THE THIRD ELEVATOR: How Madras Press got to publish Aimee Bender
It is rare that I find a publishing house, and a book therein, with which I am so immediately infatuated. But such was the case with Madras Press and their release of Aimee Bender’s, The Third Elevator, a mini-book that went on pre-sale October 1st. As some of you might note, we’ve had the opportunity to work with Aimee, as she was the judge of our recent fiction contest, and we are tremendous admirers of her work. The Third Elevator is a Bender-ian piece to the fullest; from Madras’ site:
The Third Elevator is the story of a swan, a bluebird, the curious family they form together, and the mysterious elevators in the center of their village—one that rises into the sky, one that opens into a forest, and one that descends underground. Other characters include a miner in search of something beyond the walls of his cave, a logger too gentle to chop trees, a team of kleptomaniacal dove nurses, a king with an appetite for turtles, and his queen, the swan’s first owner.
This short book (only 47 small pages) is a delight. Bender has a way of speaking to her readers so that the most hardened cynic amongst (or in us) becomes immersed in a world of fancy, folly, and occasional horror. The Third Elevator is top-notch surrealism, landing somewhere between Saunders and Bolaño while retaining all the qualities—pithiness, intelligence, and clarity—that have garnered Bender a reputation as one of the best living short story writers.
Now, new fiction by Bender is newsworthy in and of itself, but what makes it even more remarkable is the press that put it out. From the Madras website:
Madras Press publishes individually bound short stories and novella-length booklets and distributes the proceeds to a growing list of charitable organizations chosen by our authors.
The format of our books provides readers with the opportunity to experience a story on its own, with no advertisements or unrelated articles surrounding it; it also provides a home for stories that are often arbitrarily ignored by commercial publishing outfits, whether because they’re too long for magazines but not trade-book length, or because they don’t resemble certain other stories. These are clumsy, ill-fitting stories made perfect when read in the simplest possible way.
Published in regular series of four, our books also serve as fundraising efforts for a number of charitable causes and organizations. Each of our authors has selected a beneficiary to which all net proceeds generated from the sales of his or her book will be donated; these include organizations dedicated to environmental protection, community development, human services, and much more.
What can be gleaned from this is that Madras is doing two exceptional things:
1.) Publishing for charity (so, surely, making very little money).
2.) Publishing pieces that might not otherwise be published and turning them into great-looking little books.
Madras is a small endeavor, but their design aesthetic and website set them apart, not to mention their charitable business model. They’ve also given another home to stories of a “peculiar” length. We here at Flatmancrooked do something similar with our New Novella imprint, though our line is a bit more capitalistic, we admit. Nonetheless, it’s refreshing and inspiring to see a small press with such big heart and a commitment to quality, and I hope to see much more from them in the future.
