Not long after leaving Orion Pictures in the early '90s, where he was the marketing manager on such films as Babette's Feast and Wings of Desire, Laurie Lane-Zucker cofounded the Orion Society, publisher of Orion magazine, a publication devoted to advancing socially, environmentally and ecologically conscious debate. Orion also published a few books, quite successfully: Wendell Berry's In the Presence of Fear has sold more than 50,000 copies. Last week, Lane-Zucker's new publishing imprint ("I wanted to have more flexibility"), Triad Books, based in Great Barrington, Mass., launched its first title: David James Duncan's God Laughs and Plays:Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right. Already, the book is #5 on the PNWBA list, with 16,000 copies in print. "Word-of-mouth is extraordinary on this title," said Lane-Zucker. "Booksellers tell me that people are coming back—both the church-going and the churchless, people who feel very passionately that the Christian right has hijacked religion and corrupted our nation's standing in the world." Author Duncan already has a loyal readership—he wrote the much-beloved paean to fly fishing, The River Why. But the quick success of this book is perhaps owing to Lane-Zucker's faith in independent booksellers. "I spent two months working the phones and e-mailing independents. As always, they've responded." Triad is distributed by Itasca Books out of Minneapolis.
—Michael Coffey
Delta Blues & Books
Jamie Kornegay's commendable job as events coordinator and frontlist buyer at Square Books in Oxford, Miss., caught the attention of the right person, and late last year he was invited to open a bookstore in the Delta town of Greenwood.
The invitation came from Fred Carl Jr., president of the Viking Range Corporation, who began generating Greenwood's downtown revival three years ago. Kornegay, who co-owns the store with Carl, launched Turnrow Book Co. in a 2,000-sq.-ft. site adjacent to the Alluvian, a hotel owned by Carl, in January until a building twice that size across the street could be renovated. A summer moved is planned.
"In addition to having strong sections for the blues and Southern literature, I also want to do much more with cooking," said Kornegay, "since Viking Range's nationally known cooking school brings lots of people to town."
—Bob Summer
