Wall Street Journal notices Kalamazoo author

When Jaimy Gordon’s fourth novel, “Lord of Misrule,” was chosen as one of five works nominated for a National Book Award in fiction, it was a spectacular moment for an author who has been writing for decades, reports the Wall Street Journal.

But for the small literary house McPherson & Co. in Kingston, N.Y., the nomination represents a quandary: how many copies should it publish? The publishing house normally prints 2,000 copies of a new book. When Barnes & Noble alone wanted that many McPherson decided to print 8,000.

Excerpt:

Author Andrei Codrescu, one of the fiction judges, … said he has long been an admirer of her work, describing Ms. Gordon as “an underrated great writer who hasn’t been talked about very much, partially, I think, because she’s shy and doesn’t self-market herself. But she has an incredible command of other voices, and a sense of music in language that is unequaled.”

This is the second year in a row for a National Book Award nomination to go to a Kalamazoo author. Bonnie Jo Campbell’s “American Salvage” took a nomination in 2009.

To find out more about Gordon’s book and the publisher’s dilemma, read the rest of the story.

Source: Wall Street Journal