Sidik Fofana, An Emerging Literary Voice

 Prior to hearing an interview Sidik Fofana did with Scott Simon on NPR's Weekend Edition, I had never heard of him. The young African-American writer was on the show to discuss his debut collection of short stories called Stories from the Tenants Downstairs (Scribner/Simon & Schuster). The stories are set in a Harlem high-rise apartment building named Banneker Terrace, whose inhabitants are being confronted with a rent increase, gentrification, and eviction, very timely subjects.

After hearing the interview, I read a review of the book in the  New York Times Book Review, which led me to short video clips of Fofana discussing the collection on the Internet and then a Q & A interview with the website Literary Hub.

Asked by Jane Ciabattari, in an e-mail interview for Literary Hub, who inspired him as a writer, Fofana offers a lengthy list, some of whom I've read (Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, James Alan McPherson, Jamaica Kincaid, Langston Hughes, Truman Capote), others I have not (Jhumpa Lahiri, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colson Whitehead, Sandra Cisneros), but plan to.

The recent media attention has made Fofana, who has an MFA in creative writing from New York University and is a high school teacher in Brooklyn, New York, an emerging writer to watch.

How long before one of his stories is featured on NPR's Selected Shorts? It's safe to bet that it will be very, very soon.

The Film Actresses Directed By Dorothy Arzner

I wrote a review of Directed by Dorothy Arzner by Judith Mayne (Indiana University Press, 1994) that originally appeared in a monthly book review column that I wrote for the Manhattan Spirit, a weekly New York newspaper. The book, a biography of Dorothy Arzner, the pioneer lesbian film director (1900-1979), was published in the paper's January 12, 1996 issue. (I subsequently published it as a blog post in this blog on October 9, 2010).

Because of space limitations and the fact that the column consisted of three book reviews, I wasn't able to point out at the time that Arzner directed films that starred Clara Bow, Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, and Katharine Hepburn.

I neglected to make the correction in the blog post. If the review ever gets republished in a print publication, like a book, I will make sure to include that important information.

In the meantime, I hope to persuade a cinema art house in New York like Film Forum to screen a retrospective of Dorothy Arzner's films. Among her films I would like to see are Christopher Strong (RKO, 1933), starring Katharine Hepburn and Craig's Wife (Columbia, 1936), starring Rosalind Russell.

A Writer Admits She's Allergic To The Internet

Gabrielle Zevin's fifth novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Knopf), set in the video game design world, is currently on the New York Times bestseller list. In an interview in the New York Times Book Review (July 31, 2022) about her work habits, she's quoted from her website saying, "I'm allergic to being online, but you will sometimes find me on Instagram, and only for the three months before and after I have a book out." Then she continues, "After that time I completely disappear from the internet and resume writing books again."

Her statement leads me to wonder how other writers like Samuel Delany, Larry Duplechan, and Christopher Bram (who are three of my Facebook friends) find the time to write their books. It seems they are constantly posting on Facebook.