Prathna Lor did not agree to do this interview — he refused to do an interview. Prathna Lor is the author of the chapbook Ventriloquism (Future Tense Books). The book has been reviewed favorably by Gary Lutz, Mike Young and Evelyn Hampton, and with good reason. The prose is tight and quizzical, its vignettes leave the reader asking did I just read that? or did I not just read that?

On the other side of the equation, I’m still trying to make sense of what didn’t happen, how it is possible that I am now flushing out the final draft of an interview completed without the subject’s participation. Unethical? Most likely. But if my main concern were ethical I probably wouldn’t have ever bothered writing anything about anything, anytime. I’m neither a philosopher, a priest or a judge, and therefore my main concern when putting words down on a page is not the question of “is it ethical.” My main question is something else, which you may or may not guess. You probably will guess. Read on, dear reader, and I’ll explain — not about ethics, or morals, or even the craft of writing. I’ll explain to you how I wrote this interview, which is not an interview at all, but a fictional back and forth between an author who may not even exist — using the words taken directly from his chapbook, Ventriloquism to “answer” the questions that I have written. Now just to be clear — I am a real person and I live in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. You can see me walking around the Chinese markets there looking confused, constantly in search of the perfect bowl of steaming noodles, going to that Malaysian place again, wasting money on cheap umbrellas, blah, blah, blah. I have a body, I have an address. But as for Prathna Lor, as much as I’ve enjoyed his chapbook — I’m just not sure. If he has a body. Now I’m digressing. [Or devolving?] Here is how I framed my pitch to him (via email, of course, arguably a bodiless enterprise) back in January:

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Born in July 1916 in Bensheim, Germany, Gertrude Halstead is a supremely cultivated, sophisticated, delightful lady whose insights and personal integrity to poetry are beyond reproach. Throughout her distinguished poetic career, she has received many awards and encomia. She was named Poet Laureate of Worcester, Massachusetts at a lovely ceremony at Assumption College on November 1, 2007. I was there with a few colleagues, and we delighted in her receiving this honor as much as we continue to delight in her unique poetry.

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Today we have a conversation with a different sort of artist. Ramsay Midwood is a Texas-based musician whose style and lyric-making ability will excite and confuse you in the way that good poetry can. His music is bright with surprise, sultry beat, and innovative comparative operators. One can liken his sound and style to a potpourri of incense and smoky vapors complicated by the thick heat of a swamp and spiced with healthy dashes of salt, sandpaper, and beer foam. A strong sense of plain-stated, Southern Gothic surrealism helps buoy the themes of loss and redemption infused throughout his work. You’ve not heard another musician like him. Two albums are out now: Shootout at the OK Chinese Restaurant and Popular Delusions & the Madness of Cows. A third album is due soon. The best intro to Ramsay Midwood is one he wrote himself though: “I was always an admirer of Woody Guthrie’s seemingly heroic undertakings. I vowed to fight his same righteous fight. I immediately broke this vow by chasing an actress to Hollywood and many songs later I chased a stripper from Wisconsin to LA, realizing that I was a simply a make-believe cowboy unconsciously herding women of questionable virtue into a corral in my head, where I could engage in long periods of self-loathing. This was when I decided to start my own space program. The initial fund-raising has been difficult, but I’m certain once I get my driver’s license things will pick up.”

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Today we talk with Amanda Raczkowski and Joseph Reed of Caketrain about the pricing of books, the importance of design, and what surprises they have forthcoming.

BG: Tell us about the beginnings of Caketrain. When did you start and why?

AR: Joe and I attended the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. While we were there, Joe served as the editor of Pendulum, the campus literary journal, and I worked on the two issues that were released our final year of undergraduate work. There was a strong desire in us to be able to remain a part of the literary community after graduation and having the experience from Pendulum we thought what a better way to participate in the literary community than to become an avenue to highlight and champion artists. Caketrain’s first issue was released in early 2004.

JR: I can never overemphasize how thankful I am to have edited Pendulum for two years. It allowed me the opportunity to perform a lot of quiet trial-and-error and go through the general process of collection, curation, layout, design and printing in a way that made me feel like I was entering Caketrain with something of a veteran outlook — though of course after almost eight years of Caketrain I find I’m still learning new things every year. But on some level — and I think Amanda probably feels the same way, as I know she’s been exposed to editing and publishing since at least high school — Caketrain came as a culmination of an obsession with the collecting and packaging and refinement of artistic work.

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Today we talk with Corinna Barsan, senior editor at Other Press, about the ways a book should challenge readers, what titles they have forthcoming, and how working with Random House publishing services has affected their business.

Tell us a little about Other Press. Do you have a guiding philosophy for the books you publish?

I once heard a bookseller describe our books as eclectic gems and I think that hits the mark. Other Press publishes a wide variety of titles from around the world — works in translation, American fiction, nonfiction that ranges from current events to pop art to biographies and memoir. The common denominator is that we look for books that challenge readers to think about their lives differently or to see the world in a new light. Ideally, a transformation will take place in the reader between the first and last pages. Roger Rosenblatt told writers that “what you write must be useful to the world.” We apply that same methodology to the books we publish.

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