First, the big news: you know that publishing company I'm launching, Galiot Press, with my business partner Henriette? Well, we are entering the next phase: we have developed a crowdfunding campaign to help us discover and produce our first set of three books. You can be a part of bringing about a sea change in publishing, and supporting new and overlooked voices. So here's my "ask," as it's called:
If you haven’t already, will you please visit our project page and sign up to be among the first to be alerted when the campaign goes live? (You just need to log in, or if you haven’t ever used Kickstarter, create an account with your email address and a password.)
That will really help show people who don’t know us yet that we have support. On April 10th, you’ll then be able to get our full story, including a fun video with two surprise cameo appearances, and to make a pledge in exchange for some fun rewards. We’ll have one month to raise our minimum of $60,000. And then we’ll open for submissions from writers (with and without agents) in May. Eep!
Those of you who know me well know that I'm loathe to ask for help. But I'm doing it now, because this project is very close to my heart, and really what I'm doing is asking for help so that I can help other writers.
Galiot Press is going to publish bold books by new and overlooked authors, among others. And we’ll be doing so with transparency, respect, equity, and sustainability–four values that many writers find lacking in much of the traditional publishing industry. We want to give more writers a chance at publication–writers who push the traditional boundaries of genre, style, or voice–and we want to give readers ways to engage deeply with these books and authors.
We have received a lot of great support from Kickstarter—in fact they've already labeled our page with their "Project We Love" stamp. We've heard that if we hit our funding goal on the day the campaign goes live, i.e. April 10, or close to it, Kickstarter will further promote the campaign, which will give us a shot at meeting our stretch goals, which in turn will help us develop lots of programming to connect authors and readers, as well as produce our second set of three books.
I'm excited! And terrified. That means it's all worthwhile, right? So please pop over to the Kickstarter page and sign up to be among the first of Galiot's supporters. You can also follow the Galiot journey and share Galiot's Facebook (I know, I know) and Instagram posts. And if you know anyone who might connect us with media outlets, please let me know. THANK YOU!
Meantime, I'm just back from a wonderful week visiting my parents in Montpellier, in the south of France. They live in the medieval, pedestrian-only town center. (Well, it's supposed to be pedestrian-only, but now there's lots of motorized scooter thingies zipping around the narrow streets, which is a little harrowing.)
I realized how I take it for granted that they live in what essentially looks like a film set. Their building dates back to the 14th century. (Spot the little visitor in the stairway photo.) As I walked around, I felt in a constant in-between state. Caught between the Middle Ages and the 21st century. Between my two homes. I didn't grow up in Montpellier, but I did grow up in France, and I've been visiting my parents in their town since 1996. When I land in France, there's an immediate familiarity. The timbre of the voice announcing flights on the loud-speaker, the prevalence of square-jawed French men in scarves and rectangular glasses, the moue with which women speak. Just as there is an immediate familiarity when I land in Boston. The voice of the governor (now Maura Healey) and the Mayor (now Michelle Wu)—two women, hurrah!—as I walk down the long glassed-in corridor to central parking, the inlaid designs of colorful sea creatures on the floor.
The night before I flew back to the States, I didn't sleep well. I spent a lot of time just drifting, partially awake. That's what usually happens the night before this type of trip. It's not nerves. After 50 years of belonging to three continents, there's no travel-related worries of that type. It's more that part of me is still fully where I am, nestled in my mother's study on a pull-out couch, surrounded by her books, and part of me is already back in the US, thinking of a grocery shopping list and whether my child has play rehearsal tomorrow. I know this is not a unique phenomenon. Anyone going back home to parents and then back home to their own grown-up life feels this. But there's an added layer when there's a trans-Atlantic flight, a traveling through time zones, two different languages. The mind splits in two, is in both places and neither at once. I try to hold onto that feeling of being both rooted and uprooted at once. It's a contemplative state, one in which time slows down and one can consider one's life and actions with a bit of a remove.
When the Air France flight landed in Boston, as we were waiting to disembark, French music drifted out of the loudspeakers. The plane was a bubble of France, sitting on the tarmac, and I didn't mind that I was in row 41 and had to wait to get off. I enjoyed holding onto that last little bit of in-betweenness. It's like that moment at the cinema after a great movie, when you just sit there letting the credits roll and the rest of the audience leave, lingering in the space and feeling of the movie before you get up and walk back out into your life. And then I bumped my way down the aisle, said merci to the pilot, and stepped back into the US.
I'll end with some bookish news. My longtime friend and writing group partner Crystal King just received images of the cover of her upcoming book, IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS, and it's a beaut! Look at this! Make a note of this book—a super creative retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone, set in the 1940s in a creepy (real) garden in Italy, with Salvador Dalì!
And the aforementioned Henriette Lazaridis has her third book, LAST DAYS IN PLAKA, coming out next month (book launch at the Harvard Book Store on April 9 where she’ll be in conversation with the very lovely author Marjan Kamali). Also with a great cover. You can pre-order it already, which is a great way to help an author and show their publisher that there is interest in the book.
And finally an acquaintance of mine, Afarin Belissario, has a fascinating book about to launch: SILENCED WHISPERS, also available for pre-order. In the words from her website: SILENCED WHISPERS tells the story of an Iranian woman’s battle for freedom—hers and her country’s—and love amid profound social change and imperial power grabs. Vividly portraying life in Iran at the dawn of the twentieth century, the book is inspired by the author’s upbringing in an Azeri family in Tehran and her Russian great-grandfather.
Happy reading, and happy end of March, and don’t forget to visit the Kickstarter page for Galiot Press ;-)
Anjali
I couldn't have a better partner in Galiot Press and a better spokesperson for what we're up to and what we're planning to do. (And thank you for the lovely shout out to Last Days in Plaka. My cover is in good company with those others on your page!).