Monday, January 17, 2011

The debut volume from Lookout Books, the new literary imprint of the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, has been greeted with glowing reviews this week by the New York Times and LA Times. The book, Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories, by Edith Pearlman, was featured on the cover of the NYT Book Review's Jan. 16 edition.

All of this attention is happily overwhelming for members of the Creative Writing faculty, who have nurtured the idea of a literary imprint at UNCW since 2007.

"To have enthusiastic reviews by two of the major publications in the country is just incredible," said Emily Smith, director of the UNCW Publishing Lab and co-founding executive director of Lookout Books. "Several publishing colleagues have indicated that this is unprecedented. It's likely we're the only independent press, and certainly the only teaching press, to have its debut book land on the cover of the New York Times Book Review."

Smith founded Lookout Books with Ben George, editor of Ecotone-the Creative Writing department's award-winning literary magazine-and now editorial director of Lookout. The imprint grew out of the university's decade-old Publishing Lab, a teaching press that offers students the opportunity to learn the publishing process through apprenticeship. Students were involved in every step of publishing Binocular Vision, including discussions about the selection and order of the stories, as well as researching the cover design and typesetting.

Smith and George also received help from a rotating advisory board of Creative Writing faculty that included at various points department chair Philip Gerard, David Gessner, Clyde Edgerton, Sarah Messer, Robert Siegel and Rebecca Lee.

Lookout Books publishes trade paperback originals and seeks "emerging and historically underrepresented voices, as well as works by established writers overlooked by commercial houses." George said Pearlman, who has had two stories published in Ecotone, was the perfect choice for the imprint's debut author. At age 74, Pearlman has won three O. Henry Prizes, her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize anthology, and she has published three previous collections. Still, her writing had not achieved widespread recognition.

"She's really an exquisite writer, but she's not so widely known," George said. "We saw an opportunity with this volume of new and selected stories to do a grand book for her. And we do have a luxury that some commercial publishers, which have to look primarily to the bottom line, don't. Our tagline for Lookout is 'a haven for books that matter.' It's wonderful to be concerned only with that."

Recognition for Pearlman has increased exponentially since the publication of Binocular Vision. In his review, David Ulin of the LA Times laments that he had never heard of Pearlman before reading this new volume, but quickly adds, "Had I been familiar with Pearlman for all those years, I would have been deprived of the great joy of discovering her."

"It's heartening to me that a book published by a small press, with zero advertising budget, can find its readers," said Smith of the critical acclaim. "With the tremendous help of colleagues, we wrote to hundreds of reviewers and booksellers. The campaign's early success proves that the community of passionate readers, sales reps and booksellers is alive and well."

Pearlman will visit UNC Wilmington in March for the official launch of Lookout Books. She will read at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 3 in Morton Hall Auditorium, with the reading followed by a reception and book signing. Pearlman will also speak Wednesday, March 2 at 7 p.m. at B'Nai Israel Synagogue, 2601 Chestnut Street, on her identity as a Jewish writer and what that has meant to her.

Lookout Books is currently working on its second short story collection, Steve Almond's God Bless America, which will appear this fall.

For more information about Lookout Books, go to http://www.lookout.org/index.html.

Media contact:
Dana Fischetti, media relations manager, 910.508.3127 or fischettid@uncw.edu

Praise for Lookout/Edith Pearlman
1. Poets & Writers, Page One, http://www.pw.org/content/page_one_where_new_and_noteworthy_books_begin_43?cmnt_all=1

2. Publishers Weekly, starred review

3. Booklist, starred review

4. Shelf Awareness, 1/14/11, http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=1367

5. The Rumpus, Karen Rigby, 1/10/11, http://therumpus.net/2011/01/the-complicated-world-of-adults/

6. LA Times, David Ulin, 1/16/11, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-edith-pearlman-20110116,0,579579.story

7. Roxanna Robinson, 1/16/11, New York Times Book Review, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/books/review/Robinson-t.html

8. Publishers Weekly, Judith Rosen, 1/17/11, http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/45798-student-press-could-have-sleeper-hit.html

9. Off the Shelf, Jan Gardner, Boston Globe Correspondent, "Pearlman's latest off to a strong start," http://www.boston.com/ae/books/blog/2011/01/pearlmans_lates.html

10. Robert Swartwood blog, 1/15/11, http://www.robertswartwood.com/uncategorized/binocular-vision/