Photography-Embedded Fiction 2011
December 31, 2011
Here is my annual listing of works of fiction and poetry published during the previous year which contain embedded photographs as part of the textual matter. You can see all of my previous lists here (I’ve recently made additions to the lists for 2006 and 2009). If you know of a book that I have overlooked, please let me know in a comment. [Updated February 7, 2012.]
Alcalay, Ammiel. “neither wit nor gold” (from then). Brooklyn: Ugly Ducking Presse. Paperback original. Contain numerous photographs by the author.
Cortázar, Julio. From the Observatory. Brooklyn: Archipelago. Paperback original. First English translation of Prosa del Observatorio (Barcelona: Editorial Lumen, 1972). Essentially a prose poem, which contains numerous photographs by Cortázar. You can see my post on this book here.
Davis, Lydia. The Cows. Louisville: Sarabande. [Quarternote Chapbook #9]. Paperback original. The text contains 26 photographs of cows by Lydia Davis, Theo Cote, and Stephen Davis. Additional photographs on covers and title page. You can see my previous post on this book here.
Lerner, Ben. Leaving the Atocha Station. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press. Paperback original. Contain five variously credited photographs. You can see my previous post on this book here.
King, Stephen. 11/22/63. NY: Scribner. Contains seven credited historic photographs relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Preston, Caroline. The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt. NY: Ecco. Contains countless photographs.
Shapiro, Elena Mauli. 13, rue Therese. NY: Little Brown. Contains numerous photographs.
January 6, 2012 at 8:57 am
To add to your list – Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. I’ve had this on my ‘to read’ pile for ages, and was only alerted to its relevance by Jeanette Winterson, in her new autobiography. So, I still haven’t read Orlando, but have moved it up the list slightly, and have at least flicked through to verify that there are indeed photographs, and they are used in a somewhat Sebaldian way, I would say, to support a fictional or fictionalised narrative.
January 10, 2012 at 7:27 am
Since you have some notions of French you might be interested in the recently published “Ecorces” from Georges Didi-Huberman. It is a short narrative essay relating a visit at Auschwitz. Each short chapter starts with a picture taken by the narrator and elaborate on it. A Sebald reader should not be completely disoriented…
http://www.leseditionsdeminuit.com/f/index.php?sp=liv&livre_id=2694
January 10, 2012 at 10:22 pm
Jaromil, Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll pick up a copy when I am in Paris in March. The sample looked intriguing.
Terry
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January 29, 2012 at 1:07 pm
After a quick browse through your blog (Great work, by the way) I didn’t see any mention of the American novelist/photographer Wright Morris. His fiction is shamefully much forgotten, and it seems to me his photography is what he’s best remembered for. He did, however, produce three photo-text works. I’ve just finished reading “Home Place” (1948) and think it worth recommending to you – fiction, generously interspersed with photographs that are more than images of what is described. Sebaldian before Sebaldian was cool.
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/27
Best,
January 30, 2012 at 7:58 am
Jonathan, Thanks for the mention of Wright Morris. It’s true I haven’t written about him – yet. But his works are seminal in the history of photo-embedded fiction. You can see my listing of more than 120 books of fiction and poetry that use photographs in my LibraryThing.com catalog, which is under the user name VertigoTwo, where I include Morris’ three works.
Terry
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