“I know that glory is where I will live and I will give my life to it,” exclaims a titular character in Ursula K. Le Guin’s novella, “Hernes.”
“Hernes” was first published in 1991 as the final work in a collection of short stories, entitled “Searoad.” The collection centered around the people of a fictional town in coastal Oregon, called Klatsand.
The book’s closing novella is one of the author’s more personal works. Described simply as “repackaging,” the Port Townsend-based Winter texts is releasing a stand-alone edition of this quintessential Le Guin work of fiction.
Winter texts’ publisher and Port Townsend resident Conner Bouchard-Roberts described “Hernes” as extraordinary, however, he felt like it “got lost in the mix.”
“I read ‘Searoad’ and I enjoyed it, but by the time I got to ‘Hernes,’ I was kind of winded,” he said. “As a stand-alone story it has everything. It has a slow build. It has various story arcs, set in sections, multiple characters…”
“It’s a Northwestern story,” Bouchard-Roberts explained. “It takes place on the western edge just after colonization so there’s a lot of ghosts of our past.”
Billed on the Winter texts website as “an overlooked masterpiece by one of the greatest writers of the Pacific Northwest,” Le Guin picturesquely wrote “Hernes” – illustrating with words the characteristic weather, the lush green interior, the sprawling coastline and rocky shores of our home.
“The wind blows in and there’s a lot of open space on the water and you can get lost in the trees, lost in thought,” the publisher said of the book. “It feels very relevant to the idea of a Northwestern literary canon.”
After re-typing the story from the original steel plates used in its first publication and after proofing, editing, and formatting, “Hernes” went to print early February.
Winter texts printed 75 copies of which most have already sold. Port Townsend’s Imprint Bookstore has almost sold the dozen or so copies they received. The remaining copies will be distributed to bookstores around the Puget Sound and Salish Sea area.
“It’s largely just me running this with a few editors as well,” the publisher explained.
He started Winter texts five years ago in Seattle. Winter texts moved around as he did, publishing stories from around the world.
The venture has settled, for now, in his hometown of Port Townsend.
Winter texts operates on a smaller scale and takes a more personal approach to publishing than most mass publishers.
Believing that “every book is a culmination of a long and winding conversation of author and world,” this local publisher doesn’t use ISBNs nor major distribution channels.
Instead, the books they publish are distributed by hand or basic mail to people, homes, and booksellers across the world.
Bouchard-Roberts claims there is a magic to finding stories. Winter text books are intended to change hands, meet readers, spark conversations.
Aside from the Le Guin, a few more books are already lined up for publication in 2021, including a poetry collection from a Harvard anthropologist and a science-fiction epic by a local author.
To snag a coveted copy of “Hernes” or to discover what Winter texts is bringing to life next, visit wintertexts.com.
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March 19, 2021 at 12:19AM
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Local publisher releases Le Guin novella - Port Townsend Leader
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