Q: Famously founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights has a rich history as publisher and bookseller. Can you tell us the inspiration behind City Lights publishing after the founding of the bookstore?
A: After opening City Lights Bookstore in 1953, Lawrence Ferlinghetti thought about expanding the store’s reach and impact by establishing a publishing imprint. As a doctoral student on the GI Bill in post-war Paris, he’d had direct experience with the bookseller/publisher model in operation there, and he brought that with him when dreaming of what City Lights might accomplish. He launched his imprint in 1955 with the Pocket Poets Series and published a collection of his own work, Pictures of the Gone World as its first volume. Ferlinghetti went on to feature writing in the series by Kenneth Rexroth, Marie Ponsot, Denise Levertov, and others including, most famously, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl & Other Poems, which was the subject of an obscenity trial that helped to establish vital First Amendment freedoms. From the start, Ferlinghetti was eager to introduce American audiences to the writers he’d learned about while traveling in Europe, and he published many writers in translation, including Jacques Prévert’s Paroles, which he translated himself. The commitment to publishing the work of writers from around the globe continues to this day at City Lights.
Q: City Lights bookstore was founded in 1953 and is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, congratulations! How much has the reading community you serve influenced your publishing program and bookselling in the last seven decades?
A: Thank you! One of the beautiful things about City Lights is that we get to do many things at once, and that includes being a literary meeting-place for the reading community. Everyday, we are exposed to the most exciting books being published, often coming from smaller, independent presses. There is a direct kubj between the books we select for the store and the authors we choose to publish, and we are always looking to actively influence the cultural and political conversation by cultivating readers’ curiosity via the books and authors we feature.
Q: Your website states “City Lights publishes not only poetry and fiction – including much work in translation – but also books on social and political issues.” Do you find that there is a specific genre or writing style that is resonating the most with your readers today? Any surprises?
A: Some of our most popular books these days are titles that we published a while ago, but have found new audiences given their timeliness. For example, Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism by Michael Parenti is popular with readers concerned about the fascistic tendencies at play in the world today. The Gilda Stories, which author Jewelle Gomez describes as “a lesbian vampire story,” is a perennial best-seller and falls in the speculative fiction genre, atypical for us. The wonderful thing about City Lights is that the range of books we publish truly offers something for almost everyone!
Q: Can you share a forthcoming City Lights title that you are excited about and why?
A: We are particularly excited to publish poet mimi tempestt’s the delicacy of embracing spirals this October. The book is an investigation of the ways in which the personal narrative of Black womanhood can be expressed through a radically human lens. tempestt is a charismatic, powerful, knock-out performer who will leave audiences raving and wanting more.
