Starting off the second day of MPIBA programming on Tuesday in Denver, Colo., the six authors of the books featured at the Novel Narratives keynote breakfast underscored the double meaning of the word "novel," showcasing their distinct approaches to fiction.
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| Pictured (l.-r.): Johnny Compton (Devils Kill Devils, Tor Nightfire); Nickolas Butler (A Forty Year Kiss, Sourcebooks Landmark, Feb. 4, 2025); Karen Russell (The Antidote, Knopf, Mar. 11, 2025); Jonathan Evison (The Heart of Winter, Dutton, Jan. 7, 2025); Michael Idov (The Collaborators, Scribner, Nov. 19, 2024); and Nnedi Okorafor (Death of the Author, Morrow, Jan. 14, 2025). (photo: Tori Henson) | |
Nnedi Okorafor described the metafictional aspect of her Death of the Author (Morrow, Jan. 14, 2025), some of which mines aspects of her own life--such as a surgery at age 19 for an aggressive case of scoliosis that left Okorafor, a semi-pro tennis star, paralyzed and relearning how to walk (an experience she chronicled in her memoir Broken Places & Outer Spaces). Her original angle is that the novel imagines what could happen if an author's--in this case heroine Zelu's--book were to be taken over by forces outside of her. Okorafor said the title comes from an essay by Roland Barthes that discusses how "the author and the author's work must be separate. I hate that essay." She calls Death of the Author a "literary Nigerian family saga set in Chicago" combined with "a post-human robot fable."
Johnny Compton's interest in horror began with the story of The Golden Arm. While his debut novel, The Spite House dealt with "shadows and voices in the dark," Compton said, his second novel, Devils Kill Devils (Tor Nightfire) features Sarita, watched over by a guardian angel she calls Angelo. Or is it a devil? The book opens with Angelo killing Sarita's husband on their wedding night. Compton's unusual take is his approach to horror: "Who is the real villain?" he asks. After all, in The Golden Arm, "an artifact of extreme value is buried with the corpse," Compton points out. "Often the graverobber is a family member who needs the valuable object." With that framing question, who is the villain in Devils Kill Devils?
Jonathan Evison's mother celebrated her 90th birthday on Monday. She was a single mother whose husband left when Evison was five years old, after a freak accident killed their daughter. Two years ago, she was diagnosed with jaw cancer. Evison became emotional describing what she's gone through, raising him alone. "I decided to write my mom the love story she deserves," he said, imagining an alternate narrative for her. The Heart of Winter (Dutton, Jan. 7, 2025) tells of Abe and Ruth's 70-year marriage "that weathers everything my mother did alone," Evison said. Loss of a child, marital improprieties, and differing politics. "It's somewhat about the culture wars. I want this country to heal," Evison said. "If Abe and Ruth can do it, we can do it."
The Antidote (Knopf, Mar. 11, 2025) by Karen Russell, in an original twist, overlays a sense of magic over the events of the 1935 Dust Bowl in a small Nebraska town. "It's about collapse and restoration," she said. "I joked that I was writing the sequel to Swamplandia!--'Drylandia!' " Townspeople can deposit a secret via an earhorn--the 1930s equivalent of a hearing aid, shaped like a gramophone--into the ear of the "Prairie Witch," who will hold them like a vault. Russell spoke of the research she did, including the government-funded Dorthea Lange photos familiar to many, and the "holepunched" photos buried by the politicians, the clearing of the plains that contributed to conditions ripe for a dust storm, and the flooding rains that followed. "I wanted to tell a story that would lead to solutions," Russell said, "to open the aperture and take a longer view of history."
A conversation that Nickolas Butler overheard on September 22, 2022, while sitting at the bar in the Tomahawk Room in Chippewa Falls, Wis., inspired A Forty Year Kiss (Sourcebooks Landmark, Feb. 4, 2025). A man and a woman in their 60s engage in a conversation, and at one point, he says, "I still dream about you. Can I kiss you?" Will it be a chaste kiss, Butler wondered, pretending not to eavesdrop? No. "It was super passionate. I start blushing," he recalls. "I felt I'd been given something from beyond." So begins Butler's story of Charlie and Vivian, in their 60s, meeting up again 40 years after a passionate three-year marriage dissolved due to Charlie's drinking. Butler calls it "a story of second-chance love."
Michael Idov, whose fourth novel is The Collaborators (Scribner, Nov. 19, 2024), was born in Russian-occupied Latvia to a Russian-speaking Jewish family. They came to the U.S. in 1992 and settled in Cleveland. Idov graduated from the University of Michigan, then moved to New York City, where he became a journalist and worked for New York magazine. He moved to Russia to become editor-in-chief of GQ Russia, where he lived from 2012-2014. There he made friends with Alexei Navalny and Pussy Riot, and "had a front-row seat to a country descending into madness," Idov recalled. Next was Berlin, and then back to the U.S., in Los Angeles. He wanted to write a spy novel based on his own experiences living in these countries. But he is not a spy. He had what he called two hard rules: "1) No scene will take place anywhere where I haven't lived. 2) At no point will any character speak a language I don't speak." As a follower of what he deemed "spy-fy," Idov said he was surprised by the number of CIA agents who get the details of the city they're writing about wrong. He claims you could map Moscow from his novel The Collaborators: "But don't go while Putin is in charge!" --Jennifer M. Brown
Binc director of development Kathy Bartson (l.) announced that MPIBA had raised $1,500 for booksellers during the conference. Binc development coordinator Jennifer Rojas (r.) was also on hand to celebrate. Dara Landry (center) from Class Bookstore in Houston, Tex., won the Binc Heads or Tails Game and a $250 prize.
A dozen creators presented a Buffet of Books at Tuesday's luncheon. Pictured: (front row, l.-r.): Carole Lindstrom (The Gift of the Great Buffalo, illus. by Aly McKnight, Bloomsbury Children's Books, Feb. 25, 2025); Sarah Gerard (Carrie Carolyn Coco, Zando); Joanna Cacao (The Squad, written by Christina Soontornvat, Graphix, Nov. 12); Yamile Saied Méndez (The Beautiful Game, Algonquin Young Readers); (back row) Buddy Levy (Realm of Ice and Sky, St. Martin's Press, Jan. 28, 2025); J.E. Thomas (The AI Incident, Levine Querido, June 10, 2025); Laurie Lee Hall (Dictates of Conscience, Signature Books, Nov. 20); Megan E. Freeman (Away, Aladdin, Feb. 11, 2025); Derek Lewis (Survive and Advance, Page Two, Jan. 28, 2025); Ethan Long (Hugs for Pug, Holiday House, Nov. 5); Richard Kyte (Finding Your Third Place, Fulcrum Publishing).
Fourteen authors local to MPIBA's 14-state region made the rounds to booktalk their titles to booksellers. Pictured: (front row, l.-r.): Laura Krantz (Do You Believe in Magic?, Abrams Books for Young Readers); Andrea Eames (A Harvest of Hearts, Erewhon Books, Mar. 4, 2025); Amalie Howard (Lady Knight, Joy Revolution, Apr. 1, 2025); Cynthia Levinson (Who Owns the Moon?, Margaret Quinlin Books, Jan. 7, 2025); Lydia Reeder (The Cure for Women, St. Martin's Press, Dec. 3); Nyasha Williams (Saturday Magic, Running Press Kids); John Janovy Jr. (Life Lessons from a Parasite, Sourcebooks); Marci Kay Monson (The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Gibbs Smith); Callie Fuqua (Goodnight, West Texas, Brown Books Kids, Nov. 12); (back row) David R. Slayton (Rogue Community College, Blackstone, Oct. 15); A. Kendra Greene (No Less Strange or Wonderful, Tin House, Mar. 4, 2025); Janet Sumner Johnson (The Winterton Deception 2: Fault Lines, Pixel+Ink, Nov. 12); Kristin Koval (Penitence, Celadon Books, Feb. 18); Lindsey Drager (The Avian Hourglass, Dzanc Books).
Day two of the conference closed on a high note with an MPIBA favorite: Literary Trivia, in which bookseller teams compete to come up with the title that answers the clue. Featured here is team "The Fellowship of the Quiz," with members (l.-r.): Allison Senecal (Old Firehouse Books, Fort Collins, Colo.); Jeanne Costello (Maria's Bookshop, Durango, Colo.); Laura Sharp (Literally, A Bookshop, Chandler, Ariz.); Kay Brizzolara (Chapterhouse Bookstore, Amarillo, Tex.); Rebecca Leber-Gottberg (Rediscovered Books, Boise, Idaho); and Joy Rhodes (Stardust Books, Clarkdale, Ariz.).