James’ novel Up in Ontario is reviewed in Prairie Fire magazine.
Here’s the review:
http://www.prairiefire.ca/reviews/sherrett_j.html
Sometime about 1996 James and a group of friends (I tagged on the next season) were frustrated by literary magazines of the time. In particular, we were all frustrated that the venues for new authors and new writing seemed to be reserved for already published authors. It seemed to us that already published authors didn’t count as new authors. How did you get published as an author? So Jesse James Press was born, a chapbook press with the mandate to publish good writing from unpublished authors. The authors retained all copyright but granted Jesse James Press the right to publish the work in chapbook form. No royalties were paid and the money the press made went to production and promotion.
James and I worked to get the chapbooks into bookstores, McNally Robinson was amazingly helpful as was the now-defunct Heaven Art and Book Cafe. And we got the works reviewed, Geist and Broken Pencil were the best supporters at the time.
There were 9-12 chapbooks produced over 3 years, 3 of the authors are now published authors, one chapbook won the Chapbook of the Year Award, which was part of the Manitoba Literary Awards, and the whole venture was my introduction to the publishing world.
Now I told you that story so I could tell you this one.
Bloody hell, now we’re reviewed in Prairie Fire. Well, James is. It was Up in Ontario, the chapbook, that won the Chapbook of the Year Award, James was one of the now published authors, and I love everything about the book, which is why I’m so happy others like it too.