Justin Torres’ Blackouts

One of my favorite author interviews ever.

Right before I departed from my publicity desk Hachette Book Group, I was asked by editor Ron Hogan, to interview American novelist and Professor of English at UCLA Justin Torres at the GREENLIGHT BOOKSTORE in Brooklyn.

It’s an event that lives on, deep inside of me. Everything about that day was intense, work, the stressful commute to the store when the subway stopped working, only to arrive and be greeted by incredibly crowded room of patient and amazing people! It was a beautiful and magical evening.

I was honored then to talk to Justin about his creative process for his book, “We The Animals,” a NAACP Image Award nominee that has been translated into fifteen languages, and adapted into a feature film. There’s a terrible and old video clip shot on an flip camera on YouTube.

As I am honored now to share his latest novel Blackouts, already Long-listed for the National Book Award for Fiction:
“An extraordinary work of creative imagination, Blackouts insists that we look long and steady at the world we have inherited and the world we have made—a world full of ghostly shadows and flashing moments of truth.”

“A reclamation of ransacked history, a celebration of defiance, and a transformative encounter, Blackouts mines the stories that have been kept from us and brings them into the light.”

It’s the literary work the world needs right now.

📖 On sale October 10, 2023, it’s available for preorder via Macmillan: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374716677/blackouts

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