On October 15, Black Balloon Publishing will release Come Here Often? 53 Writers Raise a Glass to Their Favorite Bar, an essay anthology edited and compiled by writer Sean Manning. The book features essays from author Ishmael Reed, musician Andrew W.K., novelists Alissa Nutting, Jim Shepard, Laura Lippman and many, many more, all discussing their beloved watering holes.
Manning, who holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the New School and is executive editor of United Airlines' Rhapsody magazine, had the idea for an anthology about bars since 2011. That summer, two iconic New York City bars, Mars Bar in the East Village and Elaine's on the Upper East Side, closed within a few months of each other. Mars Bar was an infamous dive, while Elaine's was a sophisticated joint that had been a frequent gathering place for celebs like George Clinton, Norman Mailer and Woody Allen. Despite going to Mars Bar only once and never setting foot in Elaine's, Manning, at the time in his 10th summer as a New York City resident, was very unhappy about the two closures.
"It struck me that these two bars epitomized two very different New Yorks," Manning said. "They were essential to the fabric of the city."
Manning began to ruminate on bars: he considered how important they'd been for him ("bookmarks in my life"); the hand-in-hand nature of writers and watering holes; and how it seemed increasingly that bars were some of the last refuges of real person-to-person interaction and communication in an increasingly digitized time. He started shopping around the idea of an essay anthology about writers and bars at various publishers, but found no suitors until he came to Black Balloon Publishing, an independent literary press in New York.
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| Sean Manning | |
"It was sort of serendipitous," said Manning. "Much the same as these bars, they cultivate a community of like-minded people. They embrace the weird and unwieldy. They just want quality. There's no other place I'd rather be."
Manning then began reaching out to would-be contributors. He had worked with several of them on previous projects and brought them in--"I felt like I was Wes Anderson and they were my coterie of actors," he remarked--before reaching out to a wish list of others. He was thrilled by the enthusiastic responses.
"I'm always surprised when people say yes," Manning said, laughing. "Especially when the caliber of writers I'm going after is so high. I think it speaks more to their passion for the topic."
Although Manning was unable to pick a favorite essay in the collection--he likened it to choosing a favorite kid--he did point to a number of highlights: he was particularly drawn to essays that went outside of his own personal experience, such as Ishmael Reed's contribution about the African-American community on the Lower East Side in the 1960s and '70s and Hunter Slaton's essay about working in a bar in Antarctica.
Manning will host a launch party for the book at Union Pool, a "notorious" dive bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that has been around for more than a decade, on October 14. Scott Raab and Elissa Schappell, two of the book's contributors, will be there as well.
"We went back and forth between a couple of locations," recalled Manning. "Rather than do it in an event space or a bookstore, we decided to do it in a straight-up bar."
At the moment, New York is the only stop on the Come Here Often? tour, but Manning and Black Balloon Publishing have created a micro-site where visitors can post pictures of and stories about their own favorite bars around the world. Manning commented: "Hopefully it turns into a collective that grows and grows and grows." --Alex Mutter