Spring is a busy time for the arts, especially as theater companies and universities pack their calendars before the usual May season ending. But it’s also a prolific time for the literary world, where not only events, but book releases, abound.
“Springtime is kind of a bonanza for publishing,” says Drew Cohen, co-owner and buyer of The Writer’s Block bookstore in downtown Las Vegas.
“Generally, a lot of the most hyped books come out at this season. My theory is that publishers are trying to establish a nice trend line for the rest of the year. Books that come out right now tend to have strong sales through the summer, and then they have the opportunity to come back in the holiday season, and when the awards come out. So yeah, tons of books every week — our new release cart is pretty heavy on Tuesdays.”
Black Mountain Institute, the literary program affiliated with and established at UNLV, has already experienced a similar publishing bounty earlier this year. Both its current Shearing Fellows — Alejandro Heredia and Monica Macansantos — have either recently released or will soon release a book, and a Shearing Fellow from last year, Edgar Gomez, just put out a book that he finished during his fellowship.
“One of the things we prize most about our Shearing Fellow program is that the ... fellows
are emerging writers who have at least one book out, and we're inviting them to the
fellowship as an opportunity to write their next book and bring their career to the next level,” says Charlotte Wyatt, associate director of programs for BMI.
It’s clearly a season for academic authors.
Local professor (and DJ) Amani Roberts also released a book earlier this year, "The Quiet Storm," that talks about the 21st Century commercial downswing of R&B groups. Several reasons explain those acts’ disappearance from the charts and airwaves, including the rise of other music genres, the impacts of radio consolidation and the new digital divide, and the 2008 recession. But pop music is cyclical, and coincidentally, Las Vegas could offer an avenue for an R&B group resurgence in its resident performers on the Strip. New Edition, Boyz II Men, and Earth, Wind and Fire all play regularly for millions of tourists, and have seen increased exposure elsewhere.
“The Vegas residency for Boyz II Men pretty much saved the group,” says Roberts. “They were able to kind of reemerge after their Vegas residency and go across the country and continue to tour. ... [A Vegas residency] can be a crucial point in kind of reestablishing dominance, and opening up some new doors.”
Gianna Toboni isn’t from Nevada, but she was a frequent visitor when working on Vice’s
documentary series, and what would become her first book, "The Volunteer" (due out April 1).
She got to know former Southern Nevada resident Scott Dozier, who tried to expedite his execution but ended up taking his own life while languishing on death row. Her candid conversations with Dozier, and her journalistic investigations into capital punishment revealed a taxpayer-funded system unable — and, at times, unwilling — to carry out its intended duties.
“There was something really fascinating to me about the fact that here, you had an inmate who was volunteering for execution,” says Toboni. “He was not standing in the state's way. And here you had a state that theoretically wanted to execute him, right? So there's this rare sort of shared goal that they had, and yet the execution wasn't going through. And so, to me, that was a really powerful representation of how broken this practice is in our country.”
Here’s a list of other recommended books mentioned during the segment:
Guests: Drew Cohen, co-owner and buyer, The Writer’s Block; Charlotte Wyatt, associate director of programs, Black Mountain Institute at UNLV; Amani Roberts, author, "The Quiet Storm"; Gianna Toboni, author, "The Volunteer"
