Behind the Story of ‘Here is Berlin’

“Here is Berlin” is J.M. Stim’s extensive essay on the German capital, a city that has always been an entity unto itself, a magical, enigmatic metropolis like Paris or New York, where someone can disappear and metamorphose into a completely different persona.  Stim modeled “Here is Berlin” on E.B. White’s “Here is New York” and had a tough time getting it published.  He had consulted with 6 prominent European publishers in 2011, only one of whom expressed any interest in his work.  Stim knows a few things about publishing.  He’s founder and former publisher of Datum, a political and literary monthly in Vienna.  He’d already put out one book with an established publisher, but after dealing with the rejection of “Here is Berlin,” he did what many writers are doing these days: he published the book himself.  And, as many writers have experienced, it turned out better for him.  “Here is Berlin” already has been published in 3 languages.  Stim has relocated to the United States and, in this editorial, describes his newest adventures with trying to find an intellectual audience amidst a readership that seems to crave voluptuous vampires.