Mat Johnson talks about his upcoming interview with George Saunders

January 21, 2014, by

saunders1On Monday we are thrilled to be presenting George Saunders as part of the 2013/2014 Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series. Tickets for his reading sold out very quickly and those who don’t have tickets are kicking themselves for not buying tickets sooner. So what is it about George Saunders that makes him for so many people the writer of the moment?

Mat JohnsonWe thought it would be best to ask Mat Johnson a few questions. Mat is the author of the novels Pym, Drop, and Hunting in Harlem; the nonfiction novella The Great Negro Plot; and the graphic novels Incognegro and Dark Rain. He’s a faculty member at the UH Creative Writing Program and will be conducting the on-stage interview of Saunders on Monday night. A big thanks to Mat for taking the time to talk to us.

Inprint: What was the first thing you read by George Saunders?

Mat Johnson: Pastoralia. It was one of those books that everyone told me I should read because it was so brilliant, and I assumed by that they meant it’s boring-but-smart-enough-that-you-blame-yourself. I bought it, put it off for a while, then when I finally picked it up, I kicked myself for not doing so sooner. It is a great thing when something lives up to its hype, and even surpasses it. This book did that for me. Not just smart and original, but entertaining, engaging. Continue reading

The Wonder of Wonder

January 16, 2014, by

smallRM2_8185The auditorium was full, but the room was silent. Kids leaned forward in their seats. Parents silenced their phones and raised their chins as R.J. Palacio approached the podium.

Palacio spoke in a friendly, comforting voice, the voice she might use with her two sons. She began with a slide presentation, and one of the first photos she shared showed the ice cream shop where she and her boys encountered the girl who inspired her character August Pullman, or “Auggie.” Palacio began Wonder the same day–on Post-Its. She showed us the first two, and they sounded like Wonder‘s first page. Continue reading