Note: Tonight’s Book Talk is part of M&T Second Friday at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center
This spring marks the launch of a new book and a new press in Buffalo. The Public Books, an imprint of Foundlings Press, debuts with a book of writing about our city and region by SUNY Buffalo State College Professor Bruce Fisher. The book comprises a collection of updated essays originally published over the last decade in several local publications including, notably, The Public, whose media family The Public Books now joins.
Launch of The Public Books is symbiotic for The Public and Foundlings Press, Aidan Ryan told me. It also came about in a very Buffalo way, in a conversation at a coffee shop. Ever since he left Artvoice to found new alt-weekly The Public, Geoff Kelly wanted to create a sister press for publishing books. At the same time Foundlings, which evolved from poetry publication Foundlings Magazine had been looking for partnerships for nonfiction publication. Its first product seems to be an auspicious start.
About Where The Streets Are Paved With Rust: Essays From America’s Broken Heartland, The Public Books says,
In these essays about Rust Belt communities, Fisher carefully but vigorously challenges. He tackles real-estate developers; knocks liberals who won’t embrace metro government; excoriates conservatives for their racist code-words; nudges us to revisit the debate between Heidegger and Cassirer; and explains the brilliance of streetcars and urban wildlife, the persistence of black male workforce exclusion, the centrality of water quality, and many other issues that shape cities. Fisher takes deep dives into data, scholarship, and history — as he does nearly weekly for The Public, Western New York’s leading independent weekly newspaper.
More at www.BuffaloRising.com