John Williams:
For the first installment of a new series, I asked four book designers to discuss recent examples of their work. Each designer shared an earlier idea for a cover as well as the final design that ended up on the book.
Among the designers: Gabriele Wilson, who talks through two versions of Middle C.
Terrific news:
The 2013 Straelen Translation Award has been awarded to Nikolaus Stingl for his lifework of translations from English, in particular for his translation Der Tunnel (‘The Tunnel’), a novel by William Gass.
The € 25,000 award, the highest endowed literary prize in the whole German-speaking region, is granted by the art foundation NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) in cooperation with Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium (‘European Translator´s College’) in Straelen (Germany).
From Peter Keough’s “The Fine-Spun Harmonic Furies of William Gass’s Middle C”:
That hidden center in Middle C—call it Gass’s fundamental beef with the whole kit-and-caboodle of existence—emerges now and then, sometimes with the fiery eloquence of a curmudgeonly prophet.
“Something Unsafe about Books,” by Seth Colter Walls. Subscriber-only.
From writer Eric Lundgren’s eight-stage blog post about attending the recent Fair:
4. Spotting William Gass.
In retrospect, this is the turning point of the whole 2013 fair experience. There he is, the author of Middle C, On Being Blue, In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, etc., turning over a book in his hands. He examines it, fingers the copyright page, caresses the spine, then finally adds it to his small pile. That, you want to say to headphones guy, is how you behave with a book. You briefly consider trying to take a picture of Gass but decide to leave him alone.
(N.B. – The next morning, Gass spots himself in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch fair photo….)
Those who follow me on Twitter would have seen this tweet from me yesterday evening. Gass has written and spoken of his great finds at the Greater St. Louis Book Fair. How fun to see him caught in the blessed act. (Photograph from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
“On Being Average, Over Time,” written by Brian Howton, who focuses much on the musical allusions in the novel.
In a review titled “A Tonic of Imagination,” writer Zoe K. Hitzig lazily doles out pedestrian descriptions such as, “Gass’s diction is, in an uprooted word, esemplastic.”
From ModernLitCollection’s YouTube channel:
William H. Gass reading at Washington University in St. Louis on April 2, 2013. The reading is titled “How to Behave Around Books” and opens with an excerpt from his essay, “I Live in a Library,” followed by excerpts from his novel, MIDDLE C.
Joel Minor, Curator of Modern Literature Collection/Manuscripts, gives the welcome remarks. William H. Danforth, Chancellor Emeritus, introduces Gass.”
Gass takes the lectern at about 11:25.
Source: youtube.com
By novelist Dimitri Nasrallah, who calls Gass “one of the great under-appreciated experimenters of the 20th century.”
By Benjamin Weissman, who writes:
When language-sensitive readers talk about high water marks in literature, they invariably cite poetry as being the true form for words used at their best; William Gass, the fiction writer, has always demonstrated that the world of sentences and paragraphs — prose writing, stories, and novels — is equally adept at gem creation, and Gass himself is the top beauty dog.
“A Ripe, Fat Read,” by Brian Dillon.
One of a handful of titles exciting the editors. (And O as in Oprah.)
Yesterday on St. Louis Public Radio:
Host Steve Potter talked with Lorin Cuoco, writer and consultant for the St. Louis Poetry Center, Katy Didden, co-director of the St. Louis Poetry Center’s Observable Reading Series and author of her debut book of poetry, The Glacier’s Wake, and William Gass, emeritus professor of philosophy at Washington University and the author of more than a dozen books, most recently a novel called, Middle C.
All were there to promote “The Belle of Blueberry Hill: Emily Dickinson at the Duck Room,” which will be presented by the St. Louis Poetry Center TOMORROW from 4pm - 6pm. I’ve been to the organization’s last two events like this and highly recommend the experience. Full details here.
