THE ESOPUS READER

Published by Esopus Books (2022). Format: Hardcover book with dustjacket, 6.5 x 9.5 inches, 448 pages.

“BRILLIANT AND HIGHBROW...a handsome collection of writing and exploration of the creative process.”—New York

The Esopus Reader is a representative collection of the fiction, essays, poetry, interviews, and other written material published in the groundbreaking arts publication Esopus over the course of its 25-issue run from 2003 to 2018. 

This anthology includes all 11 installments of Esopus’s “New Voices” series, which debuted short fiction by emerging authors, many of whom have since published highly regarded novels and short-story collections. Also featured here are personal essays that explore particular aspects of the creative processes of figures such as architect Michael Arad, composer Anthony Cheung, author Karl Ove Knausgaard, lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, and chef Jody Williams. 

The Esopus Reader also contains process-related interviews with soap-opera director Larry Auerbach, mathematician John Conway, literary translator Ann Goldstein, writer and director Michael Patrick King, writer and actor Lisa Kudrow, playwright and filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan, game designer Raphael van Lierop, and optician and artist Robert Warner. 

Additional contributions to this volume include poetry by Chantal Bizzini, Jessica Rae Elsaesser, and Nicole Sealey; song lyrics by artist and musician Lonnie Holley; three theatrical monologues by playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis; and considered reflections on subjects including the lyrics of Kurt Cobain, the history of ice cream truck music, the influence of Ouija boards on creativity, the media frenzy surrounding the capture and rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, changing perceptions of Nostradamus over the past 500 years, and the composition of “soundtracks” for television news during wartime.

The eclectic mix of genres, subjects, and styles found here reflects the fundamental mission of Esopus, which was to provide an unmediated, noncommercial forum through which a broad range of creative people could connect directly — and authentically — with a diverse readership from around the world.