Public Books Update Newsletter
Dear Friends,
We are delighted to announce our selection of the studio Common Name to design the new dedicated www.publicbooks.org website, scheduled to launch June 1, 2012. Studio founders Yoonjai Choi and Ken Meier are amazingly talented young professionals and we are thrilled to have them as collaborators on the first major initiative from Public Culture Editor Eric Klinenberg and his team. If you haven't yet, we invite you to view Common Name's proposal here, where you can also read more about the designers. We think you'll agree that, on the evidence of this bold and brilliantly elegant solution, Yoonjai and Ken indisputably took to heart the editorial office's brief to start us off with "something beautiful and evocative and maybe even excessive"—we certainly look forward to working with them to build on and refine this exciting vision.
Our sincere thanks goes to everyone who took time out to view the three proposals produced last December as part of our innovative web-design charrette, and especially to those who contributed to the online Preview Discussion page and the live Presentation & Discussion event, including our guest critics and moderator. Finally, we remain tremendously grateful to Other Means and Rumors, the other two outstanding young design teams who participated in the charrette. We learned a great deal from their creative and provocative proposals, and clearly we had a difficult decision to make: each of the submissions had its strengths—as well as its champions—and in particular the cutting-edge commenting functionality developed by these teams significantly shaped our discussions about how best to facilitate interactivity online, discussions that will continue to contribute to the evolution of the website from preliminary design to full launch.
In the months leading up to the full launch of the Public Books site we will continue to offer material in preview form at www.publicculture.org. Freshly posted is a fantastic set of short essays devoted to Amy Waldman's 2011 novel The Submission, a "virtual roundtable" that grew out of our live event last October. Check it out here, along with these recent multi-book reviews:
- David Henkin on Four New Novels and Memoirs about Sex as Marketable Good
- Bruce Robbins on 1Q84, Zone One, and America Pacifica
Look out in early April for a newsletter announcing the release of issue 24.1, the new editorial team's print debut. Meanwhile, all the best from everyone at Public Culture!