Ann Patchett in CHI

 

I saw Ann Patchett as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. She was interviewed by Lisa Lucas, a former publishing executive, and their easy banter made it seem like we were watching friends gabbing about the business (and goodness) of books, of storytelling and of bookstores, most especially.

The event was sponsored by Women and Children First, a favorite book store, which got a lot of love from the stage and from our audience cheers. If you're in Chicago, head to Andersonville and find the best selection of feminist, justice-y, inclusive titles around, and check-in with a book seller if you need a recommendation. And of course, Ann talked a lot about Parnassus Books, her book store in Nashville, where I've been dying to go. I love her video recommendation as she casually stands near the fiction shelves or new releases table, chatting with staff & guests. I feel like when I visit (see me manifesting there?), I will call everyone by their first name, and they will be excited to see me, too.

So, Ann Patchett had some stories & wisdom for us - I'll pass along a few gems.

- She uses her circle of writing friends as her editors, and when she turns in a book, she's turning in a final product - including her cover choice! She shouted out the illustrator of Whistler's striking cover, Noah Saterstrom; she also dropped that she "set up" Noah and Kate DiCamillo and we should be looking for a collab from them. Uhm, yes please!

- Her favorite book (of hers) is Commonwealth and it's the one Ann Patchett book I haven't yet read. The cover is beautiful and is luring me right in. Just the anticipation of reading this book soon is a lovely feeling.

- Her editor "heard Ann's voice" when she read Whistler, so she asked Ann to do the audio book. Ann was like, "Sure, why not?". She read it aloud the first time to her dog, and it was *terrible.* So in the next month, she read it aloud four more times to get it right, and then told us the lesson is that we can learn to do anything if we practice. (And she reinforced this in the Q&A: if you want write, keep writing. Do it all the days.)

- She wrote for Seventeen magazine, and her learning from those year: every single piece can be shorter.

- An audience member asked her for the best question she's ever been asked, and she said it's when someone asks what she's most proud of. Her answer? Her bookstore - a place where her book sellers can make a living wage, and work there their whole lives, and she can be a literacy champion AND she can get a deep discount to donate books to Title 1 schools. Which she encouraged us all to do.

- Lisa ended by asking Ann for her favorite titles, and she recommended Hanif Abdurraqib for poetry. He's one of my favorites, too, and I'll also recommend his essays and music musings. If you want to hook some 9th grade boys on poetry, after you read The Crossover, check out It Is Maybe Time to Admit That Michael Jordan Definitely Pushed Off.

I walked away from that 80 minutes with Ann feeling inspired to tend more carefully to my reading life, keep shopping in independent bookstores, and share more books with students without ready access - perfect goals for July, and for forever.

My next read: