Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Q&A with Donna Seaman

Donna Seaman is the author of the new memoir River of Books: A Life in Reading. Her other books include Identity Unknown. She is the editor for adult books at Booklist, and she lives in Chicago.

Q: What inspired you to write River of Books?

A: After my previous book, Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists, had been out in the world for a while, I started writing personal essays. I was thinking about people who inspired and guided me, including writers past and present.

This made me think about writing a new set of biographical essays, but before I got much further than vague intentions, I received a remarkable invitation. Seminary Co-op, a Chicago not-for-profit bookstore, decided to launch a publishing initiative, which included Ode Books, a series of brief books by book people about books and places devoted to books.

I was asked to be the second author in the series, following Paul Yamazaki’s Reading the Room: A Bookseller’s Tale.

I was thrilled and challenged. How to approach this? I decided to write about how I ended up doing what I do, basically tracking the making of a book critic and editor. I thought of it as a book-by-book chronicle leading up to my arrival at Booklist.

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

A: When I think about the way my life has turned out, about why I’ve been on the staff of Booklist for so long, I see myself dwelling beside a river of books. Books flow in and out of the magazine day in and day out and it’s quite mesmerizing. I also feel like I’m forever voyaging on a river of books since I read so much and work with other readers.

I was thinking, too, about how books flow through time and space, reaching new readers in new places over the years, over the centuries.

Another influence was the famous quote from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus:

Just as the river where I step

Is not the same, and is,

So I am as I am not.

This has always resonated for me. One may stay in the same place, but every day is different. Every book is different from every other book and books are different each time you read them. And the reader changes, too.

Q: The writer Susan Orlean said of the book, “River of Books is as exhilarating as a first date, and it delivers...” What do you think of that description?

A: I love that Susan Orlean compared reading my book to an exciting first date! We all know first dates can be disastrous, so to say that a book is as “exhilarating” as a pleasurable first date is high praise indeed.

I’m also struck by the romance of Orlean’s description. Reading is intimate; you are communing with another; you’re opening yourself to someone else’s words, feelings, questions, vision, story, and perception of the world.

Reading can be transporting and enchanting, it can be voluptuous. We fall in love with books, with characters. We feel known and entangled.

Q: Of the various books you discuss, are there a few that remain particular favorites?

A: Some books are etched indelibly in my mind, among them Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse; Rachel Carson’s The Sea around Us; Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five; Stanley Elkin’s The Franchiser. I could go on. The books listed at the end of River of Books are all favorites, all cherished.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I wrote much more than we could include in River of Books, mostly about writers and teachers and books. I’m hoping to turn some of that material into essays. I also have other subjects in mind for biographical essays.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: I’ve been deeply touched by people’s responses to the book. When people tell me that River made them think about their younger reading self; about how much books meant to them as children, teens, and beyond; and about which books they have felt they couldn’t live without, I feel affirmed. I feel buoyed.

I feel elated, knowing that others have relied on books to help them navigate life as I have. A love of books engenders caring and connection, conversation and conviction.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Jim Beane

Jim Beane is the author of the new novel The Deadening. His other work includes the story collection By the Sea, by the Sea. He lives west of Baltimore, Maryland.

Q: What inspired you to write The Deadening?

A: Before Covid I had published numerous short stories and essays but struggled with longer forms. I had written a novel, as many short story writers do, but fretted it didn’t work as it should. So, I shelved it.

At the same time, a fellow writer suggested I start leading workshops focused on the short story at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland. I took his suggestion. I felt the opportunity provided a chance for me to pay back an institution that had offered me the environment I needed to learn the craft.

While working at The Writer’s Center, I became involved with two veterans’ organizations. As a mentor for the Veterans Writing Project (VWP), I helped and continue to help military veterans polish and prepare their manuscripts for possible publication. For the Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP), I developed and taught a creative writing workshop. All went well until Covid ended person-to-person classes.

The veterans I met at both programs were sources of inspiration. Learning the difficulties veterans faced returning to civilian life from war and how they coped prompted me to delve deeper and fictionalize what I learned.

Q: The writer Harry Jaffe said of the book, “Set in the American West still raw with struggling ranchers, the novel comes with tinges of Remarque’s All Quiet on The Western Front and Louis L’Amour’s frontier novels.” What do you think of that description?

A: First, I’ll say thanks to Harry. But I think the key word in his quote is “tinges.” Although there are echoes in flashback of the horrors of the war in The Deadening, the story takes place several years after World War I in the American West and not in the trenches of Europe.

The Deadening exposes the aftermath of the emotional cost soldiers pay when they do their jobs. I think Harry is referring to the common anti-war sentiment in both Remarque’s story and mine, a theme of innocence lost, and lives yet unlived thrown into the meat grinder of war.

My focus was on what happens when combat veterans come home, and who helps them find their way back to the lives they left. I hope The Deadening speaks to how difficult it is for some to adjust and how little is done for their mental health after service, then in 1921 as now in 2024.

As far as Louis L’Amour’s frontier novels, the phrase Harry used, “the American West still raw with struggling ranchers” rings true to describe the locale. Beyond that, I know Louis L’Amour was a very popular author, so that’s good.

Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

A: I used the internet to discover what I could about the rugged people and their daily lives after the Great War in small towns in Nebraska, Montana and North Dakota. I read historic records, maps and personal accounts. I created the fictional town of Wisdom and the surrounding areas.

For characterization, I used sites offering accounts from combat veterans, doctors, nurses, anyone affected by the war. I examined photos from the era to get a sense of the burgeoning cities and still remote small towns of the West.

I read about hopping trains, the use of laudanum which is a highly addictive opiate prescribed for pain and anxiety, and the newly established, ineffective, and understaffed Veterans Administration. I found facts and flipped them into fiction to create the story.

Most studied were the victims of “shell shock”, the term coined by British doctors during World War One to classify a soldier’s mental health breakdown from combat trauma.

Doctors at that time had little knowledge and limited resources to deal with the number of soldiers suffering mental illnesses caused by their experience. Drug treatments led to addiction and self-medication.

In the states, unaffected Americans were far from understanding or accepting the label “shell shocked.” Some believed America’s hospital beds were for wounded soldiers, not cowards.

I was surprised during research, to discover 1921 was a turbulent time in the United States. It was an age of new government regulation including Prohibition, federal drug laws, laws to prohibit usage of patent medicines, and the new Veterans Administration.

Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify to you?

A: Originally the manuscript was entitled Wisdom 1921. But after he’d read the manuscript, my wise publisher Merrill Leffler mentioned he felt the title was not reflective of the book’s thematic thread. We threw out a few ideas, and agreed on Merrill’s suggestion, The Deadening.

From what I have read and studied, many combat veterans who have lived through the emotional trauma of war did so by deadening their sensibilities, their values and beliefs. Optimism, compassion, empathy, love and happiness must be stored away until their duty is done. To survive, they live their combat lives in an emotional dead zone.

But when the war is over, and the survivors return home, what then? With support from family, friends and religious communities, many return to lead what our society coins “productive lives.” But without the strength gathered from family love and a supportive community to rejuvenate soul and self, those deadened hearts and minds may remain lost, wanting to fit in but unable.

Hickman suffers from shell shock. His disfigured counterpart in the story, Sheriff Willem Redd, bears the scars of war, but through his town and family’s support, he can break free from the deadening shroud war can bring. Alone to face the world after his experience, Hickman’s wounds don’t heal.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I have two novellas I am editing. The first, titled The District, takes place in 1971. The second (in a bit rougher shape), titled The Wilderness, takes place in 2021. The pieces focus on the aftermath experience of veterans from Vietnam and the Middle East.

At some point I’d like to see the three, The Deadening, The District, and The Wilderness, in one volume to illustrate how the efforts to return veterans to civilian life have not changed enough.

I am in the final stages of editing a novel I’ve been working on a long time that ranges from the Jersey shore to tidewater Virginia, and I am polishing a collection of mostly published stories that delve into the lives of working-class Americans.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: I worked as a carpenter for 37 years as my day job. I enjoy vegetable gardening, restoring furniture, and my grandchildren. I am a founding member of a 25-year writing critique group that helped seven writers become seven published writers, every one with a book.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Kevin B. Smith

Kevin B. Smith is the author of the new book The Jailer's Reckoning: How Mass Incarceration is Damaging America. His other books include Predisposed. He is the Leland J. and Dorothy H. Olson Professor in political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Q: What inspired you to write The Jailer’s Reckoning?

A: I wanted to know the answers to two questions: (1) Why did the United States—the land of free, the evangelist of democracy and individual liberty—become the largest jailer in the world? (2) What has that done to us, socially, economically, and politically?

Q: Author and scholar Shadd Maruna said of the book, “With the flair of a storyteller and the brain of [a] social scientist, Kevin B. Smith exposes the rise of mass incarceration as an unprecedented and surely unsustainable historical aberration.” What do you think of that description?

A: It’s flattering and much appreciated! And Shadd is spot-on about the unsustainable part. Already we're seeing that some states don't even have enough prison guards to handle the prison population, and consequently they're having to increase the amount of time the prisoners are in their cells, which has health and mental health consequences for the prisoners.

Q: What would you say are some of the most common perceptions and misconceptions about incarceration in the United States?

A: The most common misperception is that mass incarceration is a national problem—it is a state problem. Florida locks up people at twice the rate as New Jersey. Texas at three times the rate of Minnesota. Louisiana at four times the rate of Vermont.

Mass incarceration cannot be addressed by the national government because it is primarily being driven at the state level.

Q: What do you see looking ahead when it comes to mass incarceration?

A: Three things.

First, incarceration rates will likely decline somewhat if trends in violence continue trending down but will nonetheless remain at historically high levels.

Second, the massive state-level differences in incarceration rates will continue unchecked.

Third, the big issues associated with mass incarceration will increasingly have less to do with people behind bars and have more to do with the rapidly growing population of ex-convicts.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Pondering my next book!

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: The key takeaway of The Jailer’s Reckoning is that we are all paying for a 40-year-long social engineering experiment and will continue paying for the foreseeable future. The extent of that cost, I believe, will surprise a lot of readers.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Mason Stokes

Mason Stokes is the author of the new young adult novel All the Truth I Can Stand. He also has written the novel Saving Julian. He is a professor of English at Skidmore College.

Q: What inspired you to write All the Truth I Can Stand, and how was your novel inspired by the life and death of Matthew Shepard?

A: Matthew Shepard was a gay University of Wyoming college student who, in October of 1998, was lured into a remote area by two men who beat him and left him for dead. His death ignited a national push for LGBTQ rights, and Shepard has since become an iconic figure.

His death hit me hard. As a gay man, I felt an intense and intimate connection to him, even though we’d never met. For years, he stayed in my head as an emblem of our vulnerability as queer people—a reminder of the violence that lurks around so many corners.

Some years later, I stumbled across new and credible reporting that told a more complicated story about what happened to Shepard. This new reporting called into question the story so many of us clung to in the wake of Shepard’s murder: the story of an angelic young man who was killed simply because he was gay.

It struck me that a novel written for young adults might be the perfect way to work through this tangle of violence, legacy, and historical memory. I let my characters learn things they wish they didn’t know, and I let them struggle with what to do with this new information.

The result, I hope, is a testament to the fullness of Shepard’s humanity, a reminder that being flawed doesn’t make you any less deserving of love, and sympathy, and grief.

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between your characters Ash, Shane, and Jenna?

A: Ash is a gay high-school student struggling with the recent death of his mother. Shane is the charismatic but troubled star of a local production of Oklahoma! Jenna is Shane’s best friend and a college journalist who’s also struggling with the loss of a loved one.

When Ash and Shane fall for each other, it feels like new life for both of them. Maybe they can help each other heal. But Shane’s wounds are deeper than Ash had imagined, and they come layered in secrets.

Shane’s sudden and brutal death leaves Ash and Jenna bereft, with more questions than answers. As they bond over their shared loss, they’re drawn deeper into a world they knew nothing about, a world that Shane had been unable to escape.

Q: How did you research the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

A: Steven Jimenez’s The Book of Matt: The Real Story of the Murder of Matthew Shepard was essential to my process. Gathering over a decade of research and hundreds of interviews, Jimenez’s book offers a detailed account of the days and years leading up to Shepard’s murder and of the subsequent investigation.

In addition, I read every book about Shepard I could get my hands on, including his mother’s wrenching memoir, The Meaning of Matthew. I also spent a lot of time researching gay life in Wyoming in the 1990s.

The most surprising thing I learned was that this story was as much about as Wyoming’s drug problem as it was about homophobia. At the time of Shepard’s death, Wyoming was experiencing a plague of methamphetamine use. This was especially a problem for young gay men, who found in meth use a temporary defense against the homophobia they encountered regularly.

Research was a crucial part of my work on this novel. It was essential for me that the novel stay as close to the historical record as possible, even as I allowed myself the artistic freedom to fill in the gaps in that record.

Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the book says, “Keen prose meditates on the nature of violence fueled by bigotry and its effects, making for a layered and provocative telling that will encourage readers to critically examine their own behaviors and perceptions.” What do you think of that description?

A: I feel seen by that description. I’m happy, of course, to receive praise for my prose, but I’m even more gratified to have the novel described as “layered” and “provocative.” I was trying, at every moment, to avoid black-and-white thinking when shades of gray might lead to something both truer and more interesting.

Through the process, I’ve definitely questioned my own perceptions. I hope readers will do the same.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Without giving too much away (a writer has to keep some secrets!), I can say that I’m working on another YA novel that explores the pernicious effects of so-called “don’t say gay” laws on young queer folks. Beyond that, I have a glimmer of an idea about a gay AI chatbot running amok. I can’t wait to see where that glimmer leads.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: One early reviewer called the novel “controversial,” and I guess it might be. Some might wonder: why dredge up unseemly details from the past, especially involving such a beloved and iconic figure? Why speak ill of the dead?

But I don’t think I’m speaking ill of the dead. Shepard’s death was no less tragic because of the murky circumstances surrounding it. Shepard was no less of a victim. I think what I’m trying to do is to restore some humanity to someone who had been turned into a symbol. This strikes me as an act of love and respect. I hope others will agree.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Ella Schwartz

Ella Schwartz is the author of the new children's picture book Violin of Hope. Her other books include Her Name was Mary Katharine. She lives on Long Island, New York.

Q: What inspired you to write Violin of Hope?

A: I am the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. As an author, I always wanted to write a story to honor my grandparents, but Holocaust books for young readers are tricky. None of my story ideas struck the right chord.

I can’t even count how many concepts and half written books I discarded over the years. All of them didn’t feel like a fitting tribute to my grandparents and other Survivors.

When I heard about the real-life organization Violins of Hope, I was deeply inspired by their work. Their mission was just the right backdrop for the story I had always hoped to tell; one of family, legacy, traditions, and hope.

Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that particularly surprised you?

A: I am not a violin player, but I had to become a luthier in training! I learned all about violin construction, the parts of a violin, and the craft that luthiers use to build, repair, and tune these instruments.

Violin construction is based on science and engineering, and I am an engineer by career and education, so this was an exciting new research opportunity for me.

I’ve always loved the music of violins and researching this book inspired me to take up learning to play! I hope my family will be patient with me as I fumble through the learning experience.

Q: What do you think Juliana Oakley’s illustrations add to the story?

A: Feiga and Itzik, characters in the book, are inspired by my grandmother and grandfather, survivors of the Holocaust. When Juliana joined the project, I sheepishly gave her a photo of my grandparents. I wanted to give her an idea of the period and the backdrop of the story, but also introduce her to the real-life Feiga and Itzik.

When I first saw Juliana’s drawings I was profoundly moved. Not only did she capture the period so beautifully, but I saw flashes of my grandparents.

The expression on Papa’s face or the way Mama puts her hand on her daughter’s shoulder; somehow Juliana captured not only the spirit of Jewish families in Eastern Europe during WWII, but also the essence of my grandparents.

Q: What do you hope kids (and adults) take away from the book?

A: People say “Never Forget” but the Holocaust happened over 80 years ago, so it’s easy to forget, especially as the number of Survivors are sadly dwindling. As the descendant of Survivors, I feel it is my responsibility to remember.

I hope my book will not only help readers remember but will also provide inspiration. At its core, this book is about family, traditions, and legacy and these are themes that extend beyond Holocaust education. I hope readers will reflect on their own family legacies.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m deep in the research trenches for a new project about a largely unknown but inspiring Civil War hero. Stay tuned!

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: Since this book is dedicated to my grandparents, your readers may be interested to know that when I was growing up, my grandparents lived with us in the same house.

Even though I lived with my grandparents until they passed away, I never knew their stories. We all knew my grandparents had been through the Holocaust, but nobody in the family asked questions. We worried the memories would be too painful.

It wasn’t until I was an adult that I became curious about my roots and started researching my grandparents’ journey through the Holocaust. Uncovering my family’s dark past was painful but important. Now, as a Holocaust educator, I get to tell my grandparents’ story. Finally, the story that was buried for so long is no longer a secret.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Ella Schwartz.

Q&A with Karen Rostoker-Gruber

Karen Rostoker-Gruber is the author of the new children's picture book Don't Invite a Bear Inside for Hanukkah. Her many other books include A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale.

Q: What inspired you to write Don't Invite a Bear Inside for Hanukkah?

A: This book took a different road to publication than my other books, as I've worked with Dena Neusner at Apples & Honey before. Every once and a while I send her a new book to review because I really respect her opinion. And she understands my sense of humor. (I leave a lot of room for the illustrator, so it's deadpan humor mostly.)

I sent a board book (about a cat and a bear) to Dena in 2020. She told me to rewrite the board book as a picture book, give the bear and cat (at the time there was a cat) more personality, flesh out the story, give it a story arc, and she'd look at it again. Yikes!

It took my mind until February 2022 (two years!) to rework it for her. You can't rush creativity. And, basically, it was a complete and total redo.

Also, at that time, I was into writing metafictional tales, as I didn't see any for Jewish children. Once the title popped into my head at 3 a.m., I just kept writing. (A metafictional tale is where the narrator speaks directly to the reader, telling the reader what to do and what not to do.)

And because the narrator is speaking to the reader, the child in my story is gender neutral. I wanted any child to feel like the narrator is speaking directly to them.

Q: What do you think Carles Arbat’s illustrations add to the story?

A: His illustrations are magical--from the forest scenes covered in snow to the facial expressions on the bear--tears. . .

...and smiles! Here's Carles holding up my favorite illustration.

Q: The School Library Journal review of the book says, “This book is a superb way to introduce and reinforce the traditions of Hanukkah. Children see examples of kindness, tolerance, and acceptance of others, as well as the importance of sharing one’s culture and beliefs.” What do you think of that description?

A: The book is about including all kinds of people--and bears, in this case--into your holiday plans, even if they have differing abilities or different needs. I know that I feel a lot better when I go to people's houses and they tell me what dishes I can have and what dishes I can't have; I'm gluten-free and dairy-free.

At my daughter’s wedding, just recently, they had gluten-free and dairy-free signs for all food at the rehearsal dinner and the cocktail hour. It was very freeing and it felt good to be included.

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the book?

A: You can invite anyone to a holiday dinner / celebration, but understand their needs or things may not go as planned.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: Cool Facts: Carles Arbat, the illustrator, lives in Barcelona, Spain, and is not Jewish, so the art director had to show him photos of: gelt (chocolate coins); latkes (potato pancakes); dreidels (spinning tops with Hebrew letters: hay, shin, gimmel, and nun); sufganiyot (jelly donuts); and show him what a menorah looks like.

Here's an illustration of the bear and child getting the menorah off a very high shelf.