Publishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. I’ve spent time talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
Later this series broadened to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing in the past and into the present.
These conversations have been inspirational to me on many levels. I have gotten to speak with visionaries and entrepreneurs, as well as editors and publishers who have influenced and changed contemporary literature and culture. I’ve also had the opportunity to speak with a number of friends and colleagues I have met over the many years I have been in the book business.
One such person is Michael Wolfe. We have known each peripherally for many years through independent literary publishing.
Michael is the author of ten books of poetry, fiction, and travel. In the 1970s and 1980s he owned and ran a bookstore and a book bindery in Bolinas, California, and was publisher of the renowned indie press, Tombouctou Books there. His authors included Lucia Berlin, Paul Bowles, Mohammed Mrabet, Jim Carroll, Joanne Kyger, Dale Herd, Steve Emerson, Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Bill Berkson, Duncan McNaughton, Clark Coolidge, Phoebe MacAdams and many other wonderful writers, poets and translators.
These days, Michael is the Executive Producer and President of Unity Productions Foundation, a nonprofit media company that produces documentary films. “Stories of Muslim Engagement, History and Culture – UPF Films and Educational Projects Promote Peace and Understanding.”
Speaking with Michael about writing, publishing and his life was a great experience for me, one which I am pleased to share here. As time goes on, I treasure these opportunities to talk with brilliant, accomplished literary activists like Michael Wolfe.
Author website here.
Lan Samantha Chang: The Family Chao (A Novel)
William J. Peters: At Heaven’s Door-What Shared Journeys to the AfterLife Teach about Dying Well and Living Better
Enrique Salmón: Iwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science
Peter Quinn: Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York
Geoff Rodkey: Lights Out in Lincolnwood (A Novel)
Publishing Talks: Interview with Jeff Deutsch of Seminary Co-op Bookstores
Publishing Talks: Interview with Ben Fox of Shepherd.com
Susanne Paola Antonetta: The Terrible Unlikelihood of Our Being Here
Nelson Johnson: Darrow’s Nightmare-The Forgotten Story of America’s Most Famous Trial Lawyer
Publishing Talks: Interview with Roxanne Coady of R.J. Julia Booksellers
Ross Benes – Rural Rebellion: How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold
Anders Dunker: Rediscovering Earth
Frank Figliuzzi: The FBI Way – Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence
Publishing Talks: Interview with Angus Yuen-Killick of Red Comet Press
Publishing Talks: Interview with Kyle Schlesinger of Cuneiform Press
Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt
The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics by Sydney Ladensohn Stern
Publishing Talks: Interview with Arthur Attwell
Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas: Jeffrey Ostler
Even as We Breathe, A Novel: Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
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