An Artist, A Poet, Two Novelists: Four Interviews on Women, Race, Diaspora, Identity, Language, Sexual Violence, Friendship, Fragility, Beauty

Newfound Interviews, Autumn 2020

April Sunami

Black Women, Front and Center: An Interview with April Sunami

April Sunami conveys a warmth and generosity, a depth and brilliance that carry into her art. A visual artist, focused on mixed-media painting and installation, she is attentive to the world around her and to the world within. The palette she draws from is ever-expanding, whether in response to those nearest to her, the art community, or the greater Black Lives Matter movement. Her attention to black femininity and strength, and her use of oil and acrylic paints, textiles, maps, seashells, and shattered auto glass, create powerful and majestic works of art. From life-size canvases to diminutive studies, her paintings have a presence that calls forth, that summons and then demands consideration, reflection, and awe.

Eloisa Amezcua

How I Was Taught to Love: An Interview with Eloisa Amezcua 

Eloisa Amezcua’s debut poetry collection, “From The Inside Quietly” (Shelterbelt Press, 2018), the inaugural winner of the Shelterbelt Poetry Prize selected by Ada Limón, cracks open the concepts of identity, language, perspective, persona, and voice with a blend of observation, confession, reflection, and a fierce gaze on the world. There is a curious lens in these poems that creates distance and, simultaneously, invitation. Observe, but don’t touch. Get closer, but understand, the universal leans toward what is specific, private, cautious.

Hayley Krischer

Somehow We Control the Narrative: An Interview with Hayley Krischer

Hayley Krischer’s debut novel, “Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf” (Razorbill, October 2020), is a phenomenal look inside the minds of two high school girls—Ali, who has been sexually assaulted, and Blythe, who makes her way into Ali’s world with the intent of protecting the assailant. Straightforward and unflinching, the story leaps into emotional territory, traversing a landscape of best friends, high school cliques, crushes, drugs, parties, bullying, and outright sexual violence against young girls. In a voice that is searing, honest, and original, Krischer has arrived inside the world of YA novels with a topic that deserves serious attention.

Leslie Hooton

Finding Beauty and Happiness: An Interview with Leslie Hooton

Leslie Hooton’s debut novel, “Before Anyone Else” (Turner Publishing, 2020) is a story of hope and vision, reimagining spaces where we come together to celebrate meals and each other. At the same time, it is a story of restoring more intimate, fragile worlds where misfortune and happiness exchange places. Surrounded by loving, dynamic, southern men—her father Hank, brother Henry, and “best friend” Griffin—Bailey Ann Edgeworth grows into a young woman able to visualize and transform unrealized spaces into beautiful upscale restaurants, which reveal the owners’ and chefs’ individual stories. Ambition and imagination lead the Atlanta native to New York City, where success and the idea of love lead to trouble. True friends and family help Bailey find her way home, a path that reminds, as well as restores.

SYBELIA DRIVE - ARCs, Pre-Order Links, & Two Months to Go

SYBELIA DRIVE ARCs have arrived, pre-order links are up, & only two months to go until the novel’s release date of October 6th! Artist & true friend, Annie Russell, created the most beautiful cover I could ever imagine, & the Braddock Avenue Books creative team coordinated design, edits, & all the rest. When I started writing this novel, I wrote on a dare, I wrote to answer questions I’d had for decades. LuLu showed up, then Rainey, & of course, Saul. I wandered after them into the citrus groves of childhood, trying to know the bitter scents of fallen fruit, of fathers & sons sent away to war, of mothers trying to make ends meet. I’d love to share their story, so here is the PRE-ORDER LINK. Braddock Avenue Books, the small press that gave this book a home, will benefit the most from pre-order purchases. From now until the beginning of October, they’ll earn 50% of the sales price, but once Amazon takes over, the press will earn a little less than a dollar. Pretty sobering. Is it a leap of faith to ignore discounts & convenience? I hope so. Braddock Avenue Books will thank you, and so will I! Plus you’ll get a memorable read, or the most gorgeous doorstop you’ve ever seen, and my ever-loving gratitude. 💕🌸 

Sybelia Drive - Cover Art & Gratitude

So thrilled to share this beauty! The cover of SYBELIA DRIVE! Perfectly imagined and created by artist Annie Russell from the novel’s descriptions of the Florida setting — palmettos, camellias, trumpet vine, ligustrum.

The process of sending a book into the world is sweet and involves many — from the characters, no matter that they are fictional, to the first readers, agent, editor, publisher, cover artist, book designer, publicist, and so many more. For these folks, I’ve so much gratitude. Thank you, Mark Fabiano, Seth Borgen, Fritz McDonald, Valerie Borchardt, Jeffrey Condran, Annie Russell, Savannah Adams, Lori Hettler! And to LuLu & Rainey! Without these girls, there’d be no story.

Forthcoming: October 6, 2020.

#sybeliadrive #braddockavenuebooks #forthcoming #october2020 #floridastories #spdbooks

Bobwhite

In 2008 I began writing a story about a young girl growing up in the 1950s, sent by her father to live with relatives in Picayune, Mississippi, while her mother lies in the Touro Infirmary in New Orleans. Now, twelve years later, “Bobwhite” has been published by Five Points Journal. I’m honored that the story appears among the work of many fine writers and poets, including Terese Svoboda, Katherine Soniat, Barbara Hamby, and Heather Sellers, as well as artist William Gay. I’m grateful to my agent Valerie Borchardt and Five Points editor Megan Sexton, as well as the many friends and fellow writers who spent time reading and responding to beginning drafts, among them Lauren Inness Norton, A.J. Verdelle, Alicia Hyland, Laurie Foos, and Mark Fabiano.

This quiet story begins:

She’d turned nine in October of 1955, that year when presidents and mothers were sent to the hospital. Carly’s father called the president Dwight instead of President Eisenhower, and he called his wife Vivienne instead of Mrs. Robicheaux. Carly paid attention to what her father said, especially when he called her by her given name: Caroline. Especially when her mother was driven to the Touro Infirmary, and her father became a man of few words. 

Here is a link to Five Points, Volume 19, Issue 3, if you’d like to buy a copy and read more. Gratitude all around for those who love and support the literary arts!

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Photo credit: Annie Spratt

Sybelia Drive - a Novel by Karin Cecile Davidson

Forthcoming from Braddock Avenue Books in Autumn 2020!

More to come!