Village Books Blog

I Simply Don't Care...Unless I Win

The National Book Awards were announced last night and the winners are:

Fiction: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (Woo-hoo!)

Nonfiction: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles

Young people's literature: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Poetry: Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy by Keith Waldrop

I don't know how much book awards dictate your book selections. I know for me that book awards don't dictate my book selections. If I want to read a book, I'm going to read a book. And if I don't want to read a book, I don't care who is telling me I should read it, I'm simply not going to read it (unless I suddenly end up back in college where my grade in Practical Criticism pends on my knowledge of and ability to interpret Mrs. Dalloway in at least three different literary analyses ranging from Marxist crit to feminist crit). Even though I don't read what the awards committees tell me to read, I'm still intrigued enough to follow their selections and find out who the winners are. The Man Booker Prize, the National Book Awards, the Newbery, the Caldecott, the list goes on and on. Rarely have I read any of the finalists for these awards, let alone the winners. So what does that mean? Is my taste in books not refined enough? Is my eye for good writing not discerning enough? I mean, I'm apparently pompous enough to think that House of Leaves is a mind-blowing interactive read (if you ever want to hear about my creepy experience reading this book, stop in and I'll tell you), but also lowbrow enough to think Bitter with Baggage Seeks Same is one of the funniest things since Peanut Butter Jelly Time. All that being said, when a book I have read appears on an awards list, I suddenly become the proud parent--"That's my baby! I always knew she'd go places!" Suddenly I feel like I'm in the know--"Oh that old book? Yeah, I read it, like, 6 months ago. Oh? You haven't read it yet? Well, you are absolutely missing out." So when I saw that Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin won for fiction, I was elated. It's such an underrated book. Great concept: It's 1974 and Philippe Petit is walking the tightrope between the Twin Towers. While the crowds gather below, we are told the stories of a handful of characters who are either hearing about or witnessing this feat. I've been plugging this book for months and maybe now will be its time to shine. My little baby has been given the recognition she deserves. Oh? You haven't read it yet? Well, you are absolutely missing out.

-Lindsey

Oh the Horror! An Interview with Chad Helder

Chad Helder is the Stoker Award-winning editor of Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (Dark Scribe Press 2008), an anthology of queer horror fiction, which he co-edited with Vince Liaguno. Helder's first book of poetry, Pop-Up Book of Death, will be published by Queer Mojo Press, an imprint of Rebel Satori. He is currently working on a new collection of horror poetry for Dark Scribe Press.  He is also the creator and writer of Bartholomew of the Scissors (Bluewater 2008), a comic book miniseries with art by Daniel Crosier. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Jory Mickelson: You recently won a Bram Stoker award for your anthology Unspeakable Horror, tell me more about that.

Chad Helder: The Stoker award was for category “Superior Achievement in an Anthology.” I co-edited it with Vince, the founder of Dark Scribe Press. It was the press’ first book. That was pretty exciting. 

In June, I attended the Horror Writer’s Association convention in Burbank, CA and they had the awards ceremony there. There was a big dinner in a ballroom. It was very Emmy-esque. Our presenter was Ellen Datlow, probably the world’s greatest anthologist. It was a huge honor.

JM: Are you editing anything now? You have worked on several different projects in the past.

CH: I am not editing anymore; I am just writing poetry. The submission period for Unspeakable Horror started in the fall of 2007 and ended in May of 2008. I was reading 35 stories a month for it. We managed to but the book together by December 2008. That was it for me editing. I am not writing comic books right now either. I am working on a collection of horror poetry for Dark Scribe Press and have about 60 pages of poems. I need to get going on it if I am going to meet my deadline.

JM: Can you define horror poetry?

CH: Horror poetry is poetry that uses subtexts and borrowed images from the horror genre. My stuff tends to be very surreal and postmodern, in the sense that it consciously borrows from horror movies.  My poems want to be horror movies. I also use my dreams as a source for my poems. I dream about monsters from the horror genre.

I think that you have to be careful. If you Google “horror poetry” you will find a lot of stuff on the Internet. A lot of it can be really bad. The same thing happens if you search for love poetry online.  When poetry is awesome, it is awesome, no matter what the genre or theme is. Sylvia Plath wrote a poem with vampire overtones. I really love Plath.

Read the entire interview here.

If you would like to hear Chad read from his work, he will be appearing on the Chuckanut Radio Hour on October 13^th at 6:30pm at the Leopold Crystal Ballroom. Tickets are available at Village Books or www.brownpapertickets.com  You can also visit Chad’s website Unspeakable Horror at  http://unspeakablehorror.com/

Jory Mickelson is a VB Bookseller and is the blogger behind Literary Magpie.