A very warm welcome to Intern Michael, who's joining the Overlook publicity team for the summer! Watch for periodic updates from Michael as he discusses what he's been doing as an intern (more than the glamorous world of mailing books and researching media outlets, although that could make for a thrilling blog post...). Below, his trip to hand out postcards about our new book,
On the Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer, at her show in New York City in early June.
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BY MICHAEL GOLDSMITH
Two weeks ago, Overlook visited the theatre--the Lucille Lortel Theatre, that is. During that time, the Lucille (located at 121 Christopher St.) served as a makeshift home for indie-darling and Boston native
Amanda Palmer as she marathon-performed her way through five straight nights as one half of the conjoined twin sister duo
Evelyn Evelyn. Capping off my first full week as a summer intern at Overlook, I had the opportunity to meet and chat with some of Amanda's fans as I provided them with information on our upcoming release
On The Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer during her opening nights.
For those out of the loop, Amanda Palmer came up in the early aughties as one half of now defunct cabaret punk duo The
Dresden Dolls, and has since garnered a cult-like following amongst fans and detractors alike. In 2008 she dropped a solo album titled
Who Killed Amanda Palmer? (Twin Peaks fans take note) and this upcoming July continues to refine her "posthumous" persona with the release of Overlook's
On The Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer, a collection of essays, poems, and illustrations on the "
palmeresque," collected and edited by Rohan Kriwaczek.
For someone like me who possesses only a modest familiarity with Amanda's prodigious artistic career, spending a few hours rubbing elbows with her most devout fans was an educational experience. An
outspoken collective who for the most part responded positively to my solicitations, together we braved Wednesday night's rain storm underneath the Lucille's marquee, waiting patiently for doors to open. Like her own sundry career, Palmer's fanbase reflects a wide array of styles and tastes. In attendance were a diverse group including parents with young children, Brooklyn punks, Wall Street stock brokers, and at least one pair of fully costumed mimes. Their differences aside however, they all shared in common an obsessive fascination with all the details of Palmer's life (including her recent engagement to Neil Gaiman, a hot topic for discussion) and most had already heard about the book before I could even pitch it to them, making my job that much easier.
I returned to Overlook with a newfound appreciation for the loyalty of Amanda's fans and with the hopes that my next out of office assignment falls on a sunnier day.
On the Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer will be released on July 8th and will be available in bookstores and online. In the meantime, visit
http://amandapalmertrust.com to pay your respects and enter a contest to win a free galley copy.
Web Exclusive On the Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer (And the Many Crimes of Tobias James) 
Inspired by the imagined death of the real-life (and living) Amanda Palmer, the front woman for the self-described "Brechtian punk cabaret" band, The Dresden Dolls, Kriwaczek (An Incomplete History of the Art of the Funerary Violin) puts his mischievous faux-scholasticism to work. Presented as an anthology of "Palmeresques," an artistic form of fan response to Palmer's mysterious death, each text offers its own darkly fanciful version of the songstress's demise. Also imagined are a jumble of issues concerning the shady dealings of the Amanda Palmer Trust (APT) selection committee, the possible influence of a murder suspect on their proceedings, and the intervention of the Boston police. A postmodern Russian nesting doll of realities, complete with poems, charts, and censored text, this book is successful on many levels: creepy and fun when accepted at face value; tantalizing when looked at as evidence in a murder mystery; insightful in its commentary on modern celebrity and culture--in all coy, engaging, and delightfully imagined. Illustrations. (Jul.)
