eileen Myles (Wave Books), Noelle Kocot (Wave Books), Lynne Tillman (Soft Skull), Jen Benka (Soft Skull), Brenda Coultas (Coffee House Press), Ted Mathys (Coffee House Press), Alex Rose (Akashic Books), Camelia Entekhabifard (Seven Stories Press), Veronica Liu (Seven Stories Press), Martine Bellen (Belladonna Books), Lila Zemborain (Belladonna Books), Dan Machlin (Ugly Duckling Presse), Rachel Sherman (Open City Books), Leni Zumas (Open City Books), Sharon Mesmer (Hanging Loose Press), Marie Carter (Hanging Loose Press), Melissa Buzzeo (Leon Works), Tisa Bryant (Leon Works), Bob Holeman (Bowery Books), Paul Mills (Bowery Books), Radhiyah Ayobami (Bowery Books), Rachel Levitsky (Futurepoem Books), Erica Kaufman (Big Game Books), Corrine Fitzpatrick (Sona Books), Dedra Johnson (Ig Publishing), Grant Bailie (Ig Publishing), Camilla Trinchieri (Soho Press), Anne Landsman (Soho Press), Jason Schneiderman (Four Way Books), David Lawrence (Four Way Books), Tim Brown (Bronx River Press) 

Admission is $6 and The Bowery Poetry Club is located at 308 Bowery, New York, NY right across from CBGB’s.

For more information on Small Press Month and its other events go to the Small Press Month Website.

The popular Tuesday evening lecture series, Labor, Landmarks, and Literature, continues on Tuesday, February 26^th at 6pm at The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen in midtown Manhattan. This is the third of four lectures on the Literature component of the series, which this year is focusing on one of the country’s most highly regarded weekly magazines, The Nation. The lecture entitled “The Nation: Reflections from the Editor,” will be given by Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation.  

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, America’s oldest weekly magazine, will reflect on the magazine’s 142-year history and offer her views on the role of The Nation in the turbulent political waters of 2008. Ms. vanden Heuvel will share some of her plans for the growth of the magazine and discuss the challenges facing print media in the new electronic frontier. 

Katrina vanden Heuvel has been editor of The Nation since 1995 and publisher since 2005. She is the co-editor of Taking Back America–And Taking Down the Radical Right and editor of The Dictionary of Republicanisms and the collection A Just Response: The Nation on Terrorism, Democracy and September 11, 2001. She is also a frequent commentator on American and international politics on MSNBC, CNN and PBS, and her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. 

The Nation has engaged the mind of the American public for over 140 years through its coverage of such areas as politics, culture, books, and the arts. Today, The Nation occupies an important place within the political arena with its in-depth discussion of current events, enabling it to thrive online as well as in print. 

The final lecture in the Nation component entitled “The Nation: Politics at the Center of the Storm,” will be given by John Nichols, The Nation’s Washington correspondent, on March 25. 

Advance reservations are strongly recommended, as seating in The General Society Library is limited. Tickets are $15 for non-members, $10 for members, and $5 for students. To register, visit www.generalsociety.org. 

All lectures will take place at The General Society Library, at 20 West 44th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.  

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. 

Focus on The Nation Magazine: Diary of a Mad Law Professor

The popular Tuesday evening lecture series, Labor. Landmarks and Literature, continues on Tuesday, January 29^th at 6pm at The New York Center for Independent Publishing (NYCIP) and The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen. This is the second of four lectures on the Literature component of the series and will focus on different aspects of one of the country’s most highly regarded weekly magazines, The Nation.  The lecture entitled “The Nation: Diary of a Mad Law Professor,” will be given by Patricia J. Williams, a monthly contributor to The Nation.  

Patricia J. Williams, a professor of law at Columbia University and a MacArthur Fellow, astutely examines ongoing legal, political, moral, and cultural issues in her monthly column, “Diary of a Mad Law Professor,” in The Nation. She will talk about her lively and provocative column and the new genre of legal writing that she has introduced to America. She is the author of many articles and books, including her most recent work, Open House: On Family Food, Friends, Piano Lessons and the Search for a Room of My Own.

The Nation has engaged the mind of the American public for over 140 years through its coverage of such areas as politics, culture, books, and the arts. Today, The Nation occupies an important place within the political arena with its in-depth discussion of current events, enabling it to thrive online as well as in print.

The next lecture in the Nation component will be entitled “The Nation: Reflections from the Editor,” will be given by Katrina vanden Huevel, editor and publisher of The Nation, on February 26.

Advance reservations are strongly recommended, as seating in The General Society Library is limited. Tickets are $15 for non-members, $10 for members, and $5 for students. To register, visit www.generalsociety.org.

All lectures will take place at NYCIP, The General Society, at 20 West 44th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Please visit www.generalsociety.org for details of this and other lectures in the series.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. 

R&L Releases “The Endless Search for the HMS Hussar”

R&L Publishing Releases a New Book — “The Endless Search for the HMS Hussar”

New York — Dec. 20, 2007 — Today R&L announced its release “The Endless Search for the HMS Hussar”. The book’s author, Robert Apuzzo, uses the best historical sources available to document the British frigate shipwreck in New York’s East River in 1780. The author captures the imagination as he lays out the clues to the whereabouts of the payroll ship’s sunken treasure.

Amateur archaeologist Robert Apuzzo attempts to shed new light on the legends surrounding His Majesty’s Ship Hussar. During his years of research the author unearthed some lost and unknown material. He uses a compilation of well chosen newspaper articles, writings, maps, and photos from the time of the shipwreck to recent times.

In the fall of 1780 the HMS Hussar, purportedly loaded with 14 chests of gold and silver, was swept onto Pot Rocks in New York’s East River. The damaged HMS Hussar then drifted toward the shore line of the Bronx. This book Attempts to fill the voids in knowledge. “The Endless Search for the HMS Hussar” presents 50 reference articles, many pertaining to the numerous searches to locate the Hussar and the elusive treasure. Mr. Apuzzo has arranged a journey that will delight and enlighten any treasure hunter.

“The Endless Search for the HMS Hussar” is the author’s third book. The soft cover book contains 152 pages with 32 photos and illustrations. It measures 6″ x 9″. ISBN 978-0-9629913-2-5. Library of Congress Control Number: 2007939695. Printed in the USA. Retails for $24.95. The publisher offers quantity discounts. The book may be purchased directly from R&L Publishing, 130 Church St. #259, New York, NY 10007.

SPLAT: The First Ever NYCIP Graphic Novel Symposium

The New York Center for Independent Publishing is venturing into a new medium with our first Annual Graphic Novel Symposium entitled SPLAT.  It will take place on Saturday, March 15, 2008. 

As graphic novels move further into the mainstream of popular culture, they are attracting more interest than ever before. 

Addressing this recent graphic novel resurgence into the public consciousness, the symposium will provide an opportunity where those interested in finding out more about graphic novels can share the experience;  and would-be creators can learn what it takes to be a graphic novelist.

There will be three different tracks, scheduled between 9am to 5pm, the first track will feature seminars on topics such as “Who Reads Graphic Novels” and “How to Get Published”. The second track will consist of workshops on subjects such as “Story Telling” and “Where to Start with Art”  and the final track will specifically accommodate librarians with panels on acquisition, shelving, censorship, manga, and graphic novels for adults and teens.

Cost will be $125, this will include lunch and the gala reception with the keynote speaker. Full information including registration details will be posted shortly.  

Matthias Kuentzel’s “Jihad and Jew-Hatred”

The 2007 London Book Festival has named Matthias Kuentzel’s Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11 as the grand prize winner of its annual competition honoring books worthy of greater attention from the international publishing community.

Kuentzel’s work, released through New York-based Telos Press Publishing, traces the alleged impact of European fascism on the Arab and Islamic world, drawing parallels between ancient prejudice and modern radicalism. Now translated to English and updated from its German publication in 2002, Kuentzel’s examination of the roots of the current strife between cultures and religions and its impact on world affairs has earned him considerable praise.

Look for the January 6th review in this Sunday’s New York Times.

Cup and Pen Reading Series Continues December 12!

WHAT: CUP & PEN PRESENTS CALAMARI PRESS
WHERE: THINK COFFEE, 248 MERCER AND 3RD ST.
WHEN: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12TH, 2007 8pm-10pm
FREE AS A BIRD!

Cup and Pen puts Calamari Press back under the looking machine and pulls up the rorschachian images presented by their language-driven magazine sleepingfish. New Pages lit review claims “This is a journal where the swish of the cat’s tail might be appreciated for it metonymical qualities before the cat suddenly leaps off the balcony and into a cloud.”

Readings by Alexandra Chasin, Robert Lopez and Eva Talmadge are prescribed by those who care and want to see you reconnect with your inner beautymaker. Emceed by Rebecca Alvarez with as much love as is musterable.

Think Coffee is located at 248 Mercer Street and 3rd Street in New York City. BY SUBWAY: Take the BDFV to Broadway/Lafayette, the 6 to Bleecker, or the NRW to Prince Street