Literary agency
Further to the release and book tour announcements, we thought you’d be interested to check out a new, interactive map that has been created for Iain Sinclair‘s AMERICAN SMOKE. Click on the image, below, to be taken to the special website.
AMERICAN SMOKE is out now in the UK (Hamish Hamilton), and is due to be published in the US by Farrar Strauss in April 2014.
Today, Iain Sinclair‘s much-anticipated new book, AMERICAN SMOKE hits shelves in the UK! Published by Hamish Hamilton, the book is a little different to his previous works. Before, he took us around the London Orbital, reported on Hackney, and also delved into the impact of the London Olympics – among many others. This time, the author looks to the open road and the American beat generation…
Iain Sinclair breaks for the border with AMERICAN SMOKE, his first full engagement with the memory-filled landscapes of the American Beats and their fellow travellers.
In a book filled with bad journeys and fated decisions, this is a a delirious expedition in the footsteps of Malcolm Lowry, Charles Olson, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Gary Snyder and more, heated by obsession (the Old West, volcanoes, Mexico) and enlivened by false memories, broken reports and strange adventures.
With American Smoke Sinclair confirms his place as the most innovative of our chroniclers of the contemporary.
AMERICAN SMOKE is due to be published in the US by Faber, in April 2014 (we’ll post a reminder closer to the date, too).
We announced some early details regarding Iain Sinclair‘s upcoming book tour, but there have since been some additional dates and events added to the schedule. Celebrating the release of Iain’s much-anticipated new book, AMERICAN SMOKE, there are plenty of opportunities to learn more about the book and also hear the author speak on the topic. AMERICAN SMOKE is due to be published in the UK in November 2013 (Hamish Hamilton) and in the US in April 2014 (Farrar Strauss).
First up, we want to draw your attention to some recent coverage. The mainstream British has been filled with praise for AMERICAN SMOKE. The Saturday Telegraph magazine featured an interview with the author, ‘Iain Sinclair on walking, markets and his impossible challenge’. Also on Saturday, reviews of AMERICAN SMOKE appeared in the Financial Times – ‘In AMERICAN SMOKE his voice is still urgent; it still has things to tell us. If we know what’s good for us, we’ll listen.’ – and also in The Times (sadly, behind the pay-wall). We understand that there are many more reviews on the way, from across the media. The Telegraph also ran a review, in which AMERICAN SMOKE is described as a ‘wonderful’ book, one the reviewer ‘loved’. A review in The Guardian states that, while reading the book, ‘the US wafts away, as grippingly haunted as Sinclair’s prose.’
And there’s still more to come: Esquire will run a piece by Iain in their December issue, about Kill Your Darlings film. Dazed and Confused‘s December will feature an interview with Iain, as will the Big Issue and The Hackney Citizen.
The London Review Bookshop is offering three wonderful special editions of AMERICAN SMOKE (one of which is pictured, below) – any one of these is a must for Sinclair and Beat Generation aficionados everywhere. Although, be quick – stock is selling out fast.
And finally, to re-cap, here are the rest of the dates for Sinclair’s tour:
Wednesday November 6th (today!) — Royal Society of Literature
Thursday November 7th — Iain Sinclair and Gary Walkow present Beat at the Whitechapel Gallery
Friday November 8th — LAUNCH of American Smoke at the Sea Cadets Building in Stoke Newington
Wednesday November 20th — ICA
Thursday November 21st — LRB Bookshop
Thursday November 28th — Topping and Company Bath
Wednesday December 4th — Broadway Bookshop event
Wednesday January 8th — Central St Martins
To celebrate the imminent release of Iain Sinclair‘s AMERICAN SMOKE, the author is going on a book tour. Starting on October 12th, Iain has a number of events in his diary all the way through to January 2014. Here is the book’s synopsis…
Completing the trilogy begun with HACKNEY, THAT ROSE-RED EMPIRE and continued with GHOST MILK, Iain Sinclair breaks for the border with AMERICAN SMOKE, his first full engagement with the memory-filled landscapes of the American Beats and their fellow travellers, echoed as always in the mythologies of London, through which so many of them also passed.
In a book filled with bad journeys and fated decisions, this is an epic walk in the footsteps of Malcolm Lowry, Charles Olson, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Gary Snyder and more, heated by obsession (the Old West, volcanoes, Mexico) and enlivened by false memories, broken reports and strange adventures.
With AMERICAN SMOKE, Sinclair confirms his place as the most innovative of our chroniclers of the contemporary.
AMERICAN SMOKE is due to be published in the UK on November 2013 (Hamish Hamilton) and in the US in April 2014 (Farrar Strauss) . Below you will find information (including links, where available) for the events. Some of the finer details are yet to be confirmed, so be sure to confirm with the venues:
Saturday October 12th
Friday October 18th
Saturday October 19th
Sunday October 27th
Wednesday November 6th
Thursday November 7th
Friday November 8th
Wednesday November 20th
Thursday November 21st
Thursday November 28th
Wednesday December 4th
Wednesday January 8th
It’s been a busy time here at Zeno Towers, what with the recent Worldcon in Reno, the upcoming Fantasycon and World Fantasy Convention, plus one or two personal bits and bobs that JP and I have been catching up on… life, I think some people call it!
That notwithstanding, we’ve been beavering away and are delighted to announce a few deals that we’ve recently concluded…
And there are plenty more things in the pipeline! More in due course.
Posting to the agency web site has been sporadic of late, entirely down to time constraints. Aside from the aftermath of Worldcon, there has been the Frankfurt Book Fair, the processing of the bi-annual royalties (a tough job, but the one of the reasons we’re here, I guess!) prep for this year’s World Fantasy Convention (in Columbus, OH) and a subsequent week of meetings in NYC and the fact that we’ve been to a number of rather nice parties! That said, here’s a little news…
Angry Robot have revealed this gorgeous David Frankland cover for Lavie Tidhar’s forthcoming novel, CAMERA OBSCURA, the follow-up to his Steampunk romp, THE BOOKMAN, due for release next May, and about which they say ‘… In this one we meet Milady de Winter, investigating some murders in, of all places, the Rue Morgue. (Why yes, that does sound strangely familiar…) As she dives deeper into Parisian society, it seems everyone knows who did it except her… and the real question is not who, but why? Her search for answers will take her to the far side of the world, and beyond.’And we’ve a couple of other Angry Robot covers to show off here – on the left is Colin Harvey‘s DAMAGE TIME, a seat of the pants, SF thriller from the author of WINTER’S SONG. This new one by Colin has just been released by AR and in a recent Guardian review was described thus by Eric Brown ‘The strength of the novel lies not only in the depiction of a detailed future of hardship and privation, but in the expert characterisation of [protagonist] Shah: a lone figure whose origins leave him open to prejudice within the police department, and whose problematic relationship with an intersexual courtesan reveals his own deep-seated prejudices.‘
And to the right, we’ve the cover for POINT by Thomas Blackthorn (a.k.a John Meaney), not due out until Feb 2011 and which looks rather splendid when placed next to EDGE, the first Blackthorn novel. Swapping identities and publishers for a moment, John reports he has just completed the second Ragnarok novel for Simon Spanton at Gollancz… more on that in due course.
Congratulations to Iain Sinclair, whose book Hackney: That Rose-Red Empire has been announced as one of the short-listed titles for this year’s Ondaatje Prize, hosted by The Royal Society of Literature.
The £10,000 award is given annually ‘for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place‘ and this year’s ceremony will take place on May 24th in London.
The 2010 judges, Kathleen Jamie, Professor Steve Jones and Penelope Lively, commended ‘compelling, individual voices, taut narrative and impressive research in six remarkable books from across a complete range of genres’.
Hackney: That Rose-Red Empire is now available in paperback from Hamish Hamilton.
Hackney: That Rose-Red Empire
Benedetto, over at Iain Sinclair’s Official Unofficial web site has dropped us a line to say that he’s now got a mailing list to keep fans (and us!) up-to-date with Iain’s events diary.
This by way of Benedetto @ Iain Sinclair’s Official Unofficial Website…
Ledbury Poetry Festival – July 4th 2009, at 19.45 : Iain Sinclair and Brian Catling will give a Live Reading at this year Ledbury Poetry Festival, at the Burgage Hall
“Iain Sinclair and Brian Catling were both connected to the British avant-garde poetry scene in the 60s and 70s and they are reunited again at Ledbury for what will be a fascinating and perspective-shifting event. Iain Sinclair’s works include Lud heat: A Book of the Dead Hamlets, Downriver, Lights out for the Territory and London Orbital. Brian Catling is a poet, sculptor, performance artist, filmmaker, academic. His work ‘Antix’, was described as, “Uncompromising, its imaginative density and sinister ire pushed the shifting relationship between performer and audience into an uneasy space” (Frieze Magazine). He is also known for his very black sense of humour. His new book of poetry Resurrecting Bobby Awl is published this year.”
Please check the festival website for more details and for changes to the schedule.
Here’s a link to a really excellent web site dedicated to Iain Sinclair and his work. Iain has given his blessing to this instructive online resource which is run and maintained by Sinclair fan extraordinaire, Benedetto.
If you want up-to-date information on Iain’s public engagements, this is the place to visit…
A well deserved pat on the back goes to Anna Ridley, the publicist at Hamish Hamilton who steered the excellent campaign behind Iain Sinclair‘s recent book Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire. Check out this recent press release…
“Congratulations to Anna Ridley who has won the Publishers Publicity Circle Quarterly Award for her campaign for Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire by Iain Sinclair at today’s PPC meeting. The prize was awarded by Alice O’Keefe of The Bookseller, who singled out Anna’s quick response in turning the potentially negative ‘Hackney library controversy‘ into a positive news story to generate new levels of coverage for the book, and the focussed work Anna did with Hackney’s independent bookshops to coordinate a diverse range of events, and maximise sales as remarkable factors. The first quarter award is for any book published in December, January or February. Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire by Iain Sinclair was published by Hamish Hamilton on February 26th, 2009.”
There’s a wonderful short film on The Guardian web site in which Ian Sinclair takes us on a fascinating short walk around Hackney.
The piece – which you’ll find by following this link – offers a real flavour of Sinclair’s new book, Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire which is now at number #13 in the hardcover charts, is ranked in the top 250 Amazon sellers and has already been reprinted twice since its Feb 26th release!