Crowdfunding for a New Book! ...and More!
We've launched a Kickstarter for a new book... and in just a few days, we've raised nearly double our target, thanks to a phenomenal outpuring of support from over 200 backers (and counting)!
INDIA STREET LETTERING: A Journey Through Typographic Craft and Culture by Pooja Saxena is a showcase of the typographic culture that thrives in India’s urban spaces. Curated from over a decade of meticulous documenting and annotating, Pooja's collection contains hundreds of of photographs of striking public lettering - in paint, relief, mosaic, neon, wood, you name it! All wrapped up in a 200-page hard cover full-colour book. Back the project here!
The project reached its goal within 24 hours of launch, and got a "Project We Love" badge from Kickstarter!
We're offering a bunch of cool rewards, including postcards, prints, font bundles, zines, and custom painted signboards. You can also donate a copy (or more than one!) to the Free Libraries Network.
We'll be having an AMA together with Pooja over on Reddit soon!
§
In other news...
R. T. Samuel, editor of the The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF, has a fantastic essay up at The Third Eye in which they discuss their relationship with SF and the process of curating and commissioning work for the anthology. It's called “I Know My Own Animal Heart” and it's a must-read. (Don't miss Larchtongue's badass portrait of the author, and take the time to click the links and read the Ursula K. Leguin story and the Rachel Pollack essay, which Samuel says "I have burned into the backs of my eyelids" -- a really brilliant piece about transexuality in world myth.)
Meanwhile, a few other reviews of the collection have appeared, all with good things to say:
“The collection is remarkable precisely because it eschews both the elite cosmopolitanism of mainstream science fiction and the tragic realism into which Dalit literature is so often consigned. Instead, it forges a hybrid literary mode—wildly imaginative, often humorous, at times bleak, always incisive…”
—Ananya Singh, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
“An expertly curated collection of voices, themes, protagonists, and perspectives... Buoyed by the Ambedkarite spirit and principles”
“Dark, but lit by flashes of wry, sardonic humour... A must-read collection... The stories are as texturally varied as the accents at a UN conference”
—Manjula Padmanabhan, India Today
§
Our other recent release, The Blaft Anthology of Gujarat Pulp Fiction, has got a bit of press too!
“While pulp fiction is often considered the literary equivalent of popcorn films, this collection reflects how effectively the genre can hide the familiar behind an alien front, offering the thoughtful reader a new view of their world.”
—Nalini Ramachandran, Hindustan Times
“Atom-ji’s [H. N. Golilbar's] The Coils of Fate is what really got me hooked. It’s brilliant! I won’t spoil it for you, but recommend that you read it first when you get this collection..”
—Jacqueline Nyathi, The Harare Review of Books
And... we have an event coming up in Bengaluru! Translator Vishwambhari S. Parmar and Editor Rakesh Khanna will be discussing the world of Gujarati pulp with author Zac O'Yeah on July 26, 6 PM at Champaca Bookstore in Vasanth Nagar. We hope to see you there!
