And so, in this week of breathtaking kindness, I want to thank some special people for throwing light my way.
Ed Nawotka, for inviting me to give the keynote address at the Publishing Perspectives conference and for subsequently
running the talk today on the Publishing Perspectives site. To all of you have retweeted the talk, thank you.
Jen Doll, for including
Small Damages as one of the top 25 book covers here, on the
Atlantic Wire, and for making this the year to remember with
her New York Times Book Review thoughts about the book last July.
The YALSA folks for naming
Small Damages to the BFYA list.
CMRLS Teen Scene for putting
Small Damages on the
Printz watch.
A.A. Omer, for giving
Small Damages
this glorious five-star review.My friends, old and new, for being there. My agent, Amy Rennert, for her enthusiasm. And while this has absolutely nothing to do with
Small Damages, a huge thanks to the Gotham team for being so wholly supportive of
Handling the Truth, a book due out next August. I will do everything in my power to earn your faith in me.
My father, for buying a copy of
Small Damages, and making a go of reading it, even though it's not exactly this history lover's kind of book.
I have been in the book business a very long time. I will hold onto these gifts, in memory, for the rest of my life.
I have been driving poor Ed Nawotka, editor-in-chief of
Publishing Perspectives, just a tad crazy these days. (Sorry, Ed!)
Please can we run the Vaddey Ratner interview, I've emailed.
Pretty pretty please.My urgent requests being made despite the fact that Ratner's book,
In the Shadow of the Banyan, will not be released for a few more days.
It's just this: Ever since I saw Ratner at the BEA during the
adult buzz panel, I knew. I knew her book would be huge, and I knew Ratner (who in real life is a gorgeous petite) would be huge, as well.
Banyan, a novel based on Ratner's childhood experience during the Cambodian conflict, isn't just lush and harrowing, infused as it is with both poetry and heartache. It is moral, compassionate, and electrified by a consonant humanity. Ratner stands for something good and right in fiction making, and here's what's so cool about that: the world is noticing. Her book has wings.
(For a small excerpt from the beginning, go
here.)
Ed has given me the opportunity to interview a number of wonderful people in publishing (see the sidebar on this blog for links to former stories). I am grateful, Ed, that you gave me room for this long piece on Ratner. I asked questions by email. Ratner answered with great care. This, for example, is how the interview begins. Please read the
whole of it here. It's about life. It's about writing. It's about hope.
You returned to Cambodia after many years away and lived for a time within your country. Can you recreate your first moments of return? What did you look for? What did you find? Beyond the return to the palace and the gift of rice, how did you spend your time there?
The first time I returned to Cambodia was in 1992, thirteen years after our traumatic escape from the country, the whole experience still very much fresh and alive in my mind. Indeed, parts of the country were still controlled by the Khmer Rouge rebels. While their regime had collapsed in 1979, they hadn’t completely relinquished their grip, terrorizing the population with random abductions and killings and launching attacks against the government’s forces. Thus, you can imagine how my mother felt about my decision to return at this particular time. “I risked everything to get you out of there,” she said, her voice taut with love, and fear for my safety. “Now, you are going back.”
1 Comments on The Vaddey Ratner Interview: this is one you cannot miss, last added: 8/1/2012
If I am too exhausted to state with any inch of eloquence how grateful I am for today—for being included in a well-run, truly substantive, inviting conference, for sitting on a panel among greats, for meeting, at long last, the delightful Jenny Brown, for spying on Roger Sutton's socks, for a chance to hurry through a loved city's streets, for an excuse to visit the extraordinarily wonderful Tamra Tuller, Michael Green, Jessica Shoffel, and Jill Santopolo, for the opportunity to meet the funny and fun and winning Lauren Marino—if I am too exhausted, might I at least share these two images of a conference I won't forget?
Thank you, Ed Nawotka and Dennis Abrams of
Publishing Perspectives for making this day what it was. For making me a part of it.
Not long ago, I wrote a piece for
Shelf Awareness, that fantastic e-newsletter for the publishing trade, about
the future of young adult books—underscoring trends, suggesting new possibilities. Publishing the essay was, of course, a privilege. But the greater privilege was all that went on behind the scenes, as I worked with Jennifer Brown, the SA children's editor. It wasn't just a back-and-forth about a story's shape and timing. It was a conversation—wide-ranging, funny, thoughtful, perpetually kind. I frankly couldn't get enough of Jenny, and when I asked Ed Nawotka of
Publishing Perspectives if I might interview her for a profile, he said (thank you, Ed) yes.
Here, then, is
Jennifer Brown—editor, reviewer, advocate, enthusiast—whose impact on children's books is the stuff of which legacies are made. She could, I've often thought, write
the definitive book on the history of books written for the young. For now, though, she's focused on brightening the future.
A brief side note. Yesterday, Laura Geringer, who asked me to write for teens in the first place and edited five of my YA titles, mentioned in a note that an animated short with which she had been involved had been nominated for an Oscar. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (which is glorious, and can be watched
here) is dedicated to Bill Morris, a man who mentored Jenny for many years. Paths cross and tangle in publishing. I am grateful to be knotted in.
My previous
Publishing Perspectives stories can be found here:
Unglue.it: Changing the future of e-books....
The Value Rubric: Do Book Bloggers Really Matter?
The Attraction-Repulsion of International Literature: My conversation with Alane Salierno Mason
Transforming Children's Book Coverage at the New York Times: My conversation with Pamela Paul
Success is when the world returns your faith:
My conversation with editor Lauren WeinBetween Shades of Gray: The Making of an International Bestseller
I have been looking forward to this interview since you mentioned it. I loved your questions and her answers.
I'm so glad the book will come out soon.