Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Cafaro.
Hi Dan, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started as a sportswriter and frustrated creative writer. Even my sports editor warned me about trying to be the next Hemingway.
I didn’t pursue life as a novelist. I didn’t have the discipline. I preferred songwriting to long-form narratives. I tried my hand at poetry and playwriting in my 20s and 30s, but I rarely submitted work for publication (pre-Internet days).
I was a perpetual outsider. I didn’t run in the right circles, nor did I know how to identify or join a creative circle. I was a square peg trying to fit in a round hole.
I became a bookseller because I knew how to throw myself into physical work. My journalistic instincts came in handy too. Once I caught a whiff of this literary underworld, I knew I had found a passion and path to an atypical way of living.
I’m not sure I ever found a way to make a solid living at this profession, but I love being a part of this funky subculture and ecosystem. I’ve managed to cobble together enough of an Editorial career to play a minor role in this magical universe. I opened my first bookstore in 1995 (Chapters Revisited), started a publishing house and trade imprint in 2010 (Atticus Books), and finally opened a second brick & mortar in 2022 (Atticus Books & Music).
What a long strange trip it’s been!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My primary struggle was believing in myself as a writer. I turned to editing because it paid the bills and I truly enjoy collaborating with people.
As a print and digital media professional. I’ve written, edited, and published papers, periodicals, and books in a wide range of industries, from Human Resources and employment law to aerospace engineering and data analytics.
Literature is my departure from the corporate structure. It’s a dark road filled with potholes and detours. It has gotten my playful inner child where he needs to go.
I’ve worn many hats along this journey, from driver to passenger to roadside mechanic. (Enough metaphors for you? Do you see why I stopped dreaming of being the next Jack Kerouac and started dreaming of being the next Maxwell Perkins?)
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I like to think of myself as a change agent or agent provocateur, but that sounds so pretentious. I like to get projects off the ground. I like to direct the show and defer to all the experts along the way.
I have no deep and developed knowledge of any one area, but I do know how to take initiatives from A to Z. I know how to assess talent and I know how to push the envelope just far enough to create a stir.
My unofficial title for Atticus Books & Music is CIO, chief imagination officer. Again, it sounds like a lofty self-evaluation, but I’d like to think I earned it. Chief pot stirrer also fits.
Professionally, I’m most proud of the friends and colleagues I’ve met and grown to love and admire along the way. It’s remarkable how many wildly talented people I have worked with and come to know. From production managers, marketing gurus, and distributors to editors, graphic designers and proofreaders, it truly takes a village to create sustainable publications.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Wow. I’m influenced and informed by so much stuff that it’s hard to narrow it all down to a digestible list.
My core bookstore team consists of three individuals—Denise, Carmen, and Robin—who share book-related information daily. We all love Ann Patchett. She inspires us, of course, with her writing and her weekly book reviews. I’m also enamored by her success as a bookseller.
Other writers-booksellers who amaze me with their creative wizardry, energy, and wealth of knowledge include Emma Straub, Jonathan Lethem, and Kevin Sampsell.
Bookshop.org founder Andy Hunter motivates me on an entrepreneurial level, so I’m always trying to pay attention to what he’s doing next.
The Marc Maron WTF podcast keeps me entertained with celebrity guests, as does the Club Random podcast with Bill Maher whom people love to hate. Comedians are my antidote to this broken matrix, as are musicians like Nick Cave (The Red Hand Files) and writers like Nick Hornby (“Stuff I’ve Been Reading” for The Believer magazine).
Now that I’ve dove headfirst into music with the record shop and listening room (Atticus Music), I watch Tubi music documentaries just about every night. My latest obsession is a 1979 album recently discovered by a record collector and reissued on a cool label (Light in the Attic Records). It’s called Dreamin’ Wild by Donnie & Joe Emerson. The documentary stars Casey Affleck.
I typically don’t read contemporary bestsellers, which is a trait that doesn’t bode too well as a bookseller. Instead I love to delve into the works of small press writers like Dave Newman, Lori Jakiela, Lee Klein, Randall DeVallance, and a multitude of others.
I’ve long loved beat poets (Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti), surrealism and gritty realism (Albee and Mamet), satire (Vonnegut), McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and the writings of Dave Eggers. Pitchfork is solid for album reviews, as is Largehearted Boy.
Finally, Barrelhouse magazine (Dave Housley, Dan Brady, et al) and Gargoyle (Richard Peabody) continue to produce compelling lit that I first stumbled upon while living in the DC suburbs, where I founded Atticus.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://atticusbooks.net
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/officialatticusbooks
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/atticusbooks
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/atticusbooks
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/atticusbooks
- Substack: https://substack.com/@atticushouseofquirk
