Western Book Roundup
Krakauer Delays Book, CutBank Takes on the World, and Bigfoot Field Guide is Announced
By Jenny Shank, 7-02-08
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| Jon Krakauer, photo by Linda Moore, courtesy of www.newnewjournalism.com. | |
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Best-selling Boulder author Jon Krakauer has withdrawn the manuscript for Hero, his book about Pat Tillman, according to Publishers Weekly (Via Slushpile.Net). Rachel Deahl writes that Doubleday had scheduled the book for an October release with a first printing of half a million copies. Deahl reports:
“Krakauer is apparently unhappy with the manuscript and is holding onto it indefinitely. David Drake at Doubleday confirmed that the decision was entirely the author’s and that, while the imprint is ‘disappointed,’ it supports its author. Speaking to the book’s future, Drake said the situation is ‘a little bit wait and see’ and that if the book does get rescheduled it likely wouldn’t come out until at least 2009.”
Although Krakauer fans expecting a juicy fall read might be disappointed, I bet that this delay can only be a good thing for the eventual book.
Denise Hill at the always informative NewPages blog pointed out Ahmede Hussain’s interview with Brian Kevin, Managing Editor of the University of Montana’s CutBank. The interview ran in The Daily Star, which Hill says is “Bangladesh’s largest circulating English-language newspaper.” And according to Hussain, CutBank is “America’s foremost literary magazine.” Sweet! That means that I can go around saying that one of my short stories was published in America’s foremost literary magazine. (I’m sure my two-year-old will be very impressed.)
Brian Kevin discussed, among other topics, CutBank’s gently regional approach:
“I think we’ve embraced a very slight regional bias in the last few years, and that’s an okay thing, too. The American West is still a distinct literary zone, and though I think the writing we publish is a little too unorthodox to really come out of the saloon doors wearing cowboy boots and a Stetson, I like the idea that you can flip through the magazine and, if you’re listening very closely, maybe hear a slight jingling of spurs.”
The story I published in CutBank (issue 60) several years ago was my imagining of the life of a Wyoming biology professor/Bigfoot researcher, which brings me to my final topic in today’s Roundup. Thomas Scott McKenzie over at Slushpile.Net took note of an item in Publishers Lunch, which reported Robert Morgan’s deal for his Bigfoot Observer’s Field Manual, described as a “practical field manual written by a leading expert on the subject meant to entice a peaceful encounter with a mythical forest giant.” Wait a second--if Bigfoot is “mythical,” how can people expect to encounter him? I guess we’ll all find out when Pine Winds Press publishes this indispensable nature guide later this year.
And while we’re on the subject of Bigfoot, I found it interesting that the only comments I received on my interview with Professor David M. Armstrong last week were Bigfoot-related. Armstrong, the author of Rocky Mountain Mammals, is an expert on the mammals of this region, and for fun I threw him a Bigfoot question. No readers had anything to say about his astute observations on pikas, mountain lions, or montane voles, animals that apparently need to sign on with Bigfoot’s publicist.
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