credit: Michael Maren

DANI SHAPIRO will visit Books & Books @ The Studios Nov. 20 at 6pm to read from her beautifully written memoir INHERITANCE, a thought-provoking genealogical mystery.

What makes us who we are? What combination of memory, history, biology, experience, and that ineffable thing called the soul defines us?

In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. She woke up one morning and her entire history–the life she had lived–crumbled beneath her.

INHERITANCE is a book about secrets–secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman’s urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in–a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.

Shapiro is the author of the memoirs Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Also an essayist and a journalist, Shapiro’s short fiction, essays, and journalistic pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, the op-ed pages of the New York Times, and many other publications. She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU, the New School, and Wesleyan University; she is cofounder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. She lives with her family in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

photo: Meredith Morris

A misunderstood piece of advice spurred Stephen Chbosky to a unique career. Leading up to the reading and book signing on Monday, November 25 at 6pm for his novel, Imaginary Friend, we had the chance to ask him a few questions about his new book and what’s coming next.

Q: Please tell us a little about your career? Is working in television and film very different or complementary to your work as a novelist?

A: My career happened as the result of the right advice taken the wrong way. When I was 12, I told my father I wanted to be a writer. He said, “Great writers are great readers”, then promptly left the room to smoke a cigarette and watch the hockey game. His advice was good. He was trying to get me to read more books. But I didn’t take it as advice. Instead, I took it as a rule. Since I was a very slow reader, I thought I wasn’t allowed to be a novelist. So, I thought, “Well, I watch a lot of movies. I guess I read movies. So, okay, I’ll write movies.” That misunderstanding is the foundation of my career. I am a born novelist who has trained exclusively in film. Now, the two art forms are very complementary. The combination of my novelist nature and cinematic training has led to richer movies and more enjoyable books.

Q: How did you come to write Imaginary Friend?

A: Because of my background, for years, I considered The Perks of Being a Wallflower something of a fluke. A 213-page monologue pretending to be a novel. Then, when I did the movie adaptation of Perks, I read the novel through an adult’s eyes. And what I realized was that I was meant to write books. Imaginary Friend was the proof that I could. Write something epic but intimate. Third person that feels like first. A different genre but with all the emotion I’m known for. I am very proud of this book.

Q: Any chance we’ll see Imaginary Friend on the big or small screen?

I can’t wait to adapt this for the screen! And knowing Hollywood, I would imagine by the time the 21st century wraps up, there will be at least two remakes and a TV show.

Q: What are you reading and recommending currently?

A: I’m on a real literary thriller kick lately. I just read The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Both were great. I love The Fireman by Joe Hill. And I thought An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen was fantastic. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

Q: What are you working on next?

A: As I write the screenplay for Imaginary Friend, I am preparing to direct the movie version of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. I am very excited for 2020!

We wish we were in Key West at Books & Books.  Alas, @#$% happens and it’s happened to us. In November George had Whipple surgery in New York.  Everything happened very fast.  Too fast to let you know.  We were away for six weeks.  He’s made a remarkable recovery, we had a joyous holiday with our family in town, and some of you might be lucky enough to have seen him at the store these last few weeks.  As Emily says, he’s back crawling around on the floor fixing electronics.

But now, even though he feels fine and has an excellent pathology report, we’re off to Miami (he has to be near a major medical center) for further treatment.  It’s the protocol.  We’re hoping we can get back every few weeks but we can’t say for sure until we see how he reacts to the chemo.  We’re both feeling positive about this though leaving our beloved Key West and the store for a period up to six months makes us sad.  How lucky we are to have Emily at the helm with Robin, Lori, Gianelle, Camila, and our loyal volunteers making sure everything runs smoothly.  I’ll miss introducing our visiting writers. We have some great ones lined up.  I’ll miss the day to day with all of you.  While I won’t be around for photos I will be able to sign books.  It may take an extra week but we’ve figured out a way to get them to me, and then to you.

And so, it’s goodbye for a while.  I’ll check in with the store every day.  I’ll be there in spirit.  You know that.  Thank you for your support and good vibes.

Love,

Judy

January, 14, 2019

Almost a year ago, Books & Books @ The Studios introduced our Youth Advisory Board (YAB), a group of readers in grades 6-12, to help us keep our selection of Young Adult books relevant and engaging. The group has had the opportunity to read new books before they are officially published, write reviews and participate in store events.

With the ending of the school year, it is time to say good-bye and good luck to our graduating YAB members, including Becca, who is graduating from Key West High School.

One of Becca’s favorite books this year was WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI by Sandhya Menon and before she heads off to University of Florida in the fall, planning to major in business, she’ll spend the summer as a counselor at a sleep away camp in Pennsylvania.

Congratulations to Becca, her proud family, and to all our Florida Keys graduating seniors!

Interested in learning more about our YAB or know someone who is? Email booksandbooks@tskw.org for more information or click here to fill out an online application.

Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of PATSY (reading and signing at the store on Friday June 28th at 7pm) is in Key West to serve as Distinguished Visiting Writer for the Key West Literary Seminar’s Young Writers Studio, an innovative writing program for local high school students.

KWLS executive director Arlo Haskell, who is also a historian and the author of THE JEWS OF KEY WEST: SMUGGLERS, CIGAR MAKERS, AND REVOLUTIONARIES graciously took some time out of his busy schedule to chat with us a little about the Young Writers Studio.

Q: Please tell us a little about the Young Writers Studio?

A: This is the second year of the program, but it was in development for a few years before that. All the extra time and thinking that went into it really paid off. We recruited a number of current and former high school students to serve as an advisory committee and ran through brainstorming sessions with them that were really eye-opening. We also spent time talking with local teachers to get their input. Then Kate Peters, Nick Vagnoni, and I created and refined the prompts and reading materials and tested out various excursion, so we felt like it was fully-formed by the time it launched last summer.

It’s totally different from our adult programs — five full days with a travel/excursion component each day, the highlight being a trip to Dry Tortugas National Park. The idea is to have a really immersive experience in Key West, use this place as inspiration for new writing, and end up seeing “home” in a whole different way.

Q: Has KWLS had any other youth focused programs in the past?

A: We’ve brought speakers to the high school in January for years, but this is the first fully-developed youth program that we’ve launched. Hopefully not the last! Eventually, I’d like to create a full-time educational department at KWLS to work hand-in-hand with teachers throughout the county and strengthen the literary education of local students.

Q: How many young adults participate each year?

A: Anywhere from 12 to 16, with some returning students and Key West High School graduates serving in a junior staff role.

Q: How do you select the visiting authors?

A: The Seminar in January is a great way to evaluate the writers we want for this program. I look for writers who have been on our stage and who make a big, immediate impression, who have charisma and a natural ability to connect with people from various backgrounds. A well-developed sense of empathy is hugely important. And of course they have to be kind, generous, and caring.

Getting Victor LaValle (author of THE CHANGELING) to teach for us last year was huge. He’s an incredible writer and an even more incredible human being. Seeing how inspired our students were by the work they did with him was enormously gratifying.

Q: What are your favorite books to recommend to young adults, either classic or current?

A:Young people should read whatever grabs their attention, and they should also seek out books that challenge their idea of the world. It’s good to be pushed outside of your comfort zone — that’s how we grow. These seem like cliché choices now, but the books that had the biggest impact on me in high school were Jack Kerouac’s ON THE ROAD, Herman Hesse’s SIDDHARTA, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE.

Q: In general, what are you reading and recommending these days? What do you consider a beach read and why?

A: At the beach these days, I’m usually eagle-eyes watching my two young daughters (they can’t swim yet!) and don’t get much reading done. But outside the beach, I’m reading a lot by and about the late great Harry Mathews. I’m editing his Collected Poems for publication early next year, so of course I’ve read through all of his poems in an insanely-close-reading-proofreading kind of way. I’ve also been reading his “Autobiography” and other prose pieces like “For Prizewinners” and “Mathews’s Algorithm” to get a better sense of what made him tick as an artist, plus a great book called MANY SUBTLE CHANNELS by Daniel Levin Becker, which is a history of the Oulipo, the French group of mathematicians and writers that Harry was part of.

But back to the beach and beach-reading! How about this great 1966 poem of Harry’s, “The Swimmer”:

Removing my watch, pleased with the morning weather,
I dove—I would cross the Atlantic by myself Neither she,
Nor I, nor Brooklyn minded.

~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager