Last month Faber and Faber published Blinking With Fists, the first book of poems by Billy Corgan, the singer and songwriter for the defunct rock band Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan is not the only celebrity musician to publish a poetry volume in the past year: Zoo Press published Adult Head, the first book by Jeff Tweedy, lead singer for Wilco, back in March. Although Zoo’s publisher Neil Azevedo would not comment on exact figures, he says that he is pleased with sales of Adult Head. “Our goal with the book all along was to produce something of literary value, not thinking about potential sales,” Azevedo says. “We treat it as we treat our other poetry books; that said, it outsells them considerably.” Although it’s too early to tell how well Corgan’s book will sell—the initial print run was 23,000—the musician is already at work on his second book, a novel.
Christopher Arthur is a freelance writer in New York City.
