In the next few months, when Kevin Sampsell isn't working at Powell's Books in Portland, Ore., where he is an events coordinator and head of the small press section, he'll be busy promoting his debut novel, This Is Between Us (Tin House, $15.95, 9781935639701, November 12).
The novel chronicles five years of a troubled romance, following a couple who have recently divorced--with children and emotional baggage in tow--from the euphoric days of their initial attraction to the complexities of piecing together a family. Confessional, funny, poignant and sensual, This Is Between Us is told through vignettes in which the narrator addresses his lover.
The narrative style, a series of recollections threaded together to unfold the tale, is similar to how Sampsell constructed his memoir, A Common Pornography. (He also wrote the short story collection Creamy Bullets and was editor of the anthology Portland Noir.) The novel had its beginnings in 10 flash fiction-type pieces he wrote, each capturing a particular moment in a relationship. He then decided to keep going, ultimately amassing several hundred short chapters touching on various themes.
"I wanted each theme to evoke or represent a slightly different kind of feeling, a slightly different kind of joy or insecurity or whatever," explained Sampsell. "I've always loved writing about relationships and about people, and writing these turned into a really exciting and fun thing to do."
The next step was determining in which order the chapters should flow. "It's like when a band records a bunch of songs and then has to figure out what sequence they go in on an album. This is like a concept album, but it's a novel," Sampsell said.
Writing books isn't the only literary moonlighting he does. Sampsell is the publisher of the micropress Future Tense Books, which he founded in 1990. In addition, a piece he wrote that appeared on Salon.com, "I'm Jumping Off the Bridge," is included in The Best American Essays 2013. This year's volume is selected and introduced by Cheryl Strayed, another Portland resident.
The opening scene of Sampsell's essay takes place at the Powell's flagship store. While he was working at the information desk one day, a young man came in and confided that he was planning to jump off a nearby bridge. Sampsell played it calm and talked the stranger out of suicide, but the unexpected encounter then triggered a personal crisis of his own.
Sampsell is taking part in an event at Powell's store at Cedar Hills Crossing on October 29 to promote The Best American Essays 2013, along with Strayed and other contributors to the anthology. He'll do an encore performance at the flagship Burnside store on November 15, reading from This Is Between Us before heading out of town to talk up the novel. Stops include Green Apple Books in San Francisco, Skylight Books in Los Angeles, Village Books in Bellingham, Wash., and BookCourt in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Portland Monthly magazine recently dubbed Sampsell "a longtime kingpin of the local literary scene." In his spare time, he might attend or perform at one of the many reading series in the city or even organizing one. This fall he co-produced the inaugural LitHop PDX, which combines a bar crawl with book events. The extravaganza was the unofficial kickoff to Portland's Wordstock Festival and is intended to take place twice a year.
When he gives talks at writing classes, Sampsell encourages students to be involved in multiple aspects of the book world. Whether they're aspiring wordsmiths or looking to pursue a publishing career or other literary endeavors, "I tell them to surround themselves with books and with reading and writers," he said. "I'm super fortunate to have the life that I do where I'm surrounded by all of these different book-related things." Another piece of advice: "I've been working on it for over 20 years, so 'stick-to-it-iveness' pays off." --Shannon McKenna Schmidt