Wellington publisher marks decade with new anthology

Wellington publisher marks decade with new anthology

To mark ten years of publishing the Lawrence & Gibson publishing collective have cobbled together a different kind of anthology. Instead of only taking selections from their novels, they have also included other material such as early correspondence between authors and the publisher, and snippets of interviews between the collective’s authors.

According to an introductory by editor of Lawrence and Gibson, Murdoch Stephens, the idea for such an anthology comes from a desire to show behind the scenes of publishing that the public generally don’t see.

“We’ve included discussion of books considered but unpublished, a close call between a guillotine and a friend’s fingers as well as a selection of pictures of the binding process itself”, said Stephens.

The collection documents ten years of publishing from eight authors writing twenty titles. The books are a mix of European influenced novels through to the socio-cultural satire of Richard Meros, a founding member of the collective.

“The anthology is called Still got all our fingers and toes which refers to the sometimes dangerous process of binding books that we employ. Unlike most publishers we have a hand in the entire binding process, from selecting the paper stock through to binding the books ourselves,” said Stephens.

The anthology will be available at two Wellington institutions in the first fortnight of February.

Unity Books on Willis St will feature all of the publisher’s available books for the first week of February. Any purchase of a book will receive a free copy of the anthology.

Then, on Saturday February 13th, theatre-goers at the Arthur Meek and Geoff Pinfield adaption of a Richard Meros book - Hillary Clinton/Young Lover – will get a copy of the book either with purchase of any Meros text or for a gold coin donation.

At Circa, Stephens will also give a brief talk about the collective and how the original publication On the conditions and possibilities of Helen Clark taking me as her Young Lover became the play and forthcoming film Hillary Clinton/ Young Lover.

ENDS

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