Q&A with Susan Coll

 

 

 

 

Susan Coll is the author of the new novel The Literati. Her other books include Bookish People. She works at Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C., and is the former president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

 

Q: Why did you decide to bring back your character Clemi (from Bookish People), and place her at a literary nonprofit?

 

A: I loved writing from Clemi’s point of view when I was working on Bookish People, and became very attached to her, so I wanted to think about where she would wind up. A literary nonprofit seemed a natural next step for someone as uber-literary as her.

 

Q: The writer Louis Bayard said of the book, “Featuring a glittering array of characters—from cats to clowns, from divas to embezzlers to Malcolm Gladwell lookalikes—this satire of nonprofit dysfunction is up to the minute, intricately plotted and wickedly funny. Above all, it’s delicious.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I was honored to have Lou’s endorsement and, hey, what’s not to love about this? The intricately plotted part is both amusing and welcome since it was quite the challenge to land all of the sometimes bananas plot-point planes.

 

Q: The novel takes place over the course of a week, and one particular day accounts for about half the book. Did you know how the structure would work out before you started writing it?

 

A: Yes, Friday turned out to be rather expansive. That was not intentional, but after I finished drafting and went back to fill things in, Friday continued to grow in length until it ate up half of the book.  

 

Q: You often have entertaining animal characters in your novels--how did you come up with the imposing and mysterious cat Immanuel in this book?

 

A: My last four books (including the one I am working on now) have featured animals who are important to the narrative. I wish I could provide a profound answer about how and why Immanuel wound up in the story, but the reality is that he was simply there, in a very visual way, when I began writing. He was never not going to be there, if that makes any sense, which I’m sure it does not.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am working on another bookstore-adjacent novel, the third book in a possible trilogy that includes Bookish People and The Literati. After that, no idea!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Susan Coll.