Brooklyn Book Festival OnePage
Week of 21-Sep-2012
Black Balloon Publishing thrives on challenging convention. By publishing only one title per season, we don’t spread the risk across a list, but bet it all on a single title. We cater to writers who provoke emotion without sentimentality, who make the despicable somehow appealing. We blur lines between disciplines – think an autographical account of an identity broken, then rebuilt, scene-by-scene, via the perspective of loved ones. Think recipes sung word-by-word and packaged inside a collaborative, illustrated cookbook. Think a new language built upon adolescent catch phrases and inside jokes.
But words on a page are just the beginning. We like book as object – the smell of pulp, the sound of pages turning, the heft of a binding in hand – but also the electronic thing, back-lit and scrollable. Enter the interactive, evolving book app, where the end of a memoir is more like a pause, an intake of breath, where a fictional landscape is navigated with an interactive map, where the words move off the page and into the world.
Forthcoming: Maverick Jetpants in the City of Quality, a debut novel by Bill Peters will be available this October. In his enthusiasm for the novel, Sam Lipsyte asks: “Do you want laughter, suffering, and friendship, Rochester style? Do you want to marinate in raucous sadness? I know you do. So be ready, everybody. Here comes the Vomit Cruiser to rescue your sense of humor, and Bill Peters to rescue your heart.”
The latest app: The Louise: Amended app is now available. Since this is an unconventional memoir told from the various perspectives of the author, Louise Krug, and her family, this app includes an interactive menu that lets you read linearly, as you would a traditional print book, or one point of view at a time. And as Louise’s story continues to unfold, new chapters about her recovery, her struggles, and her experiences as a new mom – and you and your fellow readers will have a chance to join the conversation. Add some cool video content and primary documents from Louise’s recovery (think facial exercises), and that’s what we call an evolving book.
In the news: The Guardian online features the recently released Louise: Amended as well as a post by author Louise Krug, who shares her experiences on dating after brain surgery. Check it out here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/14/dating-after-brain-surgery
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The Brooklyn Book Festival OnePage is made possible in part with a grant from
But words on a page are just the beginning. We like book as object – the smell of pulp, the sound of pages turning, the heft of a binding in hand – but also the electronic thing, back-lit and scrollable. Enter the interactive, evolving book app, where the end of a memoir is more like a pause, an intake of breath, where a fictional landscape is navigated with an interactive map, where the words move off the page and into the world.
Forthcoming: Maverick Jetpants in the City of Quality, a debut novel by Bill Peters will be available this October. In his enthusiasm for the novel, Sam Lipsyte asks: “Do you want laughter, suffering, and friendship, Rochester style? Do you want to marinate in raucous sadness? I know you do. So be ready, everybody. Here comes the Vomit Cruiser to rescue your sense of humor, and Bill Peters to rescue your heart.”
The latest app: The Louise: Amended app is now available. Since this is an unconventional memoir told from the various perspectives of the author, Louise Krug, and her family, this app includes an interactive menu that lets you read linearly, as you would a traditional print book, or one point of view at a time. And as Louise’s story continues to unfold, new chapters about her recovery, her struggles, and her experiences as a new mom – and you and your fellow readers will have a chance to join the conversation. Add some cool video content and primary documents from Louise’s recovery (think facial exercises), and that’s what we call an evolving book.
In the news: The Guardian online features the recently released Louise: Amended as well as a post by author Louise Krug, who shares her experiences on dating after brain surgery. Check it out here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/14/dating-after-brain-surgery
