A Bookshop Interview with Daniel Sennis

Poet and rhyme-master extraordinaire Daniel Sennis has a funny and scathing new collection out called O Conman! My Conman! Sick Rhymes for Sick Times that is perfect for this fraught and befuddling year, and I asked him to share his favorite bookshop with me. I wasn’t surprised by his pick because it’s one of my favorites too.

Favorite Bookstore: Northshire Bookstore (Saratoga Spring, New York and Manchester, Vermont)

1. How did you discover the shop, and what did you enjoy about your first experience there?

My extended family would often visit Manchester when we had family up from New Jersey. Northshire was the best part of the trip for me. The shop was a wonder. A completely different experience than the little corporate chains in the mall we usually frequented. There was so much to see. Multiple rooms, all spacious, with delightful novelty items spread throughout. At the end, we’d always get something at the cafe. 

In 2013, I was about to move back to Saratoga from New Paltz when I discovered that both Northshire was opening a new location in Saratoga and that Northshire offers self-publishing services. Since I wanted to self-publish a book of humor, I was incredibly excited that I could do so while supporting a business I loved (and having my book in a bookstore I loved). I published my second book with Shires Press this year!  

2. Does the shop have a particular vibe, theme, or atmosphere that stands out?

Grandiose may be too grandiose a term, but, something like that. There’s a lot—bookwise and otherwise, to empty your wallet. 

3. What books have you bought there in the past?

It’s hard for me to remember all of the books I’ve purchased at Northshire. Some recent purchases are The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, Ani Difranco’s memoir No Walls and the Recurring Dream, and Let’s Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson.  

4. Is there a specific part of the shop you run to first, a section that really makes the place unique?

When my son is along, we go straight to the kid’s section, which is the whole upstairs floor. He loves it, though he is mostly enamored by toys at this point. When I can sneak away, I check out YA upstairs and then go down to the first floor and check out the front tables with new releases and bargain books. Then I’ll hit politics and fiction.

A Bookshop Interview with Darrell Epp

Image borrowed from ihearthamilton.ca.

I had the pleasure of meeting Darrell Epp in Troy, NY, when he was on tour earlier in 2019 and I’m glad he took a few minutes to tell us about his favorite bookshop. Take a look, and be sure to check out his books: Imaginary Maps, After Hours, and Sinners Dance.

Favorite Bookshop: The Printed Word (Dundas, Ontario)

My first experience there made me feel the way I'd imagine one feels when uncovering a trunk full of buried pirate's treasure--it was a real thrill to find such a lovely place, with a collection of books obviously curated with so much love and care...Browsing around it is, in a word, fun.

The 'vibe' is clear--James carries ZERO celebrity autobiographies, ZERO self-help books, but there's a great section of film books, theology books, philosophy books, a wild collection of dime novels from the 50's, the best selection of quality children's books you'll ever see, and a whole WALL devoted to poetry--since I write poetry and know how rare it is to see a retailer devoting his/her shelf space to it, I really appreciated that, but also just appreciated having so much great stuff at my fingertips...

I have bought a lot of books there...recently I bought A SMALL KILLING, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Oscar Zarate. Alan Moore is of course most known for writing WATCHMEN, but this book is a more personal work: "…chasing this puddle of piss-coloured light as it skims between flats painted post-war austerity mustard and maisonettes brick-built in scabby-knee burgundy during the macmillan years…through these streets; through this scrapyard of clapped-out utopias; failed social visions that came here to die…these houses are the furniture with which I stock my dreams. Night after night I rearrange them in my sleep…" I also recently purchased Robert Lowell's translation of THE ORESTIEA. I've loved Lattimore's translation for literally decades--it actually changed my life, as one big thing that motivated me to write poetry books was the dim hope that I might someday write something with the incantatory hypnotic effect of that...Lowell translates, not the Greek original, but the Lattimore version, with the aim of it being more stage-ready, able to be performed by modern actors in a single night...the end result is an ORESTEIA that really motors. it's really 'dramatic,' with an irresistible 'page-turner' quality. Also, the characters speak with a bluntness that makes the horror more horrifying...here's a sample, this is of course Cassandra speaking:

No, no, this is a meathouse. God

Hates these people. They have hung the flesh

Of their own young on hooks.

How I envy the nightingale—

When the nightingale died, the gods

Gave her beating wings,

And a bird’s life of song.

My life was, is,

And shall be the edge of the knife.

Ah, Troy, my city, the pitiful, munching

Sheep my father slaughtered by your walls

Were no help at all to save you!

I too with my brain on fire must die.

I do not wish to complain of my death.

What’s life? At best, its sorrows are hardly

More pitiable than its joys. At worst,

One sweep of a wet sponge wipes out the picture.

Hear me. I call upon the sun.

May the sun shine down on our avengers,

And on the final merciful hour of their vengeance.

When the avenge Agamemnon, may they also

Avenge a simple slave who died.

She was a small thing, and carelessly killed…

That is pretty hard to beat! So stop by The Printed Word the next time you're near the western tip of Lake Ontario...Man, I love bookstores!

BIO: Darrell Epp's poems have appeared in over 130 magazines on 6 continents. He is the author of 3 poetry collections: Imaginary Maps, After Hours, and Sinners Dance. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Visit his Amazon page HERE.

Check out Darrell reading HERE.