Category: literary life
Tayari Jones, the author of The Untelling and Leaving Atlanta, contributes a guest column over at Conversational Reading about her experiences publicizing her books.
[T]his time, I have been packaged as a ‘black’ writer. I have been assigned an African-American publicist who knows her market. Right out of the box, I was featured in Essence magazine, prompting about a zillion hits to my website. (With Leaving Atlanta I was reviewed in People and nobody cared.) Shortly after the piece was published, I gave a reading in Birmingham at Jefferson State Community College where I met an African American woman named Donna. After my reading, Donna took me more or less door to door at the university and announcing to every black woman on campus: ‘This is the author who was in Essence!’ Each woman whipped out her checkbook and purchased at least one copy of each book, no questions asked.
This is not to say that I have only promoted my books at ‘black’ events. Sometimes I feel like I went on two book tours at once. It’s almost like I am living a double life. I hired an independent publicist Lauren Cerand, an Anglo-American, who has done a fantastic job of booking me in a more ‘general’ market. Here’s an example:
When planning my trip to New York City, Lauren booked me at Bluestockings on the Lower East Side, where I read with Maud Newton. There were about fifteen people in attendance. All white, except my good friend Doug and my student Eve. The next day, thanks to my African American publicist, I read at Chocolat martini lounge in Harlem. There were about thirty people there. All black except for Lauren. I sold a lot more books in Harlem. Even the waitresses bought copies since I agreed to wait until they had accumulated tips enough to make the purchase. Both were great events, but my experience on the road has really shown me that there are (at least) two Americas.
The House has blocked a provision from the Patriot Act that made it easier for federal investigators to review library and bookstore records by merely citing national security. Meanwhile, the U.S. government says that detainees can be held at the Guantanamo Bay base “in perpetuity” without charges or trial.
As has been widely reported, Edward P. Jones has won the IMPAC Dublin award for The Known World, a book that was a favorite of mine last year. The Scotsman has an article about the book and the author.
Mr Jones, who received a standing ovation as he collected his award, said receiving the prize was ‘great, it’s wonderful, I never expected it’.
He said he had only got off a plane from the US a few hours earlier to attend the award ceremony at Dublin’s City Hall.
Damian McNicholl, with whom I had the pleasure to read at BookExpo’s Emerging Voices Panel, is interviewed over at Scott Esposito’s Conversational Reading. Here he is, talking about the voice for the novel:
The novel’s voice was tricky and something I really had to think very hard about when I started to write the book. Gabriel is very young when the novel opens and I wanted to capture precisely the thoughts and knowledge a very intelligent boy growing up in a rural environment would possess as he develops. I wanted the narration and dialogue to portray the boy’s innocence and growth in awareness as he matures, but I had to be careful because the book is intended for an adult audience and thus had to be sophisticated and credible simultaneously.
Speaking of BEA, you can go here to see what I looked like the day of the reading (disclaimer: 2 hours of sleep.) And here’s a group picture at the book bloggers’ panel.
Salon is starting a new series this week, in which they ask their “favorite writers” to read books they’ve always meant to read but never did, and talk about them. The first piece is by their resident critic, Laura Miller, who chose Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
I chose “War and Peace” for my Summer School assignment because my friend Sallie had given me the idea that — contrary to its reputation as the quintessential unfinished summertime reading project — the novel was something of an old-fashioned page turner, like “Our Mutual Friend.” This is not, strictly speaking, true. There are several long, detailed battle scenes and frequent expository interludes — essays on military strategy, history and the nature of free will — that make for some pretty heavy sledding. Instead, this is a book that, like a capricious wind with a sailboat, picks you up and sends you scudding along at an exhilarating clip then suddenly subsides into a lull.
The list of classics I’ve never read includes War and Peace, actually, so Miller’s essay was of particular interest. The trouble with some of these books is that I’m not even sure whether I read them or not. They seem familiar, and I’m never sure if the familiary is because I’ve read them or just read about them.
The stories and writers chosen for the New Yorker’s annual debut fiction have been announced. They are Uwem Akpan, Karen Russell, and Justin Tussing. You can read Akpan’s story online.
Link via Maud.
