"Preston,
It was good meeting you at Elizabeth Nunez's reading. She is amazing, isn't she? Hearing her dynamic presentation and having read the glowing reviews of your novel as I was ordering it on Amazon caused me to wonder at the state of African American literature today. Is it just me, or is anyone else disturbed by the preponderance these days of African American pulp posing as literature? Go to the African American section of your local bookstore and look at the overs, all of which are brightly colored and almost always seem to feature a sexy black woman or a bare-chested, musclebound, tattooed black man pushing tales of sex, infidelity, and a ghetto-fabulous rendition of the Amerian Dream. Is this the only kind of black novel that the publishers will sell? I don't mean to sound angry, but what happened to great black literature? What happened to great black writers? Why are there so few of those books being published and so many of the other? R.T."
Thanks for the email, R.T.
Yours is a good question, but one that I am reluctant to answer, for as a boy I was warned by my mentor that there are three subjects never to discuss in public: Sex, Politics, and Religion.
He could have added a fourth--the history of race in America--which is the issue your question is begging me to address, but which, cleverly, I shall skirt, as I explain, R.T., how you should regard the preponderance of those "colorful covers" in the African American section of your local bookstore.
Be thankful that they are there, for unlike the presence of "great black books," the presence of, or rather abundance of "medium tier black books" is a true sign of progress and/or advances in the field of writing. Allow me to explain.
Great writers shall always be published--great black writers, great white writers, great Asian writers, great Latino writers, great Afghan writers--because great writers shall always find a receptive audience among the learned and those who would learn. Books by writers of great talent abound in college classrooms and on the shelves of those who desire a "good" read. Great writers make their own way, and therefore they are not a sign of progress for the racial identity from which they hail.
Popular books, on the other hand--and I think you mean "popular books" when you say "colorful covers"--indicate a broader reading audience. And a broader reading audience indicates that more people (in the represented racial identity) are reading.
In order to state my point more clearly, let's go to the "white" section of the bookstore. Amazing. It looks a lot like the African American section of the bookstore.
Among the popular "white" books, I see covers with scantily clad women, I see sexy studs, I see guns and knives and blood on the covers, I see sports-themed books, I see self help, I see pop psychology, I see religion. This is what the masses want to read. This is also a sign that there actually still exist masses capable of and willing to read--in this world of TV, movies, and Youtube vying for your entertainment dollar, that sign is a great thing. It shows that reading still matters and that writing is still a viable medium for the transmission of information of interest to the masses.
Then I see the great "white" books and the towering "white" classics, some of which, but not all, are popular. Does this mean that the state of "white" writing is in despair?
Are you getting the point?
See, a popular African American novel is successful because there is a large audience (of African Americans and others) willing to patronize it. Its success indicates that its writer is writing about what the masses (of African Americans and others) want to read. More importantly, its succes indicates that there actually exist masses (of African Americans and others) capable of and willing to read. Its success indicates that reading matters (to African Americans and others) and that writing is a viable medium for the transmission of information of interest to the masses (of African Americans and others).
In fact, if we argue that a particular African American popular novel is NOT A GREAT BOOK we are actually helping to make the argument that its success, then, depends on a large audience eager to read book after book about this particular subject matter or by this particular writer or by writers of this particular racial identity, rather than on the book's own merits as a great work.
In other words, and finally, it should be clear to you now that a popular African American novel is about the audience; a popular African American book says that black people are reading.
However, a great African American novel--by the likes of a Richard Wright, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Charles Johnson, Ernest J. Gaines, Elizabeth Nunez, or heck even a Preston L. Allen--is about the writer. It says that black people can write great books.
So don't despair, R.T., for those colorful covers that you speak of are a sign of progress.
Black people are reading in record numbers. Now, it is the job of people like you and me, teachers, to get them to read better books.
I hope I was not too political.
Thanks,
Preston
At the Pen Festival 2010
© PEN American Center/Susan Horgan. All rights reserved. Please contact media@pen.org for usage and rights.
January 18, 2008
January 17, 2008
A Creative Writing Exercise
"Preston, I read in your bio that you hold an MFA and that you have taught creative writing. What is your favorite creative writing exercise? What is the most valuable thing you learned in your MFA program? How did you get the idea to write ALL OR NOTHING? Thanks, a writing student."
Good questions all. I'll handle them in reverse order.
1. I got the impulse to write ALL OR NOTHING because of my experiences in the casino and GA. I write to understand that which I do not understand. I did not understand the tragic things I was witnessing. There was a particular tragedy that I was somewhat close to . . . I myself was almost a tragic statistic. There was a time when I believed that I could not be helped, and it scared me. I opened my mouth to say all this and P's voice came out. At first, I thought that he would speak a short story, then a novella--before I knew it, he had spoken a novel. He had much to say. It is one of two novels I have written from beginning to end in a burst (the other is IMAJ, which is now entitled COME WITH ME, SHEBA). The editing was difficult because even those parts that were removed to improve the book are worthy and true. The book was originally written so that the chapters could be read in any order. Then I met Missy, and put her in the book, and she gave it order.
2. The most valuable lesson I learned in the MFA program is how to tell a story. Beginning, middle, end--it sounds so simple, but I was one of many who did not know what a story was, though from time to time I accidentally told one. I was very artsy before the MFA program--I wanted to impress with words. Now I am more interested in impressing with story. No matter how beautiful be your prose, it is story that the reader remembers. The reader returns to his/her favorite book, for story, not for seamless prose.
I am often a harsh critic of some of the lurid, poorly written works I find on bookstore shelves these days, but to their credit, these novels sell because of one thing: they tell a story (however badly). Here is something to keep in mind, dear writing student--long before the printed word, there was the "Storyteller." We artsy ones often get so caught up in the WAY we tell a story that we forget to actually TELL a story.
Truth be told, I still find it necessary to write short stories that are not really "stories" from time to time because of their other worthy characteristics--such is the nature of the short story, as the prettiness of its writing allows it to hover somewhere between prose and poetry. In fact, some of my favorite short stories are not really "stories": "Orientation" by Daniel Orozco, "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid, and Italo Calvino's pieces in the venerable masterpiece INVISIBLE CITIES. That is the way it is with short stories from time to time. With my novels, however, I always tell a story. Why else would my reader read all the way to page 300 if not to find out how it all ends? He/she certainly would not read all that way because of my pretty sentences.
3. Two exercises
The End is the Beginning. (plot builder)
Go to a train station or some other public place and watch people. Take notes as you do: the sensory things--the smells, the sounds, the sights. When you find an interesting person (or persons) doing something interesting (or not so interesting--if the homeless man stretches out to sleep on the bench, if the lady in the smart dress kisses her poodle on the nose, if the man in the suit lights a cigarette and smiles), see this as the end of your story. Now write towards this end.
The Hero With No Name. (description, narrative voice)
Set your story in an unremarkable place (at home, at work, train station, grocery store check out lane, bus stop) and people it with normal people doing normal things, except one character who refuses, politely, to state his/her name. You may describe him/her but are not permitted to state the name, and he/she never states the name even in dialogue. Set the story in the third person.
Good questions all. I'll handle them in reverse order.
1. I got the impulse to write ALL OR NOTHING because of my experiences in the casino and GA. I write to understand that which I do not understand. I did not understand the tragic things I was witnessing. There was a particular tragedy that I was somewhat close to . . . I myself was almost a tragic statistic. There was a time when I believed that I could not be helped, and it scared me. I opened my mouth to say all this and P's voice came out. At first, I thought that he would speak a short story, then a novella--before I knew it, he had spoken a novel. He had much to say. It is one of two novels I have written from beginning to end in a burst (the other is IMAJ, which is now entitled COME WITH ME, SHEBA). The editing was difficult because even those parts that were removed to improve the book are worthy and true. The book was originally written so that the chapters could be read in any order. Then I met Missy, and put her in the book, and she gave it order.
2. The most valuable lesson I learned in the MFA program is how to tell a story. Beginning, middle, end--it sounds so simple, but I was one of many who did not know what a story was, though from time to time I accidentally told one. I was very artsy before the MFA program--I wanted to impress with words. Now I am more interested in impressing with story. No matter how beautiful be your prose, it is story that the reader remembers. The reader returns to his/her favorite book, for story, not for seamless prose.
I am often a harsh critic of some of the lurid, poorly written works I find on bookstore shelves these days, but to their credit, these novels sell because of one thing: they tell a story (however badly). Here is something to keep in mind, dear writing student--long before the printed word, there was the "Storyteller." We artsy ones often get so caught up in the WAY we tell a story that we forget to actually TELL a story.
Truth be told, I still find it necessary to write short stories that are not really "stories" from time to time because of their other worthy characteristics--such is the nature of the short story, as the prettiness of its writing allows it to hover somewhere between prose and poetry. In fact, some of my favorite short stories are not really "stories": "Orientation" by Daniel Orozco, "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid, and Italo Calvino's pieces in the venerable masterpiece INVISIBLE CITIES. That is the way it is with short stories from time to time. With my novels, however, I always tell a story. Why else would my reader read all the way to page 300 if not to find out how it all ends? He/she certainly would not read all that way because of my pretty sentences.
3. Two exercises
The End is the Beginning. (plot builder)
Go to a train station or some other public place and watch people. Take notes as you do: the sensory things--the smells, the sounds, the sights. When you find an interesting person (or persons) doing something interesting (or not so interesting--if the homeless man stretches out to sleep on the bench, if the lady in the smart dress kisses her poodle on the nose, if the man in the suit lights a cigarette and smiles), see this as the end of your story. Now write towards this end.
The Hero With No Name. (description, narrative voice)
Set your story in an unremarkable place (at home, at work, train station, grocery store check out lane, bus stop) and people it with normal people doing normal things, except one character who refuses, politely, to state his/her name. You may describe him/her but are not permitted to state the name, and he/she never states the name even in dialogue. Set the story in the third person.
January 15, 2008
Do Gamblers Really Commit Suicide?
"Preston,
I must tell you that your book is good but also very scary. Not to take anything away from your skills as a writer and storyteller, but I enjoyed the book especially because of what I learned about the gambling lifestyle as I have many friends who are gamblers or love going to the casino and the dog track.
When reading a book of fiction, however, it is sometimes difficult to tell what is real and what is made up by the writer. Do gamblers really commit suicide a lot? Thanks, a fan."
Oh boy. Gamblers committing suicide. Groan. This is the big one.
Thanks for the question, fan, but I have to admit that this is a serious subject with which I have firsthand experience, but limited knowledge.
Sadly, I must tell you, it does happen.
This is the one aspect of gambling that I don't like talking about, though, as you know, I addressed it in the novel, ALL OR NOTHING.
I find it much easier to handle in the medium of fiction.
One day I will be courageous enough to write a non-fiction piece about it.
I have seen enough of that to make me sick for life. See, because of your addiction you sink so low in self esteem and debt (my god the astronomical debt!) that the only way out for you is a big, big mega-impossible win or . . . suicide. You just get so tired you don't want to fight anymore. You get tired of struggling, and lying, and hiding, and hoping, and being disappointed, and cheating, and stealing, and doing other stupid, sleazy, selfish shit to the people you love, and hiding under that mountain of lies just waiting for the day when it all comes crashing down and you get arrested or evicted and then everybody knows.
Sometimes we could tell that someone we knew was going to do it. They would go awol from the GA meetings for the last couple of weeks, you would see them banging their last meager pennies at the casino for the last couple of weeks, they would be playing the really expensive games with the really high jackpots, the mega-impossible jackpots, and you would be praying, just praying, that they win. Come on, Lord, let him win. Of course, they would lose. Then they would disappear and we would hear at the next GA meeting that so-and-so couldn't take it anymore and shot himself. Slit her wrists. Jumped in front of traffic. Drank rat poison. But we knew already. We knew already. And there wasn't shit we could do about it because we were so close to making that same fateful decision. Every day eyeing that mega-impossible jackpot machine as we walked past it. The machine that never wins. The machine that would fix everything if it would just win.
Yeah, suicide--all kidding aside, this is one of the main reasons you should demand that any gambler you know and love seek help immediately for his/her addiction.
And here is the big lie I told in the book. Gambles don't go to each other's funerals; Gamblers play poker for their dead.
On the website Getting Past Gambling ( http://www.gettingpastgambling.com/ )there is a great explanation of why it happens. I will cut and paste the brief, though pertinent passage from that essay here.
"Gambling addiction has one of the highest suicide rates of all addictions and this is partially due to the nature of the consequences.
With most addictions, the addict can lose everything he had, his family, his job, his self-respect, he can take himself down to having nothing left, zero, zip, nada.
However, the gambling addict may have lost all of those things, but his aftermath doesn't stop merely at zero.
The gambler may have lost his family, job, self-respect AND may be thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and the only way he knows of to get out of debt is........(insert drum roll) ....................to gamble and win the big one.
When the alcoholic quits drinking, he picks up the pieces and moves on, but the gambler may be faced with overwhelming debt that he cannot see a way out of when he quits gambling.
Don't despair, many gambling addicts make it through, quit gambling and move on with their lives, but as with any other addiction it can be a life time struggle both for the gambler and the people who love them."
Copyright 2007 All material remains the property of the author http://www.oagaa.org/html/who_is_this_person_.htm posted by LindaH @ 10:49 PM
Thanks,
Preston
I must tell you that your book is good but also very scary. Not to take anything away from your skills as a writer and storyteller, but I enjoyed the book especially because of what I learned about the gambling lifestyle as I have many friends who are gamblers or love going to the casino and the dog track.
When reading a book of fiction, however, it is sometimes difficult to tell what is real and what is made up by the writer. Do gamblers really commit suicide a lot? Thanks, a fan."
Oh boy. Gamblers committing suicide. Groan. This is the big one.
Thanks for the question, fan, but I have to admit that this is a serious subject with which I have firsthand experience, but limited knowledge.
Sadly, I must tell you, it does happen.
This is the one aspect of gambling that I don't like talking about, though, as you know, I addressed it in the novel, ALL OR NOTHING.
I find it much easier to handle in the medium of fiction.
One day I will be courageous enough to write a non-fiction piece about it.
I have seen enough of that to make me sick for life. See, because of your addiction you sink so low in self esteem and debt (my god the astronomical debt!) that the only way out for you is a big, big mega-impossible win or . . . suicide. You just get so tired you don't want to fight anymore. You get tired of struggling, and lying, and hiding, and hoping, and being disappointed, and cheating, and stealing, and doing other stupid, sleazy, selfish shit to the people you love, and hiding under that mountain of lies just waiting for the day when it all comes crashing down and you get arrested or evicted and then everybody knows.
Sometimes we could tell that someone we knew was going to do it. They would go awol from the GA meetings for the last couple of weeks, you would see them banging their last meager pennies at the casino for the last couple of weeks, they would be playing the really expensive games with the really high jackpots, the mega-impossible jackpots, and you would be praying, just praying, that they win. Come on, Lord, let him win. Of course, they would lose. Then they would disappear and we would hear at the next GA meeting that so-and-so couldn't take it anymore and shot himself. Slit her wrists. Jumped in front of traffic. Drank rat poison. But we knew already. We knew already. And there wasn't shit we could do about it because we were so close to making that same fateful decision. Every day eyeing that mega-impossible jackpot machine as we walked past it. The machine that never wins. The machine that would fix everything if it would just win.
Yeah, suicide--all kidding aside, this is one of the main reasons you should demand that any gambler you know and love seek help immediately for his/her addiction.
And here is the big lie I told in the book. Gambles don't go to each other's funerals; Gamblers play poker for their dead.
On the website Getting Past Gambling ( http://www.gettingpastgambling.com/ )there is a great explanation of why it happens. I will cut and paste the brief, though pertinent passage from that essay here.
"Gambling addiction has one of the highest suicide rates of all addictions and this is partially due to the nature of the consequences.
With most addictions, the addict can lose everything he had, his family, his job, his self-respect, he can take himself down to having nothing left, zero, zip, nada.
However, the gambling addict may have lost all of those things, but his aftermath doesn't stop merely at zero.
The gambler may have lost his family, job, self-respect AND may be thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and the only way he knows of to get out of debt is........(insert drum roll) ....................to gamble and win the big one.
When the alcoholic quits drinking, he picks up the pieces and moves on, but the gambler may be faced with overwhelming debt that he cannot see a way out of when he quits gambling.
Don't despair, many gambling addicts make it through, quit gambling and move on with their lives, but as with any other addiction it can be a life time struggle both for the gambler and the people who love them."
Copyright 2007 All material remains the property of the author http://www.oagaa.org/html/who_is_this_person_.htm posted by LindaH @ 10:49 PM
Thanks,
Preston
My Friend Juan
"Preston,
There are very few books that I cannot put down once I have picked them up. I devour textbooks (engineering . . . I know, I know . . . I love numbers but in another way, not like P), but novels, or sci-fi etc., well that’s another story.
When I got ANGELS AND DEMONS, I did not sleep for 2 days until I finished it, then came DA VINCI CODE . . . the same thing happened to me with the Dr. Alex Cross novels (James Patterson’s string of books).
But man . . . I did not sleep last night reading your book. You have gotten me hooked on it, I am almost at the end . . . I have come to hate you, but love you at the same time.
Without further ado,
AWESOME STORY DUDE!!!!
Your friend Juan V."
Thanks, Juan. Your email made my day. I am honored to have written something that you would mention in the same breath as Brown's Da Vinci Code and Patterson's Alex Cross books. Here's to hoping that ALL OR NOTHING continues its success and reaches the status of those authors' novels. Pass the book on to a friend. Write a review on Amazon. See you at work tomorrow, dude.
I owe you lunch.
Thanks,
Preston
There are very few books that I cannot put down once I have picked them up. I devour textbooks (engineering . . . I know, I know . . . I love numbers but in another way, not like P), but novels, or sci-fi etc., well that’s another story.
When I got ANGELS AND DEMONS, I did not sleep for 2 days until I finished it, then came DA VINCI CODE . . . the same thing happened to me with the Dr. Alex Cross novels (James Patterson’s string of books).
But man . . . I did not sleep last night reading your book. You have gotten me hooked on it, I am almost at the end . . . I have come to hate you, but love you at the same time.
Without further ado,
AWESOME STORY DUDE!!!!
Your friend Juan V."
Thanks, Juan. Your email made my day. I am honored to have written something that you would mention in the same breath as Brown's Da Vinci Code and Patterson's Alex Cross books. Here's to hoping that ALL OR NOTHING continues its success and reaches the status of those authors' novels. Pass the book on to a friend. Write a review on Amazon. See you at work tomorrow, dude.
I owe you lunch.
Thanks,
Preston
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