The number of independent booksellers in the U.S. is on the rise and thriving according to reports from the American Booksellers Association (ABA) and BookExpo America, the annual convention of the publishing industry which kicks off in New York City this week (May 25-27).
This is great news for hard-working independent bookstore owners like Sharon Wheeler at Purple Crow Books in Hillsborough, North Carolina, a lovely, historic town west of Chapel Hill.
I had the chance to visit her store while passing through the area last week. Wheeler is smart and savvy to have set up shop in downtown Hillsborough, a literary and artistic enclave, which is home to prominent authors Lee Smith, Hal Crowther, Annie Dillard, Allan Gurganus, Frances Mayes, Michael Malone, and Jill McCorkle to name just a few.
The shop is quaint and small, but it is boundless in reflecting Wheeler's passion and enthusiasm for books -- and local writers. Each title stocked on the shelves at the Purple Crow appears carefully selected, and every detail (down to purple feather bookmarks and a whimsical children's book room) is well thought out, reflecting Wheeler's warm and welcoming nature. Clearly, Wheeler takes pride in offering the personal touch, which has obviously contributed to the success of her business. In addition to regular inventory, the Purple Crow features books (many signed) by local and regional authors, sponsors readings and book events by these authors, and eagerly fulfills special order requests.
In the northeast corner of my home state of New Jersey, there are many outstanding independent booksellers, as well. Among them are Shaw's Bookshop (Westwood), BookEnds (Ridgewood), Womrath's (Tenafly) and Books and Greetings (Northvale). Each of these stores regularly hosts events with authors -- notable heavy-hitters and some first-timers. In Montclair, Watchung Booksellers, like the Purple Crow, boasts books and signing events by a diverse crowd of local writers who reside in and around that literary hub.
In this day and age, there is so much talk that the trend in book publishing is veering toward the digital market. Therefore, it's refreshing to witness the dedication of indie booksellers like Sharon Wheeler at the Purple Crow and those in my own local region and around the country who are seeing to it that writers and the printed page remain at the forefront of the industry. Bravo!
Photos (above) of the Purple Crow Bookstore and Sharon Wheeler by Kathleen Gerard (c) 2010
“No person is a cliché. If you actually get to know them (him/her)…there will be many things deep down that are particular to them (each). That’s what I look for.” Lee Smith, interview in the Citizen-Times
The month of May has been declared as National Short Story Month . . . And Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger, a book of new and selected stories by Lee Smith, is a perfect way to celebrate. For me, a satisfying short takes a reader on a journey that lasts for only a short time, but the people one meets and the places one visits linger much, much longer. With that as the criteria, you can sit back and relax with Lee Smith as your literary tour guide.
It's been thirteen years since Smith released a short story collection, and Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger (which, by the way, has nothing at all to do with Jane Austen) was surely worth the wait. Smith's dialogue is spot on, and her narrative voice (in first person p-o-v or third) is as strong as her characters and plots. In each story, Smith peels back layers of the human psyche in order to expose the absurdity of people and situations, entertaining her readers while enlightening them along the way.
I've been a fan of Smith's writing since her first novel, The Last Day the Dog Bushes Bloomed, and I've enjoyed and admired her work ever since. With Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger, Smith has assembled some of the best stories from her previous collections (Cakewalk, Me and My Baby View the Eclipse, and News of the Spirit), and she's included seven new works. As a whole, the theme of "change" is a thread running through each story. In some instances, change has already been inflicted upon the lives of characters and in other stories, change is about to crest. Smith, a true craftsman of the short form, makes all the right decisions in deciding just where and when to start (and end) each piece. She paints with a full palette to flesh out her smart, quirky characters, and she has an incredible gift for dotting the often sad, bittersweet canvas of life with just the right strokes of humor.
In an interview in Indyweek, Smith recently spoke to that point: "I consider myself a realist; I have always tried to tell the truth as I saw it. Paradoxically, I guess, I have found it easier to do this in fiction than in nonfiction. You can make things up and switch facts around to make your points. But a lot of times, the truth is not pretty—it's hard to bear—I guess that's where the humor comes in. We have to have something to lighten the load a little bit, don't we?"
Most of the stories in Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger focus on women - what it means to be a wife, a mother, a daughter, a lover. In "House Tour," a woman's home is overtaken by a group of boisterous, Red Hat Society matrons who mistake the woman's house for one included on a neighborhood historic house tour. The unpredictable presence of these ladies (they are hilarious!), who push their way into the woman's home and begin to explore the nooks and crannies, ultimately force the protagonist to contemplate a deeper meaning for her own life.
In other stories in the collection, Smith tackles aging ("Happy Memories Club", "Between the Lines"); how some members in families appear to be helpful when they are actually only catering to their own self-interests ("Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger"); what makes for a long and enduring marriage (the outstanding, "Stevie and Mama"); coping amid unraveling relationships ("Bob, A Dog"); and the power of love ("Ultima Thule," where a hospital worker makes a love connection with a psych ward patient).
Smith is often characterized as a "regional" writer. But in reading (and savoring) the rich gamut of stories and excellent prose presented in Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger, Lee Smith once again proves that her range far exceeds the constraints implied by that label. Small towns and close-knit communities--and the challenges fraught therein--are cornerstones of her fiction (the majority of her stories take place in the south). However, in Smith's world, small moments have the potential to change lives. And such moments of personal clarity and revelation serve to broaden the scope of Smith's stories as they open out into more universal themes found in the larger, broader world.
When you want to escape from life for a while, what do you read for fun? If you're like me, a good cozy mystery is the answer and the Dirty Business Series, created by Rosemary Harris, never disappoints. If you enjoy gardening (as I do), quirky characters, and a small town setting, then you're in for another real treat with Harris's latest, Dead Head.
In the trilogy of mysteries, beginning with Pushing Up Daisies and followed by The Big Dirt Nap, Harris has created Paula H0lliday, a smart, gutsy amateur sleuth with whom you'll want to spend time. Paula is a transplanted media executive who moved from New York City to the Connecticut suburbs to start a gardening business. However, in pursuing her bliss, she chronically find herself unearthing mysteries, and her inquisitive nature forces her to dig for the truth. Harris has a real flare for intertwining her passion for gardening into comic, off-beat, and brisk-paced suspense plots.
In Dead Head, Paula's business is suffering amid the current economic climate. She discovers that one of her best clients and a potential partner for her floundering business is living a lie. The woman, a pillar within the community, is actually a fugitive (a convicted drug dealer) who escaped from prison 25 years before. Gee, one never knows just who might be living next door!
Harris successfully fleshes out the story of Dead Head through shifting first-person points-of-view and flashbacks that are bound to keep you riveted to the page . . . distracting you from tilling the soil in your own garden.
For this 'Book of the Week,' I'm offering a special give-away. Drop me an e-mail at katgerard@aol.com and be entered to win a signed, paperback copy of Rosemary Harris's first in the Dirty Business Mystery Series, Pushing Up Daisies.
When it comes to contests, who doesn't want to win? But if you don't win, can you still feel a sense of pride and accomplishment if you at least make the winner's podium?
Such was the case for me in the MAUREEN EGEN WRITERS EXCHANGE AWARD, an honor bestowed via Poets & Writers magazine. I recently learned that a short story of mine (actually a self-contained excerpt from a novel of domestic fiction, in-progress) garnered second runner-up.
Each year, poets and fiction writers from one state, who have never published a book (or no more than one book), are invited to apply for the award. Winners are selected by outside judges based on individual manuscripts. This year, the annual prize, which introduces emerging writers to the New York City literary community, was awarded to a writer who resides in the state of New Jersey. While I am disappointed that I didn't win first place, I was very pleased to learn that Nahid Rachlin served as contest judge. I have long admired her beautiful prose and how her work successfully conveys the complexities of family relationships. Therefore, I appreciated her comments about my piece, which included, "This story effectively conveys issues of betrayal and family loyalty."
You can't win them all, but a word of encouragement from an accomplished writer always helps when you return to your writing desk, roll up your sleeves and once again, try to wrestle words down onto the page.
Congratulations to the winners! Link HERE to read their work.
Daniel Menaker believes that "Curiosity is the basis of good conversation." And he should know. After all, he's an expert now that he has written a book called A GOOD TALK: THE STORY AND SKILL OF CONVERSATION. Menaker is a former editor from The New Yorker Magazine and Random House, where he edited Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Elizabeth Strout, among others. Menaker is also an accomplished author himself, who has written a novel (The Treatment) and two wonderful collections of short stories (Friends and Relations and The Old Left). In addition, he was the host of Title Page TV, an on-line program featuring in-depth discussions of books and authors, which was pulled after it ran out of funding. Drats!
The act of conversation is minimalized every day thanks to technologies like email, text messaging and Twitter. But Menaker's book offers an exploration of conversation as an art form. It is a smart, witty and very insightful account of the history of conversation, and Menaker also offers advice and strategies for how to talk to people you don't know very well. Topics include how to deal with bores, interruptions, name-dropping, repetition, ordering in restaurants and topics of discussion to avoid. Menaker even offers transcripts of actual conversations he has had and then distills them to discover hidden meanings, agendas, and glaring faux pas. As an inquisitive person and a writer who is fascinated by dialogue and how people communicate with each other (things said vs. things not said), it was a fascinating and entertaining read. Be sure to tune in to the video on Mr. Menaker's website, where he undertakes to promote the book via a very clever interview - with himself!
You never know just who might be bagging your groceries at the food store . . . Such is the case with the central character in the latest book by Tracy Kidder (Mountains Beyond Mountains), a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has carved out his own niche in the creative nonfiction genre. Kidder is a gifted writer who crafts well-plotted, page-turners about real people in the throes of real life events. In STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS, he tells the story of Deo, a young man who is in the midst of his medical education when he suddenly finds himself caught up in the genocide that infiltrates his homeland of Burundi (Africa).
A violent, tribal war between the Hutus and the minority Tutsis, forces Deo (a Tutsi) to be swept away from his family. On the run, he escapes death while witnessing graphic and horrific evils. With $200 in his pocket, Deo gets himself on a plane bound for New York (he thinks he's actually going to Belgium) where a cast of strangers, who appear more like angels of providence, begin to help him make a new life in America.
There is a baggage handler at Kennedy Airport who assists Deo through immigration and helps him navigate around New York City. Deo lands a job bagging groceries (working for a boss who is a demeaning tyrant), while he camps out in abandoned buildings in Harlem and later in Central Park. One day, while delivering groceries, he meets an ex-contemplative nun who, after learning of Deo's plight, takes him on as her quest. She sets out to find Deo a proper home and enlists the help of a couple (middle-aged intellectuals) who let Deo camp out in the library of their apartment in SoHo. For the next seven years, it is through the generosity of this couple and the persistent effort of the ex-nun, that Deo is able to return to pursuing his education, studying at Columbia and later, Harvard.
The story is told in a parallel structure. Scenes from Deo's life in New York are intercut with scenes from Deo's harrowing experience amid the terrors of the Burundi genocide. In the last third of the book, the author himself joins the action in Deo's quest to raise money to create (from the ground up, literally) a public health system to aid folks in contemporary Burundi.
It's an extraordinary story. But for me, I wondered where and how Deo derived his inner strength. His name Deo or Deogratias translates to "Thanks be to God." Before the genocide and even after all the horrors Deo witnessed, what were his core beliefs? What was the level of his spirituality?
The two paragraphs below (page 186) are beautifully rendered, and they offer the only glimpse of insight to shed light on this point:
Before we left, Deo wanted to visit some of his favorite extracurricular spots: the benches overlooking Harlem on Morningside Drive and the Riverside Church and finally St. John the Divine, the immense unfinished Gothic cathedral in Morningside Heights...We sat down in a pew some distance from the grand altar. There seemed to be a service in progress up there, but we were seated too far away to hear it. "It really blows my mind," said Deo. "The first time I was here I was taking art (at the university) and I said, 'God, if the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is better than this . . . " He laughed. "I mean, just look at it."
We were surrounded by towering columns. The place was vast, dark, and mysterious. We talked quietly. I had the impression it was in this place and in his other sanctuaries that Deo had reconciled his experience of genocide with his belief in God. He liked to frame his solution jocularly: "I do believe in God. I do believe in God. I think God has given so much power to people, and intelligence, and said, 'Well, you are on your own. Maybe I'm tired, I need a nap. You are mature. Why don't you look after yourselves?" Deo would pause, then say, "And I think He's been sleeping too much."
Kidder makes the case that Deo, a student of philosophy, believes in action more than reflection. But did it ever cross Deo's mind or did he ever consciously recognize positive forces greater than himself at work - forces that saved him, opened doors of opportunity and ultimately enabled him to achieve his goals and give back to those in his homeland?
"I think that I'm writing about people in transition . . . (and) regret and longing are automatically a part of it. The whole process of transition is about both accepting a kind of truce and, by way of that acceptance, being able to let go. What a lot of my characters have in common is that they are trying their best to reach this threshold of change, and some of them I take over the doorway and some are left with it barely in view. But they're all having to cast off a lot of these heavy regrets, angers or frustrations. I'm asking myself as a writer what made this person so timid or so angry." Jill McCorkle as quoted in Indyweek
What is it like to a walk a mile in the shoes of someone else? That is the question that author Jill McCorkle explores through writing each of the eleven stories found in her latest collection of shorts. Going Away Shoes offers a catalog of women in the throes of real life dramas. Each character is faced with problems, disappointments, and regrets and each expresses the depth of her feelings with a true grit that is refreshingly honest, evocative and extremely entertaining.
The headline story, "Going Away Shoes," is a Cinderella-like tale about a dutiful daughter who spends her days taking care of an ailing mother (and watching soap operas and longing for the life she could've had) while her shallow sisters let her bear the brunt of the responsibility.
In "Surrender," the untimely death of a son leaves his mother with a great disconnect from his child, a five year-old little girl who is acting out over the loss with a foul mouth and a very cruel lack of manners toward her grandmother.
A divorcee and single mom in "Midnight Clear" tries to do right by her two young sons by inviting her ex and his new flame over for drinks one Christmas Eve, only to have the septic system suddenly back up.
In "Happy Accidents," a lonely school nurse tries to recreate a more appealing picture of her life with the calm, gentle support of PBS art teacher, Bob Ross, via his TV show, The Joy of Painting.
These are just some of the stories in this wonderful collection. And while I enjoyed them all, three stories in particular lingered in my mind a little longer than the rest.
"Intervention" appears to be a story about getting help for an addiction, but on a deeper level it evolves into so much more - a story about love and commitment and how forgiveness and the ability to overlook things play such a vital role in the longevity of a marriage. The writing and structure of this piece is near-perfect, and the short and revealing climactic scene that McCorkle delivers at the end is startlingly brief but deeply resonate. A truly amazing story!
I laughed out-loud while reading "PS," where a woman writes a Dear John letter to her family therapist. Hilarious!
In "Me and Big Foot," a lonely, single woman wakes to find an unfamilar pickup truck parked outside her house and suddenly, her version of the ideal man takes up residence.
If you don't already know the work of Jill McCorkle, you'll be in for a real treat with Going Away Shoes. McCorkle is as clever as clever can be. In reading her novels and stories for twenty years, I so admire how she is able to strike a balance between action and description. She is truly a master at pairing pain and pathos with good humor.
I'm pleased to announce that my essay "Clearing the Decks" is included in the anthology, Writers and Their Notebooks (University of South Carolina Press), which has now been officially released.
To compile the book, editor Diana M. Raab solicited essays from writers who keep--and rely on--a journal. Contributors include Sue Grafton, Kim Stafford, Dorianne Laux, John DuFresne, James Brown and Michael Steinberg, to name a few. The foreword is written by the world-renowned personal essayist, Phillip Lopate.
Diana recently featured more about the book on her blog and has reprinted an excerpt from the introduction. LINK HERE to read the intro...and be sure to link to Diana's website to learn more about her prize-winning writing and the workshops she teaches on memoir writing, journaling and poetry at UCLA and across the country.
Okay, it's official. We're one month into the new year . . . 32 days in. Where are you in fulfilling the goals you've set for the next twelve months? Are you on track?
If you're Danielle Villano, a student of creative writing (and an avid photographer) at the State University of New York (SUNY Purchase), you've continued on a path of discipline already started in 2009. Danielle has made a personal commitment to document her first year of life as a college freshman. Her mission, her challenge--each day for more than 138 days, so far--has been to publish one photograph and write a short accompanying description about something in her daily life - whether unique or mundane. She posts these entries to "My Wonderful Journey," her own personal photo-journal on Blipfoto - a very modern way of keeping a journal in the multi-faceted media age. Danielle finds it is the perfect place to preserve a slice of her own personal history and share it with family and friends, while sharpening the talents she has for both writing and photography - two creative disciplines that can serve as inspiration for each other.
So whatever goals you've set, keep at it. Don't give up. Thirty-two days of the new year might be gone, but there are still another 333 to go!
Photo "Day 84 - Blue" by Danielle Villano (used with permission)
Finalists for the The Story Prize have officially been released. They include the work of three debut writers:
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (W. W. Norton)
Drift by Victoria Patterson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
The awards will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 3rd at The New School in New York City (66 West 12th Street). That night, Daniyal Mueenuddin, Victoria Patterson, and Wells Tower will read from their short story collections and discuss their work onstage with the director of the prize, Larry Dark. At the end of the evening, the winner will be announced and receive a $20,000 prize. Each runner-up will receive $5000.
The three finalists were selected from a total of 78 short story collections published in 2009. Link to THE STORY PRIZE BLOG to learn more.
