Short stories. Travel writing. Comics. And now infographics? In a visual twist, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has announced it will release The Best American Infographics in fall 2013, a book that will mark the first image-driven title in the house’s well known anthology series. Talking Heads frontman David Byrne will be writing an introduction to the book, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gareth Cook will be editing the collection.
Cook, who edits Scientific American’s Mind Matters neuroscience blog, struck the deal with HMH without an agent. The publisher said the book will feature images ranging from a global map charting Twitter activity to images that indicate how certain people describe themselves on online dating profiles, specific to their geographic location. Deanna Urmy, executive editor at HMH, elaborated, saying the book “capitalizes on the rise of data visualizations, often thought-provoking and beautiful, across all media” and its images “reveal patterns and aspects of our lives and world in ways that just haven't been available to us before.”
