Conversations with Colson Whitehead (Literary Conversations Series) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1496821475 ISBN 13: 9781496821478

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi, 2019

Synopsis

Since the publication of his first novel, The Intuitionist, in 1999, Colson Whitehead (b. 1969) has been considered an important new voice in American literature. His seven subsequent books have done little to contradict that initial assessment, especially after 2016’s The Underground Railroad spent many weeks at the top of bestseller lists and won numerous major literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize.

Ranging from 2001 to 2016, the twenty-three interviews collected in Conversations with Colson Whitehead reveal the workings of one of America’s most idiosyncratic and most successful literary minds. Through these interviews, it is clear that none of this well-earned praise has gone to his head. If anything, he still seems inclined to present himself as an awkward misfit who writes about such offbeat subject matter as rival groups of elevator inspectors, the insufficiency of off-brand “flesh-colored” bandages, or a literalized alternate version of the Underground Railroad.

Whitehead speaks at length about matters related to his craft, including his varied literary and nonliterary influences, the particular methods of researching and writing that have proved valuable to telling his stories, and the ways in which he has managed the rollercoaster life of a professional writer. He also opens up about popular culture, particularly the unconventional blend of music, genre fiction, B movies, and comic books that he gleefully identifies as a passion that has persisted for him since his childhood.

About this title

About the Author

Derek C. Maus is professor of English at SUNY Potsdam and author of Understanding Colson Whitehead. He is also coeditor of Finding a Way Home: A Critical Assessment of Walter Mosley's Fiction and Post-Soul Satire: Black Identity after Civil Rights, both published by University Press of Mississippi.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1496821475
• ISBN 13: 9781496821478
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 196
• Editor: Maus Derek C.