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Elle
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Loved This Book So Much, She Had to ‘Lie Down' After Finishing It
Welcome to Shelf Life, books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you're on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you're here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too. 'I've written essays for about 20 years now, and they are fueled by my intellectual fascinations with culture, history, womanhood, literature, and the origins and meanings of 'race' in this nation,' says Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, whose latest book, an essay collection called Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings , is out now. 'I place 'race' in quotation marks because it doesn't really exist as a biological reality, yet it's a concept that has actual consequences for many in the United States.' After writing five award-winning volumes of poetry, Jeffers published her debut novel, the generation-spanning The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois (which she thought would be a beach read and took 11 years to complete) in 2021. The book was long-listed for the National Book Award and won the National Book Critics Circle Award as well as the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and it earned a spot in Oprah's Book Club in addition to President Barack Obama's annual favorite books list. After the novel's success, Jeffers says, 'finishing a collection of essays seemed a natural progression for my writing journey. But then my mother died, which raised the emotional stakes on what being an intellectual even meant—and revealed how Mama had influenced me as a writer, thinker, and woman. [ Misbehaving at the Crossroads ] greatly changed on the other side of grief.' With the essay collection, Jeffers says she 'wanted to humanize what it means to be a Black woman who holds feminist principles dear. So many times, Black women who struggle against oppression—against patriarchy and racism—are characterized as tough or mean or angry. To call yourself a Black feminist is to elicit confusion: What's a Black feminist anyway? How's that different from being a mainstream feminist? I try to answer those questions in the book and through stories about my life; somehow show that Black feminism also connects with being a utterly vulnerable human being. Yes, I've struggled against these big systems of racism and patriarchy—and yes, I get angry sometimes—but I'm still a tender woman filled with plenty of love. And I wanted to reveal those parts of myself that are frightened or wounded, even as I have tried to move in courageous ways.' The Indiana-born, North Carolina- and Georgia-raised bestselling author earned her undergraduate degree at Talladega College (where her mother, who once taught Alice Walker, was a professor); received her creative writing M.F.A. from the University of Alabama; once met James Baldwin, who knew her father, a poet in the Black Arts Movement; canvassed for Jimmy Carter in 1976; writes in longhand ; is a self-described introvert; runs the Substack ' Critical Thinking 101 '; is a vegetarian and ('slow') runner; and appears in the Stamped from the Beginning Netflix documentary. Good at: research (her poetry collection The Age of Phillis —about Phillis Wheatley Peters, the first African-American author to publish a book of poetry—required 15 years of research); writing more than one book at a time; waking up early naturally . Bad at: housekeeping ; being a holiday person . Fan of: the artist Carrie Mae Weems; the painting 'Mecklenburg Morning' by Romare Bearden; Chaka Khan's NPR Tiny Desk Concert ; Ava DuVernay; 22k gold jewelry; the Alabama sun. Peruse her book recommendations below. The book that: …made me weep uncontrollably: Oh, hands down Ann Patchett 's Bel Canto ! I've read it twice, and the first time, I was so overtaken emotionally with her gorgeous language—and I don't know, some kind of mojo that she has—that I started crying. Then I felt faint and had to lie down for a nap. That is the first time that ever happened to me. …I recommend over and over again: The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton, 1965-2010 . That lady sure knew she could work some wisdom and beauty into a poetic line. ...shaped my worldview: In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens by Alice Walker allowed me to see a brilliant Black woman (other than my mother) hold forth on literature and culture and politics. It is an absolutely amazing book. …I swear I'll finish one day: War and Peace by Tolstoy. I read a few pages each year, but it's so long! I know I have my nerve talking about long books, because my first novel is 797 pages! But War and Peace is, like, three times as long as my novel. (In my defense, I did finish Anna Karenina , though.) …I'd pass on to a kid: I have passed on The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin to students of mine. It's inventive, it's courageous in terms of gender depiction, and it's one of those novels that features the wondrous inventions that fans of science fiction love, alongside the character development that fans of literary fiction require. …I last bought: Kyle T. Mays's An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States . I love me a good history book, especially one that can surprise me with information only a handful of folks understood before the book was published. …has a sex scene that will make you blush: My friend Kennedy Ryan sent me the galley of her book Can't Get Enough , which chronicles a romance between two African-American characters. There are three truly naughty scenes in the novel, which I enjoyed not only for—ahem—obvious reasons, but also, I just adore Black folks kissing and hugged up with and heart-loving on each other. There's not a lot of that on television in this country, so at least I can get that from Kennedy's books. Kennedy Ryan Wants Publishing to 'Let Her Cook' …helped me become a better writer: Edward P. Jones All Aunt Hagar's Children . The way that man can work four flashbacks and seven instances of character development into one paragraph only 200 words long is just a miracle. …should be on every college syllabus: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones is a novel that humanizes the United States' carceral crisis. It's told from the point of view of three characters who are affected in different ways by the false imprisonment of a Black man. …I've re-read the most: I have read Toni Morrison's Beloved seven times. It's the most difficult novel I've ever read in terms of structure—so many twists and turns—but I love it so. …I consider literary comfort food: Daddy was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether is a Y.A. novel that I loved as a kid and which I return to whenever I want to revisit why I became a writer. …I never returned to the library (mea culpa): This is so horrible, but my daddy borrowed Ernest J. Gaines's short story collection Bloodline from a library in San Francisco like 60-plus years ago, before I was even born. I have it on my bookshelf right now. I keep saying I should return it, but I'm pretty sure the library has replaced it by now. …makes me feel seen: Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde says all the hardcore Black feminist things that I needed to know as a young woman trying to understand myself in a world that didn't always like me. …features the coolest book jacket: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang must have the coolest—and, possibly, the most courageous—cover I've ever seen. It's political and sly and just gave me all the feels. When I first saw the cover, I exclaimed, 'Hell yeah!' …I asked for one Christmas as a kid: Alex Haley's Roots was the book that I remember asking for as a Christmas gift. I buddy-read that book with my daddy. (However, to keep it completely real, I also asked for a non-book gift: an Easy-Bake Oven, which I never received because Daddy was convinced it emitted radiation! I still get unreasonably irritated whenever women of my age mention they had an Easy-Bake in childhood.) Bonus question: If I could live in any library or bookstore in the world, it would be: Librairie Présence Africaine in Paris. It's a Black-owned bookstore that I know my late mother would have loved: she spoke fluent French. I imagine that if I ever make it to heaven, Mama and I will roam the shelves of that bookstore and I'll read snippets of books aloud to her, like I used to as a little girl. The literary organization/charity I support: Kweli Journal has been described as The Paris Review for writers of color. The founder and executive director Laura Pegram is a tireless literary citizen. I give a small donation every month to Kweli, and then, whenever I get a little extra money, I always give some more. Now 42% Off Credit: Harper Perennial Now 22% Off Credit: BOA Editions Ltd. Now 42% Off Credit: Amistad Now 41% Off Credit: Vintage Now 10% Off Credit: Ace Books Now 39% Off Credit: Beacon Press Now 31% Off Credit: Forever Now 29% Off Credit: Amistad Now 62% Off Credit: Algonquin Books Now 48% Off Credit: Vintage Now 26% Off Credit: The Feminist Press at CUNY Now 25% Off Credit: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Now 37% Off Credit: William Morrow Paperbacks Now 48% Off Credit: Grand Central Publishing
San Francisco Chronicle
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Books and TV series to enjoy from home this summer
Whether you're cooling down from the blaring sun or seeking refuge from seasonal allergies, there are plenty of ways to channel chill summer vibes from home with these literary and onscreen recommendations. 'A Marriage at Sea' by Sophie Elmhirst Already a bestseller in the U.K. and the winner of the Nero Gold prize for book of the year, ' A Marriage at Sea ' is an exceptional true tale of one couple's fight to survive after their sailboat capsizes in the distant South Pacific. Told with beautiful insight into the state of a marriage under tremendous stress, this propulsive, page-turning tale of survival could be the best book of the summer. — Urban Waite 'The Dry Season' by Melissa Febos National Book Critics Circle Award winner Melissa Febos ('Girlhood') returns with a profound account of what she learned from a year of self-imposed celibacy in ' The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex.' Hear Febos is scheduled to discuss her new work with acclaimed writer Carvell Wallace at a free event at San Francisco's Booksmith on June 17. 'The Emperor of Gladness' by Ocean Vuong The latest from poet and novelist Ocean Vuong ('On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous') is a veritable epic, tackling everything from dementia to capitalism in a story of unlikely bonds and the fire within us to survive. Vuong will be in town to discuss his new novel ' The Emperor of Gladness ' on May 30 at San Francisco's Calvary Presbyterian Church ($11.49) and the following night at Book Passage in Corte Madera ($33, includes book). — Zack Ruskin 'The Bear' Season 4 In what has become a June tradition, the FX-on-Hulu series drops in like clockwork on June 25, with 10 episodes exploring the further adventures and frustrations of Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), a young chef from the fine dining world who comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop. Small-business ownership is not for the faint of heart. With White and fellow cast members Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach now full-blown movie stars, how much longer will the series last? Enjoy it while you can. — G. Allen Johnson 'Squid Game' Season 3 The final season of Netflix's surprise hit from South Korea drops on June 27. Plot details of the dystopian survivalist thriller are being kept under wraps, but it was filmed back-to-back with Season 2, which debuted in December. Once again, Lee Jung-jae leads an ensemble cast clad in green tracksuits through the paces in this anti-capitalist allegory. — G. Allen Johnson
Al Bawaba
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Bawaba
Georgetown Qatar Closes 'Qalam' Author Series with Powerful Reflections on Grief, Memory, and Love
Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) concluded its year-long Qalam literary series with a moving conversation featuring acclaimed author and academic Sonali Deraniyagala. The event marked a rare public appearance by Deraniyagala, whose searing memoir Wave has been hailed as one of the most powerful accounts of grief and survival in contemporary literature. Deraniyagala was joined in conversation by GU-Q's Writer-in-Residence, the award-winning novelist Kamila Shamsie. Together, they explored the devastating loss at the heart of Wave, the writing process that allowed Deraniyagala to confront memory, and the enduring presence of love in the aftermath of unimaginable tragedy. Wave, which won the PEN Ackerley Prize and was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, begins in the immediate aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami which engulfed Deraniyagala's family while they were vacationing in Sri Lanka, causing the deaths of her parents, husband, and sons. Speaking to a captivated audience, Deraniyagala reflected on how the book began not as a literary project but as a private exercise in making sense of the incomprehensible. 'It was important for me to learn to hold my nerve with the remembering,' she shared. 'What I learned–of course you are terrified of memory–but most of my memories were actually full of joy, so once you get through that pain, you are in a very good place.' Born and raised in Sri Lanka, Deraniyagala holds a PhD in economics from the University of Oxford and currently teaches at both SOAS University of London and Columbia University. In recent years her work has turned to the economics of disasters. Her rare appearance at GU-Q offered students, faculty, and members of the public an intimate glimpse into the relationship between storytelling and moving past trauma. Kamila Shamsie guided the conversation with empathy and insight, drawing connections between memory, survival, and how language can both shield and expose writers and their readers. A Year of Fostering Love of Literature In his introduction, Dean Safwan Masri, who established the Writer-in-Residence program in 2024, thanked Shamsie for her service as the program's inaugural author. 'Over the past year, Qalam has brought us together with some of the most celebrated voices in literature from the Global South,' he said, adding: 'It has been a privilege to share these evenings of literature and dialogue with you.' As GU-Q celebrates its 20th anniversary in Qatar, the evening was a poignant reminder of literature's power to bear witness and to connect. Past Qalam Series Events Abdulrazaq Gurnah Hisham Matar Ahdaf Soueif Omar El Akkad Kamila Shamsie
New York Times
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Aleksei Navalny Among National Book Critics Circle Award Winners
A posthumous memoir by the Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, which detailed his fight against autocracy and corruption in Russia and was published eight months after he died in prison, won a National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography. Announcing the award, Rebecca Hussey, a member of the autobiography committee, praised the memoir, 'Patriot,' as a masterpiece and 'an eyewitness account of history, and a work of moral imperative and literary intelligence.' Hisham Matar's novel 'My Friends,' a story about a Libyan man living in exile in London, won the fiction prize. The awards, which were announced Thursday at a ceremony at the New School in New York City, are among the most highly regarded literary prizes in the United States. The winners are chosen by book critics instead of committees made up of authors or academics, which is how most literary prizes are administered. The organization, which dates to 1974, is made up of more than 800 critics and review editors. This year's awards recognized works published in 2024 and were open to authors of books published in English in the United States. Along with awards in categories like biography, criticism, autobiography, fiction and poetry, the group also recognizes individuals and organizations for their work in support of literary culture. This year, Lauren Michele Jackson, a contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of 'White Negroes,' received the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing. The award, named in honor of a former editor at The New York Times Book Review, goes to an N.B.C.C. member for literary criticism. The service award was given to Lori Lynn Turner, the associate director of the New School's creative writing program. Sandra Cisneros, the author of the groundbreaking novel 'The House on Mango Street,' whose work helped pave the way for Mexican American and other Latino writers, received the lifetime achievement award. Third World Press, one of the largest independent Black-owned presses in the U.S., which was founded in 1967 and has published major Black writers such as Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez and Gwendolyn Brooks, won the Toni Morrison Achievement Award. Below is a list of this year's award-winning titles. 'Patriot: A Memoir' by Aleksei Navalny, translated from Russian by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel, is a memoir Navalny started writing after surviving a near-fatal poisoning with the lethal nerve agent Novichok in Siberia in 2020, and continued writing while in prison, where he died at age 47. 'Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar' by Cynthia Carr, is a biography of the transgender actress and star of some of Andy Warhol's films. 'There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension,' is Hanif Abdurraqib's best seller about how sports can anchor us to a sense of place, told through the story of a 2002 basketball game in Columbus, Ohio, where he grew up. 'My Friends' by Hisham Matar, follows a young Libyan man who is granted asylum in London after he is targeted for attending an anti-Qaddafi protest, and has to rebuild a new life exile. 'Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space' by Adam Higginbotham, is a propulsive and devastating account of the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, and the causes behind the disaster. 'Wrong Norma' by Anne Carson, is a collection of verse that often reads like essays or prose, and covers such wide ranging subjects as snow, Joseph Conrad, Flaubert, poverty, Roget's Thesaurus and Carson's father. 'A Last Supper of Queer Apostles' by Pedro Lemebel, translated from Spanish by Gwendolyn Harper, is a selection of essays about political and cultural icons including Che Guevara and Elizabeth Taylor, the messy aftermath of following the collapse of authoritarian rule under Augusto Pinochet and living through the AIDS epidemic in Chile. 'Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir' by Tessa Hulls, is a graphic memoir that tells the story of the author's family, folding in reflections on Chinese history, immigration, and trauma.
New York Times
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Hilton Als Is a Critic Who Curates, or Is It the Other Way Around?
Hilton Als is best known as a writer. His essay collection 'White Girls' was a finalist for a 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award, and he won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for his theater criticism at The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer for more than 30 years. But in the art world he's equally visible as a curator. He has organized a major show about Joan Didion at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and curated a traveling series of painting shows at the Yale Center for British Art, as well as two shows of Alice Neel's portraits at David Zwirner Gallery. Just at the moment, Victoria Miro gallery in London is reprising the more recent Zwirner show, and the Hill Art Foundation in Chelsea is hosting 'The Writing's on the Wall,' in which Als has assembled work by 32 artists, including Vija Celmins, Ina Archer and Cy Twombly, to investigate how visual art overlaps with writing. It is unusual for a critic at a major publication to get paid for curating gallery and museum exhibitions, though Als, 64, has cleared his independent hat-switching endeavors with his boss, David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker. And Als says he stays clear of reviewing any institution where he has curated a show. We sat down over lunch in New York's West Village to talk about whether he still considered writing his signature medium, how he keeps his roles clear, and which great American novelist is still in need of a documentary. These are edited excerpts from our conversation. Can you tell me something about your relationship to visual art, where it comes from? Well, I think that if you grow up without access to, you know, the annual trip to Europe to look at paintings, something else happens. And that something is having a parent who's very inventive about finding cultural things for free, for kids. So I went to these free figure-drawing classes at the Brooklyn Museum. And I remember liking the role of the artist. I wore a little striped shirt, and I liked enacting being an artist. Which I think was kind of parallel, in a way, to talking about my gayness. And eventually I would walk to the Brooklyn Public Library, and they had these extraordinary photo books, and I remember finding or discovering Avedon, Penn, and I was fascinated by the worlds that they were capturing. So much so that I wrote a letter to Dick Avedon offering my services. I was 13. If the work was alive to me, and if the person was alive, why wouldn't you contact them? Totally. They're talking to you. And they were really companions to me, in a way. But also my mother had a very strong belief in artists, a love of artists. My sister and I always had a kind of sympathy for artists — and also I had a desire to make things. I knew from the time I was 8 that it would be language based, because my sister was a poet. And you don't need anything for writing — you need a pencil. It was a powerful thing to want to be. It's almost like you know you're willing it. It sounds to me like you've always been telling a story about being an artist. All curators are storytellers, they really are storytellers. They're trying to tell some kind of narrative, even if it's about fracture. You're telling a story about a person, or — Or an idea. You know what I found recently? The announcement for the first show I ever did at Feature Gallery [with nine artists around a single theme]. When was that? 1989. So your curating goes all the way back! Here's the story. Again, I wrote a letter to [Feature's gallerist] Hudson. I said that I was a fan and I wanted to do a show. This is a long time ago when you could say that. And he said, 'Great,' and he gave me the little back room. He had a little gallery on Broome Street. And I asked if I could work with my friend [the photographer] Darryl Turner. It was the practice that I still do, which is to make a kind of artwork out of available material. You anticipated my next question — when does curation become an art practice in its own right? I think from the beginning. So then Darryl and I did another show for Simon Watson. He used to have a gallery on Lafayette Street. And then we did one other project, and then Darryl didn't want to continue working collaboratively. Why did you need Darryl there? Exactly. You just asked me a very profound question. Because my desire to connect to other humans has often come at the expense of my own survival, sometimes? And — I didn't. To me there's an obvious continuity in your work as a critic and as a curator. But in terms of your role in the art world, they're two very different types of authority, and I wonder if you've had any problems with those roles being in conflict. Oh, no, well, I was very honest with David Remnick that there was no way for me to be a chief critic anywhere, because I did this other work. But I can do occasional pieces, and they're exclusively about artists I've never worked with. I think the only kind of crossover might have been an Alice Neel painting in the show I curated at Karma Gallery [in 2021], but that was it. I want to protect the magazine in a way, too. Back to authority — to protect the magazine's authority and not kind of get it blurred. So when the Hill Foundation says, 'Do you want to come do something,' you say, 'Yes, let's talk about it, but also understand that I'll never write about another show here.' That's exactly how it works. I recently encountered the artist Pippa Garner's memorable remark about her life, 'I tried to set an example that no one else can follow,' and it made me think of you. How do you think it would affect the state of art criticism if more people moved between writing and curating the way you have? Oh, I'm nothing new. There's a long history of writers curating, Frank O'Hara being the obvious example [at the Museum of Modern Art]. I think the more the merrier. But for sure they'd have to be people who can work on both cylinders — and not confuse either. I can't really speak for other writers and curators and I wouldn't want to. But for me, part of the joy of being alive is trying to make all the parts of the self cohere, rules or no rules. In 'The Writing's on the Wall,' you managed to get in some of the charge of writing without letting the writing overwhelm the visual. That's a really great point. I wanted to find work that really balanced. And there are other pieces that are bridges to language — I'm thinking of the Steve Wolfe/Christian Marclay collaboration [ 'La Voix Humaine,' 1991] of a stereo. Language is on the record in the form of writing on the label, and the silence of the record, which isn't playing, is a bridge to Ellen Gallagher's very text-heavy grid of prints [ 'DeLuxe']. The real challenge, and the joy, was to find connections and bridges. Once you have the kind of — what would they say in a movie? A master shot — you have to find the details that connect the smaller scenes to the bigger scenes. And I felt that I wanted to be very careful that the connections didn't overwhelm the bigger pictures, but helped the bigger pictures to be there. What would you say the bigger pictures were? Well, just literally bigger pictures. The little Claes Oldenburg drawing is a great bridge to Jennie C. Jones [ 'Fluid Red Tone (in the break),' a painting from 2022]. I always loved Oldenburg — his renderings and drawings were so beautiful to me — and I remembered Vija Celmins's 'Pink Pearl Eraser,' that there was a kind of pink in it. So things had to resonate rhythmically and also curatorially. Did you start with a concept or by looking at the Hill Art Foundation collection of J. Tomilson Hill and Janine Hill? When Mr. Hill sent me a checklist, the things that really stood out to me were all these works that seemed to have writing in them. I don't think that other curators had made that connection before. Something that distinguishes writing from curating is that you can write something without showing it to anyone. Do you think there's kind of a lower bar of entry to thinking of yourself as a writer? Well, you have more control, right? You have more control over that particular narrative. But the thing I like about this aspect of creating, it's like making a film. You have the producer who's nervous. You have the artists who are vulnerable. And you have the director/writer, who's me, saying, 'Trust me, I'm going to make a narrative that honors all of these elements. And make money, too.' Would you make films, also? I would, sure. If I'm a Hollywood producer, and I say — If you were a producer and you said, ''Here's two million dollars and I'm going to not bother you, I love your script'' — that would be amazing. You know what I really want to do? I think there needs to be a documentary about William Faulkner. I can feel people like Ken Burns, they sidestep him, because it's so volatile. Faulkner's views on race were antiquated, but he had real insights into how sex and race converged in the white Southern imagination. For someone like me to make the film would be extraordinary. Because I'm not supposed to.
