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From Akashic Books:
 The Path to Geneva: The
Quest for a Permanent
Solution
by Yossi Beilin
September 11th Families
for Peaceful Tomorrows
by David Potorti
with Peaceful Tomorrows
Artburn
by Robbie Conal
Southland
by Nina Revoyr
Beulah Hill
by William Heffernan
A Phat Death
by Norman Kelley
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Akashic Books
New York City-based Akashic Books was founded in 1997 by three musicians (with absolutely no background in publishing) who grew up together in Washington, DC. Johnny Temple, Mark Sullivan and brother Bobby Sullivan launched Akashic as an outgrowth of Akashic Records, an independent music label they had started a year earlier. By the time Akashic had published its first three books, however, both Sullivan brothers had left the company for the demands of new fatherhood, and Temple phased out the music side of things, keeping the company going exclusively as a book publisher focusing on "urban literary fiction" and political nonfiction.
Fifty books, an Edgar Award, two Lambda Awards, and a mountain of critical acclaim later, Temple and Akashic forge on. Also running the show these days is managing editor Johanna Ingalls, daughter of a librarian, who has now been with Akashic for four years. The Denver Post commented in December 2003, "Akashic is one of the most impressive of the newer small presses, in part because of editing and production values that rival and perhaps surpass the big houses. We're grateful to them." Similarly, Poets & Writers has opined, "Akashic fully conveys the charms and possibilities of small press publishing . . . placing a priority on the quality of the books, rather than the possible marketing opportunities they offer."
Akashic's "urban literary fiction" includes an award-winning line of "Cuban Noir' (Akashic publishes more crime-fiction writers by Cubans still living on the island-nation than any other American company) as well as cutting-edge avant-garde literature, such as the works selected by cult underground novelist Dennis Cooper, curator of Akashic's "Little House on the Bowery" series.
While Akashic's list is nearly seventy-five percent fiction, the nonfiction publications have also garnered a very strong response. The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq by Christopher Scheer, Robert Scheer, and Lakshmi Chaudhry is the latest nonfiction title on the list, and has been published in a creative collaboration with fellow New York indie Seven Stories Press and San Francisco-based progressive website AlterNet.org.
RDV Books is a nonfiction imprint run by Akashic that is owned by music industry veteran and outspoken civil libertarian Danny Goldberg, his father Victor, and progressive filmmaker Robert Greenwald. In early 2004, RDV/Akashic will publish The Path to Geneva: The Quest for a Permanent Solution, 1996-2004 by Yossi Beilin, an insiders' report of the peace process over the last decade. Beilin, a key advisor to Israeli Prime Ministers Rabin, Peres and Barak, is making headlines all over the world right now with the unveiling of his Geneva Accord, an alternative blueprint for Middle East peace. September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows (RDV/Akashic, 2003) is a call to peace activism from a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated group of family members of 9/11 victims advocating against the Bush Administration's militarism. Also from RDV/Akashic this year is Artburn by Guerrilla poster artist Robbie Conal, which made the Los Angeles Times Bestseller List
On the more mainstream literary side of the catalog, Akashic has collaborated closely with the family of James Jones (1921-1977; author of From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line). First Akashic reissued The Ice-Cream Headache & Other Stories, Jones's only story collection, which had been out of print for 15 years. Akashic has recently published Speak Now, the new novel by Jones's daughter Kaylie Jones, who established her own commercial success in the '90s with A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, which was adapted to the big screen by Merchant-Ivory. (Akashic has published a trade paperback reissue of A Soldier's Daughter in tandem with Speak Now in hardcover.) In May, Akashic will publish, suitably, The Merry Month of May, one of James Jones's later novels-set in 1968 Paris amidst a political and sexual student revolution-out of print for many years. This new edition will have an introduction by National Book Award-winner Larry Heinemann. More and more veteran authors-Kaylie Jones, bestselling mystery writer William Heffernan, and others-are turning to Akashic as an alternative to being "midlisted" (i.e., ignored) by the bottom-line machinations of the rapidly consolidating corporate titans of publishing.
Akashic's crime-fiction list has continued to expand, though there are few boiler-plates in the lot-Akashic's mysteries and thrillers invariably have a strong political or cultural component. In addition to the series of "Cuban Noir" (Cold Havana Ground by Arnaldo Correa; Edgar Award-winner Adios Muchachos by Daniel Chavarria), Akashic has recently published highly praised novels such as Southland by Nina Revoyr (nominated for the 2003 Los Angeles Times Book Prize), Beulah Hill and Cityside by William Heffernan, and A Phat Death by Norman Kelley.
Johnny Temple, as the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, has subsidized Akashic Books throughout the company's short history with his earnings as a musician. He has been recording albums and touring in bands for years (he and original co-founder Bobby Sullivan played together in a band called Soul Side in the 1980s); his current band Girls Against Boys has released six albums and toured extensively around the world. Most recently Temple and two band mates backed up actress Gina Gershon (Bound, The Player) on a musical tour promoting her new film, Prey for Rock and Roll. Temple has written articles on the nexus of culture and politics for The Nation, Publishers Weekly, and Punk Planet.
The eclecticism of Akashic's list is fueled by the boundless energy of Temple and managing editor Johanna Ingalls. Surviving as an independent publisher is a constant struggle, but both Temple and Ingalls believe it is a good fight-and they certainly enjoy being in the ring.
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