Saturday, July 2, 2011

Dzanc Books to rEprint Jonathan Baumbach’s Backlist


Dzanc Books 2702 Lillian, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

(734) 756-5701


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: Dan Wickett, Executive Director

July 1, 2011 - Ann Arbor, MI—Dzanc Books is proud to announce that it has acquired the eBook rights for Jonathan Baumbach’s entire backlist to be published within the Dzanc Books rEprint Series. This includes his 14 books of fiction prior to Dreams of Molly, which Dzanc published earlier this year, and his nonfiction, The Landscape of Nightmare. The full fiction list is: A Man to Conjure With; What Comes Next; Reruns; Chez Charlotte and Emily; My Father More of Less; The Life and Times of Major Fiction; The Return of Service; Separate Hours; Seven Wives; Babble; D-Tours; B, a novel; On The Way To My Father’s Funeral: New and Selected Stories; and You, or the Invention of Memory. These eBooks will be published, three at a time, every other month, beginning in October 2011. The final trio will be published in June 2012, at which time Dzanc Books will also publish a paperback version of You, or the Invention of Memory.


Jonathan, co-founder of The Fiction Collective in 1973 (it was reinvented as FC2 in 1988), the first fiction writers cooperative in America, has seen his work widely praised. His short stories have been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, O.Henry Prize, and The Best of Tri-Quarterly. The New York Times Book Review referred to him in 2004 as “. . . an underappreciated writer. He employs a masterfully dispassionate, fiercely intelligent narrative voice whose seeming objectivity is always a faltering front for secret passion and despair."


“Jonathan Baumbach is one of the true paterfamilias of independent-minded writers.” Steve Gillis said. “He’s been a staple in the literary scene for over 40 years.”


“Reading through his backlist has been a fantastic experience,” said Dan Wickett. “It will be great to see the current generation of readers getting access to these incredible works.”


This acquisition was done through Jonathan’s agent, Andrew Blauner of the Blauner Books Literary Agency.

About the Dzanc Books rEprint Series


The Dzanc Books rEprint Series is dedicated to publishing great works of contemporary literature that have recently gone out of print, as well as titles where the author holds the eBook rights and is looking for a new publishing partner for the electronic version of their book. Starting in Summer 2011, these works will begin being made available to the reading public in the form of eBooks compatible with all currently available eBook platforms, distributed both directly from Dzanc and through most eBook resellers.


This series originates out of a belief that many of these titles did not have the opportunity

to reach their fullest potential audiences in the time of their original publication, and that a second chance for achieving a wider readership is long overdue. By bringing them back into print in widely-available electronic formats, Dzanc hopes to restart the critical conversations around these books, and to get them into the hands of the enthusiastic readers they each deserve. Just as the eBook revolution has put an always-connected bookstore in the hands of every participating reader, we believe that our rEprint series is an important and innovative part of ensuring that bookstore’s virtual shelves are stocked with beautiful editions of these titles, all among the very best books of the preceding decades.


About Dzanc Books


Dzanc Books was created in 2006 to advance great writing and to impact communities nationally with our efforts to advance literary readership and our advocacy of creative writing workshops and readings. As a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization, Dzanc Books not only publishes literary fiction, but works in partnership with literary journals to advance their readership at every level. Dzanc is also fully committed to developing educational programs in schools.


For more information on Dzanc Books and its mission, imprints, books, authors, awards, and programs, please visit www.dzancbooks.org.