Ben Miller Review in Star Tribune.

“Miller’s prose throughout combines that knack for close observation and gently mocking tone, such as when he romanticizes his neighbor Mr. Hickey but bemusedly remembers how the man’s sister tried to equip him with a gun. His mother comes in for the harshest treatment, as he catalogs her self-martrying attitude and emotional disorganization, symbolized by a massive handbag he calls Moby Purse.”

Read the rest here!

Designing the Interiors of The Debut Voices of Lookout Books Chapbook

Lookout Books is getting excited about AWP. We hope you’ll stop by our table at the Bookfair, and that you’ll attend The Debut Voices of Lookout Books, which is happening this Friday at 1:30 p.m. This reading will be the first time all four Lookout authors are in the same place, and the event will be followed by a book-signing at our Bookfair table. You’ll be able to grab signed copies of all our Lookout titles. We’re also excited about unveiling the limited edition chapbook that we printed in-house to commemorate the Debut Voices event.

We did a blog post about creating glyphs for the chapbook (read it here). Now we’re going to share how we designed the interior of the chapbook, which features complete stories from our three prose authors’ Lookout titles and two poems from our Lookout poet . Here’s a look into the process of designing and printing the book:

As the interior designer, I met with the interns doing cover design and together we decided on a trim size of 6” x 6”. Then I got to work on designing a page layout, asking for feedback as we worked.

1. An early version, with handwritten feedback. We needed to feature the author name more prominently, to group the name and title differently, and to give the text more room to breathe with some larger margins.

After taking everybody’s suggestions into account, I came up with the final layout, threaded the pieces into the InDesign document, had multiple people copy-edit printouts of the document, and then started printing.

2. Printing the book in The Publishing Laboratory. The new interior is pretty different from the one pictured above.

I spent the better part of two days printing, trimming pages on the guillotine trimmer, binding on the perfect binder (someday I’ll chuckle wistfully at the memory of my rookie mistake that spread glue all over the machine, and the hours we spent chipping away at it), and giving the bound books a final trim.

3. A bound chapbook awaiting trimming. The bow-tie covers are in honor of Ben Miller’s River Bend Chronicle. There are four cover designs total, each with a glyph that symbolizes that author’s work.

4. More bound chapbooks, resting under the weight of the entire English language.

Hands-on experience is one of the major reasons why I’m a Lookout intern. We really like all the emailing and editing and marketing that goes along with the job, but there’s something incredibly satisfying about spending a couple weeks actually making a book. It was definitely a learning experience: fun, exciting, and occasionally exhausting. We did a print-run of only 38 copies, so snatch one up as soon as you can!

5. Finished!

—Kathleen Jones, Lookout Intern

Creating Glyphs for Debut Voices of Lookout Books chapbook

To celebrate all our authors reading together for the firs time, we’ve been working on a limited edition booklet to feature work from the four Lookout authors, called Debut Voices of Lookout Books. (Come see them, Friday 1:30PM and then to the book signing after at table A6/A7.) We wanted to design a unique glyph to represent a component of each author’s work and would be used on the covers and interiors of the chapbook.

 We read the stories and poems and picked elements from each that spoke to us. Then we studied images of each element, and, using the pen tool in Photoshop, recreated their lines and curves, filling them in with the tone and emotion of the stories. Here is what we came up with.

 John Rybicki’s When All the World is Old is a beautiful collection of poetry and a testament to his love for his late wife. The book’s cover looks up at a barren tree canopy, which conveys the action of reaching up and into the sky. For our glyph, we used a bare branch, a stoic and thin image. We think this captures the essence of Rybicki’s work, both a lamentation and celebration of life.

 Ben Miller’s River Bend Chronicle features one essay “Hickey’s Havana,” an ode to Miller’s time with his grandfatherly neighbor, Mr. Hickey. The two bond at Mr. Hickey’s kitchen table, listening to the radio and drinking 7UP. Again, borrowing from the original book design, we chose Mr. Hickey’s tie to represent the essay. The tie is symbolic of Mr. Hickey and his presence in Miller’s life, acting as a refuge from a family of dysfunction.

 Edith Pearlman’s Binocular Vision features “The Story,” which is ripe with scene, pacing and tension. Pearlman writes, “The new restaurant—Harry and Lucienne had suggested it—called itself the Hussar, and presented piroshki and goulash in a Gypsy atmosphere. The chef was rumored to be twenty-six years old. The hussar was taking a big chance on the chef, on the fiddler, on the location, and apparently on the help; one busboy had already dropped a pitcher of water.” Tension grows between the characters and also with the reader, who wonders if “the story” will be told. We decided the pitcher echoed this tension and captured the importance of the story.

 Steve Almond’s God Bless America features “Donkey Greedy, Donkey Gets Punched,” a story between a poker-enthused psychoanalyst, Oss, and a poker-addicted patient, Sharpe. “Oss sighed his silent sigh. ‘This isn’t a poker game, Gary. You don’t win by hiding your cards.’” The story already features poker card glyphs within the text. We liked the image, so we borrowed it for the larger design. The poker card becomes a symbol of the men’s compulsions and motivations and seemed like a resonant image.

—John McShea, Lookout Intern