Stocking Up in Seattle

We’re busy getting our stage all spiffy for tonight’s reading with poets Peter Streckfus and Rob MacDonald. It’s going to be awesome—they’re two seriously talented blokes—and we’re looking forward to seeing y’all there!

Joe and Stephen

We’re also recovering from our assorted tote-bag-toting escapades at last week’s AWP shindig in Seattle. We stole several (highly caffeinated) pre-conference moments to play literary tourist, visiting a few of the city’s fantastic small bookstores and gawping admiringly at the beautiful (and beautifully functional) public library. And as for the conference itself? We had a blast! We caught up with a ton of bookish pals (pictured above is Dr. Joe, Malvern’s curmudgeon-in-chief, with Smartish Pace founder Stephen Reichert), made some new friends, and stocked up on some very exciting books. Coming soon to a Malvern shelf near you, we have titles from a bunch of wonderful small presses, including (pictured below, from top to bottom) Bloof Books, Coconut Books, The Overlook Press, Forklift, Ohio and Typecast Publishing, and University of Pittsburgh Press.

Bloof Books

Coconut Books

Overlook Press

Forklift Ohio

University of Pittsburgh Press

AWP is Nigh!

RaptureWith The Rapture Index approaching an all-time high (“news reports claim there is a surge in demand for exorcists”), it’s time to get packing for AWP! This year’s boozy MFA reunion conference kicks off in Boston on Wednesday, and Malvern Books will be there with bells on. We’ll be looking to stuff our tote bags with all manner of splendid wares—bookstore shelves don’t stock themselves, people!—so please do keep an eye out for us (us = tall; Texan; curly of hair and black of shoe), and feel free to thrust catalogs and cookies in our general direction.

And, in entirely related news, here are our favorite collective nouns for geese (painstakingly curated from the handy Collective Nouns for Birds website):

  • A plump of geese
  • A christmas of geese
  • A skein of geese
  • A covert of geese
  • A gagelynge of geese
  • A knob of geese
  • A little knot of geese
  • A string of geese
  • A wedge of geese
  • A chevron of geese

What should a group of publishers be called, I wonder? A gossip of publishers? An intoxication of publishers? A hatchet of publishers? A palimpsest of publishers? Whatever you are, publishers en masse, we look forward to seeing you shortly.