A few years ago I wrote about my father’s cremation for A Public Space, and they’ve now made the piece available online.
Check it out: “Valhalla”
(I don’t write much nonfiction. As I’ve said before, I’ll take the abyss of silence over the abyss of total noise any day.)
[I love the cassette tape themed cover]
The French translation of Panorama City comes out today in France, and next week in Canada.
It’s a particularly exciting moment for me, having never had any of my work translated into what was once my native language. I’ve since forgotten most of my French, but I’m nevertheless looking forward to making my way through Bernard Hoepffner’s translation. (I’m going to wish I hadn’t used so many subjunctive verb conjugations.)
Issue 2 of my terrible online magazine (with amazing contributors) is finally live. If you missed issue 1, worry not…simply keep on scrolling sideways.
And I wrote a little something about my surfing life for a collaboration between Trop and Underwater New York.
I’ve tried to write surf stories many times before, and it’s never felt right. This one finally started to feel right.
The title comes from this Wire song.
A little piece I wrote for NPR.org just went live, on Nicholson Baker’s wonderful short novel The Mezzanine.
You might remember my praise here for Baker’s hilarious and pornographic House of Holes.
But those aren’t the only Baker books I’m hot on. Human Smoke, a collection of bits and pieces from newspapers and journals published in the lead-up to WWII, blew me away.* The Fermata, which riffs on the adolescent fantasy of being able to stop time and is 33% plainly pornographic, is one of the few books I wish I’d written myself. U and I, Baker’s examination of his relationship with John Updike’s work, might have a longer shelf life than John Updike’s actual work. The list goes on.
I don’t know what it is about Baker that makes me feel he’s writing just for me, but I do know that I’m not the only one who experiences this feeling. He’s one of those artists whose work creates new spaces (or clears the cobwebs from old ones) so that others might work there, too.
* Yeah, I know.
It’s a momentous day for Panorama City, the novel.
The paperback is out!
I love the cover, with its cursive title (which I hope people can still read) and its mylar balloon.
When it was first acquired by my editor, years ago, PC was originally meant to be published in paperback. But she moved houses, to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and brought the book with her, where it was published in beautiful hardcover last fall. This led to all kinds of good things, like getting picked for the BEA Buzz Panel, and getting an awesome review in the New York Times, and being listed as one of the best books of 2012 by the San Francisco Chronicle, and so on.
What a fabulous party.
Today, my novel hangs up the dinner jacket and puts on its red pants and t-shirt.
To walk the earth and make new friends.
Folks,
Good News…
PANORAMA CITY is one of four finalists in Adult Fiction for the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association’s 2013 Book Awards.
Support your local independent bookstore!
I am coming to New York on September 19.
to launch PANORAMA CITY in paperback.
and to celebrate A Public Space.
One night only.
Imprint this into your brains:
When: Thursday, September 19, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, located at 58 W. 10th Street (between 5th and 6th Aves.)
What and Who: Readings by Tom Drury, Sarah Manguso, and Antoine Wilson, hosted by APS founding editor Brigid Hughes.
Are you wondering what I’m up to?
I’m writing another novel.
Or driving carpool, getting groceries, teaching, organizing, making dinner, doodling, taking pictures, reading, watching Mr Rogers, and so on.
My mantra is “This is what I’m doing right now.”
…and you can read them here: @antoinewilson
International Call
You can see in the early light of dawn
Facing the noise of the so-called Twilight
Bright stars through the perilous fight, and a wide range of his lines and
Flow because we are bold, fluttering looking at the wall?
The rockets red light, and bombs, and the explosion in the air,
Evidence throughout the night that we learned he was still;
O Star Spangled Banner still wave
Fluttering bravest of the land of the free world?
(“The Star Spangled Banner” first stanza, Google translated from English to Chinese to Russian to Korean to Arabic to English.)