antoine wilson
How to Write a Novel from Antoine Wilson on Vimeo.
Galleys Have Arrived!
My favorite moment. (Because it’s real, but not too real…)
NEWS: Delighted to announce that Panorama City has been selected to appear on the Editors Buzz Panel at this year’s BEA in New York.
Which means I’ll be there, too!
Last time I attended BEA it was in L.A., and I snagged a pass from my homies at Other Press. It was super-fun, but I have to admit that I felt like a bit of an interloper.
Excited to be there for a legit reason this time.
What do I wear?!?
A long time ago, when I was just a tadpole, I read a book called V. by Thomas Pynchon, and it helped me decide–along with The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster and Another Country by James Baldwin–to set aside my premed studies and pursue writing exclusively.
And so way back then, when I saw a first edition of V. at Brentwood’s (now gone) Vagabond Books, with a torn and faded dust jacket, I saved up the $100 to buy it.
I couldn’t really afford it, and I doubted it would grow much in value, considering the condition, but it’s a purchase I have never regretted.
The inimitable Lysley Tenorio (author of MONSTRESS) talked up THE INTERLOPER (and two other fabulous books) on NPR the other day. Listen here: Try and Try Again: Three Tales of Spectacular Failure (NPR.org)
…for Panorama City!
Um, the city.
“I have a special relationship with Panorama City, CA. First of all, The Office is literally filmed there. Also, I saw Dungeons and Dragons, The Movie there a long time ago. Also they have a Home Depot. I haven’t read the book yet but if it’s half as interesting as the actual city, it’s gonna be a doozy.”
–Rainn Wilson
I have a confession to make about my author photo: It’s a lie.
Heavily retouched, populated with “reader-friendly” elements, what you see to the right is a complete fabrication.
I don’t own a dog. (I accumulate cats.)
I don’t ride old-school, vintage, soulful longboards. (I ride short boards, newish ones, and I’m an aggro frothing spazz.)
I’ve usually got a beard or mustache going. The last time I was that clean-shaven was for my wedding, in 2003.
I’m smiling, not because I’m happy or friendly, but because I have no idea where I am. My vision is that bad.
I wear glasses. Cliche “author guy glasses.”
And yet, like the extended lie that is a novel, I feel the picture speaks to a higher truth about who I am.
Plus it was my last chance to look young.
(These novels take a damn long time to write. Maybe I’ll use the same picture for the next few books. Won’t be the first time that’s happened, right?)
Below, the original image, before it was retouched by the lovely and talented Ward Robinson.
Tis the season for lists, folks, so here we go.
Favorite Books from 2011 by guys named Ben:
Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner
Stories for Nighttime and Some for Day by Ben Loory
Other Favorites read in 2011:
Dancing Lessons for People Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal
The Sweet Relief of Missing Children by Sarah Braunstein
My Brother by Jamaica Kincaid
On Proust by Jacques Revel
Tinkers by Paul Harding
Sylvia by Leonard Michaels
Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays by Michael Langham
Two Favorites possibly read in Late 2010 or Early 2011:
Whatever Happened to Modernism by Gabriel Josipovici
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Favorite Graphic Novel:
Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
Big book I’m still in the middle of (and loving):
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
Big book that just sits there next to my bed, wrapped in plastic:
2666 by Roberto Bolano
Books I carry around and dip into when I’m stuck somewhere:
Notes from No Man’s Land by Eula Biss
Collected Poems by Tomas Transtromer
Book I wanted to like more than I did:
I am the New Black by Tracy Morgan
OK, I’m done procrastinating. Now can someone tell me what my next novel’s about?!?
Some of these words (the ones not crossed out) actually made into the book.
They’ll be looking much more spruced up and fancy come September 2012.
Hope you’ll revisit them then.
My amazing, amazing editor has moved presses, and I am following her, so update your calendars. PANORAMA CITY will now be coming out in FALL 2012, from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
I’ll be missing my Black Cat brother Mark Haskell Smith, but I’m uber-pleased to be in the company of my HMH sister, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum.
In the meanwhile, I’m scratching at the gravel.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
I don’t have one.
What is your greatest fear?
Dying abruptly.
Which living person do you most admire?
My wife.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Salesmanship.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Custom-painted orange wheels on my white Audi station wagon.
What is your favorite journey?
Oman: Muscat and the Wahiba Sands.
On what occasion do you lie?
I avoid lying, because I’m not good at it.
Which living person do you most despise?
My personal shit list is zeroed out right now.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
In print: ostensibly and perhaps. Aloud: dude and fucking.
What is your greatest regret?
Pulling back and not going on one particular heavy wave in the winter of 2009.
Where and when were you the happiest?
At the birth of my son.
What is your current state of mind?
Woolgathering. Paranoid about seeming lazy. Anxious about time.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would want more artistic confidence.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Writing my second novel, Panorama City.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A beloved cat named Whiskers.
What is your most treasured possession?
My newest surfboard.
What do regard as the lowest depth of misery?
The piped-in music at our local Ralph’s, a grocery store.
Where would like to live?
Paris.
What is your favorite occupation?
Novelist.
What is your most marked characteristic?
An inability to keep so-called inappropriate thoughts inside my own head.
What is the quality you like most in a man?
Intelligence, sense of humor, language, taste.
What is the quality you like most in a woman?
Intelligence, sense of humor, language, taste, flirtability.
Who are your favorite writers?
Nabokov, Proust, Hrabal, Nicholson Baker, Pynchon, Thomas Bernhard, Cheever.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Franz-Josef Murau, Arno Strine, Jesus, the Cat in the Hat.
Who are your heroes in real life?
My wife. After that the list is always in flux: James Alan McPherson, Yves Klein, Tom Curren, Gabriel Orozco…
What is that you most dislike?
The sound of someone smacking their lips while eating.
How would you like to die?
I’d like to know I’m dying and be able to say a few words about it first.
What is your motto?
Seize the daybed.
panorama city (sept 2012)
"THIS IS A BOOK YOU WILL HOLD IN YOUR HEAD ALL DAY LONG, A BOOK YOU WILL LOOK FORWARD TO WHEN YOU GET HOME FROM WORK, A BOOK YOU WILL STILL BE SAVORING AS YOU DRIFT INTO SLEEP. IT IS FILLED WITH JOY AND WONDER, AND A SORT OF GOODNESS YOU HAD STOPPED BELIEVING MIGHT BE EVEN POSSIBLE."
- PETER CAREY
pre-order:
(more options to come)
the interloper
"As assured and sumptuously written as any first novel I’ve encountered....This is writing at its very best."
- T.C. Boyle
antoine wilson * ** ***
* not my surfboard
** not my dog
*** not my apartment
