L.A. Times Interviews John O’Brien of Dalkey Archive Press

n an extensive two-part interview, John O’Brien talks about the mission behind Dalkey Archive Press, what the internet has done to literature, and his take on the best literature produced in the last five years.

“…all I can say is that there are books, fiction as well as nonfiction, that I like, and that is what I publish. These books, with few exceptions, seem to be as out of fashion today as they were nearly 30 years ago. I suppose I feel less isolated today than I did back then, but only God knows why. Perhaps I’m too old to feel isolated, perhaps one has to have a sense of a long future ahead to feel the isolation I did back then.

“Well, over 10 years ago, someone accused me of running the press as though it were a museum, and I thought at the time, “Exactly!” I wanted to create a constellation of books that would endure time, realizing full well that the audience for such books would develop slowly but that I would keep all of them in print, no matter how they were selling year to year.”

Read part one or part two of the interview at the L.A. Times.