Welcome

January 2008 marks the official launch of our publishing program. We have arrived—expect thirty new hardcovers a year over three seasons, paperback editions of our hardcovers, and some paperback originals. In the annual cycle of publishing, we are already well into the preparation of our Fall 2008 list and in the early planning stages of Spring 2009, even as our first books go on sale and our summer books enter final stages of production. As publishers we always work with an eye on the present and our sights on the future—books that are often years away. (We just signed up a book with a delivery date of 2012 . . . ) In the coming months you’ll meet some of our authors on this site whose books aren’t due out for some time, but who have something interesting to weigh in on right now. They will file Dispatches from their far-flung locations—whether it be Beijing or Budapest, the Sudan or Cambodia, New Orleans or a town called Utopia.

This month on our site, Adam Langer, author of Ellington Boulevard, takes us on a tour of the neighborhood around West 106th Street where his novel is set. Catherine Sanderson, aka Petite Anglaise (www.petiteanglaise.com), reports on what January brings to her culturally diverse Parisian neighborhood. Lee Siegel, our favorite outspoken critic and author of Against the Machine, files a shortlist of his favorite books to reread. The roundtable features our talented stable of art directors, who provide insight into the process of jacket design. And no January posting would be complete without a To Do list that seizes this moment of best intentions. Ours comes from none other than Suze Orman, who has a few things she’d like you to take care of so that you—and she—will sleep better this year.

All of us at Spiegel & Grau wish you a year of peace and joy.