david ohle – Eugene Lim

THE DEATH OF A CHARACTER by david ohle

the beauty of its pacing; they wait, we wait. the spiritual and subtle use of entheogens and psilocybin. most of all an intimacy and grudging acceptance of the body, aging, sickness, and death. a current xenophobia transformed into a view of nationalities and states as various, perhaps natural, oppressions. the pop of a perfect or gross or grossly perfect or perfectly gross sentence, nonchalantly written. the hard-won insights into existence, the continuation/conclusion of a steady and sublime lifework. A great book! Thank you, David Ohle!

Buy the book from Stalking Horse Press.

Interview with David Ohle by JA Tyler in Bomb magazine from 2014.

Gabe Hudson on The Age of Sinatra in the Village Voice, from 2004.

Interview with David Ohle about William Burroughs from 2007.

More links and info at David Ohle day, presented at Dennis Cooper’s blog.

poor yorick! soft skull closes its ny doors

... / By eugene

soft skull in its peripatetic two decades in nyc went through several upheavals and sometimes was more of a brand than a consistent editorial philosophy. but throughout they were risk takers of a very necessary kind. among other things, they published some of the smarter fiction of the recent past, including authors david ohle, lynne tillman, eileen myles, lydia millet, wayne koestenbaum, and michael muhammad knight. sad to see them go.

cover story of the NY Press reports:

While it might not be the end of Soft Skull altogether, by leaving New York, the press will never be the same. After all, Soft Skull is the quintessential New York City indie press. Born in a Greenwich Village copy shop in the early ’90s, a birth that reeks of Reality Bites-style angst and passion in a still-affordable Manhattan where poets, musicians and anarchists ran amok, the press published progressive books and wasn’t afraid to get dirty.

and the NY Observer quotes a critical Nash:

In an interview, Mr. Nash praised Ms. Oswald’s efforts at Soft Skull and placed the blame for the closing of the New York office on what he said was Counterpoint’s insufficient commitment to publicity and marketing.

“Anne and Denise were acquiring books that exemplified the Soft Skull spirit,” Mr. Nash said. “But another part of the Soft Skull spirit is the drum banging, and their books weren’t getting the drum beat hard enough for them.”