Welcome to the pilot episode of IndieVoices, the new podcast I host for Foreword Reviews. The genesis for this came about after the results of the last presidential election in which, you may have heard, many communities were marginalized. I’m not only talking about immigrants, the LGBTQ community, the disabled, women, African Americans, and religious minorities, but also facts, themselves. It seemed to me that our readers, including many librarians and publishers of small niche presses, felt particularly outraged and harmed by Election 2016.

So, I launched our IndieVoices series of commentaries, asking indie publishers to write op-eds for us about where we go from here. I received some wonderfully thoughtful, passionate pieces from authors and publishers representing, among others, the LGBTQ community, diversity in children’s books, immigrants, and the Jewish community.

These and other commentaries were very successful not only because they gave our readers a better sense of the communities served by many indie publishers, but they provided catharsis to these writers. Turning IndieVoices into a podcast sounded like the next logical step. Indie publishers and authors have a great deal to teach us.

Please enjoy the pilot linked below. It features my interview with librarian Anna Gooding-Call, who discusses how libraries should react to plagues like “alternative facts.” I also talk to Rachel Haimowitz, publisher of Riptide Publishing, on LGBTQ literature; and Ilan Stavans, publisher of Restless Books, on the role of immigrants in America and his discovery of Cuban science fiction. Also featured is a book review by Claire Rudy Foster and Tony Medina reads from his powerful new graphic novel about police brutality called I Am Alfonso Jones.

Interlochen Public Radio here in Northern Michigan kindly loaned us their studio to record this episode; and my son, Max Lovy, composed some of the transition music.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/314724652&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false

If you don’t have an hour to spend, you can listen to individual interviews at the links below:

Librarian Anna Gooding-Call Talks ‘Alternative Facts’

Restless Books Publisher Ilan Stavans on Immigrant Writing

Riptide Publisher Rachel Haimowitz Talks LGBTQ Books

You can also subscribe to all our IndieVoices podcast episodes on iTunes, Google Play, and Soundcloud.

Howard Lovy is executive editor at Foreword Reviews. You can follow him on Twitter @Howard_Lovy

Howard Lovy
May 10, 2017

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