News & Reviews

WORD: Akashic Books launches new content-driven website
Edited Press Release

Akashic Books announced the February launch of its new website, switching from a “practically pre-digital feel” to one that will have original content nearly every day of the week. The Brooklyn-based independent publisher of literary and alternative fiction outlined a schedule of regular features.

Mondays Are Murder. Brand-new noir fiction modeled after its award-winning noir series. Each story is an original story, and each takes place in a distinct location. Akashic's web model for the series (authored by many among the 800 contributors to its print series, and open for submissions) has one more feature: a 750-word limit. Sound like murder? It is. But so are Mondays. February stories by Tim McLoughlin (Feb. 4), Julie Smith (Feb. 11), Maggie Estep (Feb. 18), and Arthur Nersesian (Feb. 25).

Featured Guest Blog. Each month, Akashic invites contributions to its featured blog from Akashic's roster of authors. This February, in celebration of Black History Month and in conjunction with the long-awaited paperback release of Bernice L. McFadden’s Nowhere Is a Place, the featured blog is given the “Are We Related?” theme.

Akashic bloggers detail their genealogical history and invite readers to contact them with news from their extended family trees. February “Are We Related?” contributors include Bernice L. McFadden (Feb. 5), Courttia Newland (Feb. 12), and Kwame Dawes (Feb. 19).

Literary Lions. Akashic publisher Johnny Temple introduces a rapid-fire question and answer series with Dennis Lehane. Each week, Johnny asks the same questions of other lions of the industry. February Lions: Dennis Lehane (Feb. 6), Edwidge Danticat (Feb. 13), and Nick Zinner (Feb. 20).

Akashic in Good Company. A weekly column featuring managing editor Johanna Ingalls’s interviews and profiles with many of the remarkable people in the publishing industry today. Johanna’s conversational profiles also tell Akashic’s story, giving readers a glimpse of the internal workings of the company. February Profiles: President of Akashic’s distributor Julie Schaper (Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, Feb. 7), Lee Bird (Cinco Puntos Press, Feb. 14), Rebecca Fitting & Jessica Stockton Bagnulo (Greenlight Bookstore, Feb. 21), and Erika Goldman (Bellevue Literary Press, Feb. 28).

Weekly Round-Up: Every Friday, the Akashic team highlights industry news, reviews, and features.

In celebration of its new website launch, Akashic Books is offering a 40% discount on all of its titles, and have many more features planned, it said in a press release.

Check out Akashic Books: Reverse-gentrification of the Literary World, at http://www.akashicbooks.com and at Twitter.

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