HOT AUTHORS SERIES // Part 5: Literary Agent Erin Hosier Gives Us the Insider Scoop

If you're keeping track, you know we've already featured four of the panelists who'll be joining us tonight for our panel discussion and party team-up with Canteen Magazine.

To recap, we've got Christopher Kouloris, Tao Lin, Fiona Maazel, and Stephen Pierson. Now we bring you our fifth and final: Literary agent Erin Hosier.

Hosier's been an agent for 10 years now, with four years at Dunow, Carson & Lerner so she's witnessed significant changes in the industry. Recently, she decided to put some of her industry knowledge to work and publish a memoir of her own: "It's about the death of my father, and daddy issues, and daddy-daughter, and relationships"--but she found time to talk to us about what she does as an agent and how it became her path.

"I moved to New York, like everyone does, and I got a job at Ms. Magazine," Hosier says. "It was crazy! It was so much drama and so stressful. They paid us in galleys of books, so I picked up Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner. It's a book about writing and editing. I read it and thought, I really want to be working with books." Hosier went on to work for Lerner herself before become an agent. 

She works mostly with nonfiction, particularly memoirs. "I'm a total voyeur," she says. She loves the little glimpses into other people's lives that the genre provides, from the benign to the traumatic. And luckily for her, it's an area that's faring a little better than fiction. "The industry changed after 2008," she says. "For a novel, if you're lucky, you get a $10,000 advance. It's really hard." Hosier says the days of the superstar editor are no more, and money is hard to come by. She says a lot of the good writers are going to TV, and the books that are making money are those that are celebrity-driven or prepackaged, ghost-written series. "It's all so Hollywood now." 

Although she may sound jaded by industry, Hosier's respect for writers has gone unchanged--even moreso now that she's in the process herself. She talks about the immense talent that comes into her agency, and how frustrating it is that not everyone can get a deal, even if they do everything right. "I think the Hot Authors panel is about how to sex things up a little. The industry needs to be a little sexier," she says.

Hopefully having passionate insiders fighting the good fight on behalf of writers will help a little too.

--Layla Schlack

HOT AUTHORS SERIES // Part 4: Canteen Magazine Publisher Stephen Pierson Cashes In Poker Chips For Literary Gold

Pierson -- Courtesy: Canteen Mag

We said it once and we'll say it again:

Tonight from 7-11pm we're joining forces with Canteen Magazine to host a panel discussion and partyto celebrate their new issue, which pairs 16 amazing authors with 16 premier photographers. The event is part of the Brooklyn Book Festival, which culminates Sunday at Brooklyn Borough Hall with a bunch of great events. 

Publisher Stephen Pierson used his online poker winnings to found Canteen.  In the first two issues, the magazine boasted contributions from Salinger-bait Joyce Maynard, playwright Gina Gionfriddo, and novelist Andrew Sean Greer.

Now, for its seventh issue, Canteen has chosen a "Hot Authors" theme, trying to give writers the credit they deserve for their sexy similes and wanton word choice. To get you primed for the event, we asked Pierson some very intimate questions.  Why don't you slip into something more comfortable and read on...

3W: So you're ahead of the curve.  In this awful job market, many college graduates have been forced to neglect traditional templates of success and build their own path.  But you did that before it was even cool (before the NYTimes wrote an article about it).  Did you always know that your journey would be unconventional or did you once have a "life plan"?

SP: All this random meddling in the arts, and lack of a definable career arc, was quite compelling when I was in my 20's.  Now, in my 30's, it casts a slightly ominous shadow.  That said, I do feel blessed to not have to commute during rush our, or be chastised for taking a long lunch.  And I also feel fortunate that, in my 20's, I backed into poker as a means to support all this meddling.

3W: You went to Brown, but can you tell us a little bit more about your background? Where'd you grew up?

SP: I grew up near Hartford, CT.  Suburbs, malls, and non-ironic baseball caps everywhere.  I engaged in every mod of menial labor imaginable in order to fund weekend trips to NYC.

3W: We're always impressed by people who have great ideas and then, instead of just talking about them, actually make them happen.  What has been essential to the success of the magazine and what advice would you give to somebody trying to undertake a similar project?

SP: The key to any successful arts/literary joint venture is to know a lot of smart people who have too much free time.  How is success measured in the world of arts/literary journals?  Simply persisting, I guess, is a start. Which comes down to both effort and funding.  Over the years I've seen so many worthwhile projects abandoned due to a lack of funding.  We don't live in a pure world.  Or Scandinavia.  And I think many people launching projects forget to devote time to fundraising.  We've worked hard at that aspect.  And, as I mentioned, the poker thing put us in a very fortunate spot for a while.

3W: Kudos on spearheading the campaign for turning writers into rockstars with the "Hot Authors" theme. How did you choose the authors involved?

SP: We wanted a broad range of young -- under 40 (my definition of "young" keeps changing as I get older) -- writers whose work we like, and who might photograph well.  We wanted to reflect NYC writers, but not be an exclusively New York-based project.  So we commissioned photo shoots in San Francisco, Chicago, Virginia, Los Angeles, and even one in Mumbai.  It's healthy to occasionally remind ourselves there exists a world outside of Manhattan and Brooklyn.

3W: What's the hottest thing you've ever read?

SP: There is a surprisingly hot scene in Gravity's Rainbow, involving a sexy double-agent dominatrix from Holland.  It's so hot and well-written that the more disturbing aspects of the scene (some excruciatingly detailed Coprophilia) become turn-ons.

3W: If you weren't publishing Canteen, what would be doing?

SP: Either playing more poker, or slaving away as an underpaid, overworked, and unhealthily cynical editor at a large publishing house.

-- Margaux Weisman

HOT AUTHORS SERIES // Part 3: Fiona Maazel on Writing, Her New Novel and Thistles in Love

Photo: Tobias Everke

Tonight from 7-11pm we're joining forces with Canteen Magazine to host a panel discussion and party to celebrate their new issue, which pairs 16 amazing authors with 16 premier photographers. The event is part of the Brooklyn Book Festival, which culminates Sunday at Brooklyn Borough Hall with a bunch of great events.

We've already featured two of the panelists who'll be partying with us tonight, Christopher Kouloris and Tao Lin, and here's a third: Fiona Maazel.

She's the author of 2008's Last Last Chance, which, in addition to being receiving praise from the likes of the New York Times, Slate, the Boston Globe and Time Out New York, also earned her the Bard Fiction Prize and a place on the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" list. According to the Times: "Last Last Chance' isn’t your average novel, thanks in no small part to Maazel’s funny, lacerating prose. The book fits squarely in the tradition of novels about the wealthy and dissolute, but ultimately it's less John Cheever than Denis Johnson — the Denis Johnson of "Jesus' Son," with its drug-addled narrators — though Maazel’s voice is more caffeinated, more fueled by attitude."

We caught up with Maazel to talk about her second novel, Woke Up Lonely, which she just recently finished. 

"It's about a cult leader, his ex-wife, and the four people he takes hostage," she says. "It takes place over a four-day Waco-type siege situation, and tracks the fate of all six people. But really the book is about loneliness, which I guess is an obsession of mine. Loneliness! Is it congenital or acquired? Is there anything that can roll back on solitude besides narrative? Does companionship help at all? There's a good deal about North Korea in the novel (the loneliest country on earth, of course), about cloud seeding and labial reconstruction, gambling and the NSA, cancer and a city under the city of Cincinnati."

Since Canteen's new issue and tonight's discussion looks at the waning role of writers as cultural icons or "rock stars," we thought we'd ask Maazel for her take on the subject. "I think it's fine that writers have lost their glam status, though I wouldn't mind being fawned over in this way," she says. "I certainly remember myself as recently as the late nineties falling to pieces when X, Y, or Z writer walked into the room. Imagine having that effect! Well, I'm kidding. What really depresses me is that literature appears to be losing its relevance and power to arbitrate or even influence the discourse. If no one cares who I am, okay. If no one cares what I write, that's disheartening. If no one cares what my heroes write, that is disastrous."

In addition to her novels, Maazel has written for publications including the New York Times Book Review, Bomb, N+1, the Village Voice and Salon. When she's not writing she makes whimsical short movies, which you can watch over on her website. "My favorite movie is probably the first one I ever made, of giant thistle in Marfa, Texas," she says. "I was there working on my first novel, and often just stared out the window at these huge thistle balls rolling down the street. So I had the idea they were in love because of the to and fro of their coupling in the wind. And I went from there."

What's next for Maazel now that she's finished her second novel? "Another one, of course."

Catch Fiona Maazel tonight at Hot Authors, right here at 3rd Ward. The panel discussion will be followed by the party, with live music by Year of the Tiger and Gunfight, DJs and complimentary drinks from Manhattan Cocktail Classic.

-- John Ruscher

HOT AUTHORS SERIES // Part 2: The Unbearable Lightness of Tao Lin

Tao Lin as seen by Brea Souder for Canteen

On Friday, September 16th, we're teaming up with Canteen Magazine to throw a party and panel discussion celebrating their latest issue, which pairs 16 white-hot authors with 16 renowned photographers. Running up to that awesome event (which is part of the Brooklyn Book Festival), we're profiling some of the fine folks who'll be in attendance.

In Part I we kicked things off with Scallywag and Vagabond editor Christopher Kouloris. For Part 2, we turn to Brooklyn-based author Tao Lin.

We think it's safe to say that there is no other writer quite like Lin, who's been called everything from "a Kafka for the iPhone generation" and a "deadpan literary trickster" to a "world-class perpetrator of gimmickry" and "perhaps the single most irritating person we've ever had to deal with." And that last one came from Gawker.

Such colorful and varied descriptions stem from that fact that Lin is can often be hard to pin down. For instance, when we asked him what him about the subject of his next novel (which might be titled Taipei, Taiwan or Siddartha II), he responded, "It's about my experience of life."  More of this overall amazingness after the jump.

He elaborated a bit more for the Wall Street Journal:

"A 25-year-old has a failed relationship, experiences drug-induced 'depression,' gets married, and feels like his life has taken on a forward movement toward death," Mr. Lin explained in an email. "I predict I'll spend more time on this book than any previous book and view it as my 'magnum opus.'"

He was also more forthcoming when we asked about his recently-inked deal with Vintage:

I'm delighted they want to publish my next novel. Vintage is my "first choice," I think (actually Knopf is but they're closely associated; I think they're the paperback division of Knopf or something like that). I didn't think either would make an offer and felt excited when Vintage did. I've felt strongly attracted to Vintage's brand since before I knew what they were exactly, in 1999 or 2000, I think. I've felt comforted in life and distracted from despair by holding and reading and thinking about paperbacks of Lorrie Moore's LIKE LIFE and Joy Williams' HONORED GUEST and other books from Vintage. 

Lin already has two poetry books, two novels, a novella and a story collection under his belt. His most recent is Richard Yates, a novel that the Boston Globe described as having "the effect of putting a red butterfly behind glass: detached but brighter."

Since Canteen asked Lin about the hottest thing he's ever read, we thought we'd ask him the opposite. What's the least hot thing he's ever read? "Maybe ingredients for prepackaged carbs or 'fast food' items."

Can't exactly argue with that.

You can read Lin's "Relationship Story", which was recently published in Vice Magazine, and follow him via not one, but two Twitter accounts: @tao_lin and @tao_linunedited. His new novel is expected in 2013 (or um, 2014.)

-- John Ruscher

HOT AUTHORS SERIES // Part 1: Christopher Koulouris Brings Humanity to Celeb Gossip

Photo: Kevin LewOn Friday, September 16th, we're teaming up with Canteen Magazine to celebrate the launch of their latest issue. For issue #7, Canteen's paired 16 white-hot authors with 16 renowned photographers, a number of which will be in attendance for a panel discussion and (of course) a party--get all the details here. To get you better acquainted, we'll be running profiles on a handful of the contributors & presenters. 

In Part 1, we talk to Chief Editor at Scallywag & Vagabond, Christopher Koulouris.

Most Wall Street traders don't seem to hold aspirations of the literary kind. Though after Christopher Koulouris retired from the trading floor in 2003 (when he was 36 years old, no less) he began dabbling in writing. Cut to 2008 when Koulouris founded pop culture site, Scallywag & Vagabond.

“I was kind of a dilletante,” he says. “I traveled a lot. I wrote. I was invited to be part of a sort of cultural collective, and I started really seeing their thought process.” Feeling like he wanted to pursue some kind of writing, he asked a friend of his, an editor at a men’s fashion magazine, what the next big thing was going to be. The answer? Celebrity gossip, of course.

But Koulouris didn’t want to do the traditional, sensational tabloid racket. “Whatever I do, it has to be art. I have to be a writer,” he tells us. So when he devised Scallywag & Vagabond, his goal was to create a site that not only reported the gossip, but would simultaneously try and investigate the societal forces that influenced it. Koulouris has no problem poking fun, as long as that’s not the end of the story. He wants to inject humanity into his subject matter--and he’s quick to remind anyone who asks that celebrities are, in fact, humans.

“As a trader, we looked at trends,” he explains. Obviously, news and gossip sites rely upon trends. They (and our interest in them) are part of larger cultural shifts and mores, and those are what really grabs Koulouris. In short, he’s not just out for a cheap laugh or an optimized, if inaccurate, headline that's sole purpose is to grab page views.

Next on his agenda: To launch a TV channel, his idea of the thinking man’s E! Network. Given his success already in careers number one and two, we feel that shouldn't be a problem.

-- Layla Schlack