librarytart

Q&A with Jami Attenberg

Jami is the author of Instant Love and The Kept Man, which I found and adored in November. Her third book, The Melting Season, has been sold to Riverhead Books and she also writes short stories, essays, articles, keeps a web site and blog and has been active in the online medium for more than a decade.

Jami is the sweetest of deal makers and asked if I could mention her book tour. Done! If you’re in the USA, don some winter clothes and meet Jami on tour to promote the release of The Kept Man in paperback. She’ll be on the road from 14 Jan 08 in Tucson, Arizona, until 19 Mar 08 for the gloriously-named Drunken! Careening! Writers! series in New York. Dates and venues here.

Q&A

Which came first: book or website/blog?

Blog. I’ve been blogging since ’98. It was called online journaling then. At some point I realized I should take all the energy I put into the blog into writing a book, and that changed my life forever. But I still can’t stop blogging. Old habits die hard.

Writing and publishing books can be a one-way means of communication with an anonymous audience. What was your motivation for inviting more accessible interaction with readers?

I don’t even know if I invite that much interaction. I don’t have a comments section, I never have had one. I think it’s something more along the lines of: I just can’t seem to shut up. I do hear from readers regularly and have made some really great friends off my site. But I consider the site about me and what I have to say more than anything else. It’s my own little art project. Typical narcissistic writer.

Have the types and amount of interaction with online readers differed from your first expectations?

I spend more time taking pictures and posting them now on my site than writing about myself I think. But no matter what I’m putting up there, the process really stimulates my brain and keeps my creativity going. It’s all a part of the big creative whole.

What have you learned from your readers?

That they crave authenticity.  There’s no bullshitting on the internet.

Extra question: What books have you read this year that make you want to wave a copy in your hand and shout from a rooftop, “Everyone, you must read this!”

I read an advance copy of Joanna Rakoff’s A Fortunate Age, which comes out next spring. It covers some of the subject matter as my book The Kept Man, but is more epic in scope, and very funny and compelling and witty.  I just got a real kick out of it.

Q&A with Ali Alizadeh

Following the previous post, Ali Alizadeh kindly responded to my questions about author accessibility and communication with readers. Ali is author of The New Angel, one of the highlights of my reading year, and is also a literary critic, poet and has published three poetry books: Fifty Poems of Attar, Eyes in Times of War and eliXir: a story in poetry.

Speaking of accessibility, one my favourite poems by Ali, ‘March to War’, is available online in Arabesques Review, Volume 2, Issue 4.

Q&A

Which came first: book or website/blog?

If by book you mean the novel ‘The New Angel’, then the website. (But it came after my three other – poetry – books.)

Writing and publishing books can be a one-way means of communication with an anonymous audience. What was your motivation for inviting more accessible interaction with readers?

I got the website up and running mostly because I’m often away from Australia, and I thought it might be good to have a constant (albeit virtual) presence for people who might be interested in what I do. As for interaction with readers, it wasn’t my intention as such (the site is not really a blog; although it uses wordpress, it’s a rather conventional website), but I definitely enjoy it when I get an email from someone who has read my stuff & found my email address on the website.

Have the types and amount of interaction with online readers differed from your first expectations?

I wasn’t really expecting interaction. But I suppose the interaction I’ve had has been pretty much as one would have expected, e.g. from appreciative/curious readers, from other writers/artists, networking, etc.

What have you learned from your readers?

Hard to decide at this point. I feel I’m still very new in the whole writing/publishing game, and I’m just getting used to having readers as such (as opposed to, say, long-suffering friends who buy my books out of politeness). But if there’s one thing that’s been instructive so far, it’s been knowing that there exists a variety of responses to one’s work. And I find that liberating.

I think George Orwell and Colette would have been diligent and interesting blog keepers. Are there any writers from the present or past you wish had a blog?

Ern Malley, maybe?

Extra question: What books have you read this year that make you want to wave a copy in your hand and shout from a rooftop, “Everyone, you must read this!”

Rawi Hage’s ‘De Niro’s Game’.

[tart note: I read it in one sitting -- gritty and stunning portrayal of the friendship, betrayal and choices of two young men in Beirut during the civil war]

Writer accessibility

As part of constructing a blog entry, I leapfrog across the web to find out more about a book’s writer, read critical reviews to balance my instinctive way of going about things, and delve into historical or cultural references that won’t take leave of my curiosity.

In researching the books I’ve read over the past few months, more than half were written by authors who maintain personal web sites or blogs. I contacted several writers (who had up-to-date contact details on their sites) to learn more about the nature of interactions with readers and how an online presence complements their writing.

Ali Alizadeh and Jami Attenberg were generous enough to respond and I’ll post the Q&A interviews over the next few days. From my perspective, I have to admit to emitting a girly squeal or two when I saw replies in my inbox – definitely the modern-day equivalent of waiting by the letter box for a signed photo of Michael Hutchence in my younger years. And faster!

Self-publishing and the internet have also allowed the writer – particularly the emerging writer — to find a voice outside the traditional protocols of securing an agent, sending manuscripts about town and hoping a publisher will offer a suitable deal in a cut-throat and oversaturated marketplace. The already-working writer can also complement the roles of the publisher and agent to build a readership and act as image manager, travelling salesperson, marketer and networker.

In thinking about the voice of the amateur commentator in today’s online environment, I am just a tart with a library card, an opinion and a computer. However, the far-reaching tentacles of web search engines and global searching, ordering and despatch can help readers follow reviews, feed recommendations and fulfil wish-lists with the clicks of a few buttons. Ali recommended a book I haven’t seen in the shops and within 48 hours it was in my hand.

But, as Jami notes in her interview, readers crave authenticity. There’s no doubt it runs both ways for writers and reviewers.