Opacities with Sofia Samatar!

Calling all writers! Sofia will be at the store talking with Kris Spisak.

About the Book:

Opacities is a book about writing, publishing, and friendship. Rooted in an epistolary relationship between Sofia Samatar and a friend and fellow writer, this collection of meditations traces Samatar’s attempt to rediscover the intimacy of writing.

In a series of compressed, dynamic prose pieces, Samatar blends letters from her friend with notes on literature, turning to Édouard Glissant to study the necessary opacity of identity, to Theresa Hak Kyung Cha for a model of literary kinship, and to a variety of others, including Clarice Lispector, Maurice Blanchot, and Rainer Maria Rilke, for insights on the experience and practice of writing.

In so doing, Samatar addresses a number of questions about the writing life: Why does publishing feel like the opposite of writing? How can a black woman navigate interviews and writing conferences without being reduced to a symbol? Are writers located in their biographies or in their texts? And above all, how can the next book be written?

Blurring the line between author and character and between correspondence and literary criticism, Opacities delivers a personal, contemplative exploration of writing where it lives, among impassioned conversations and the work of beloved writers.

About the Author:

Sofia Samatar is a writer of fiction and nonfiction, including the memoir The White Mosque, a PEN/Jean Stein Award Finalist. Her works range from the World Fantasy Award-winning novel A Stranger in Olondria to Tone, a study of literary tone with Kate Zambreno. Samatar lives in Virginia and teaches African literature, Arabic literature, and speculative fiction at James Madison University.

Kris Spisak earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the College of William and Mary, her master of liberal arts from the University of Richmond, and did further graduate work in fiction through the University of Iowa. She wrote her first three books—Get a Grip on Your Grammar, The Novel Editing Workbook, and The Family Story Workbook—to help writers of all kinds sharpen their storytelling and empower their communications. Her award-winning debut novel, The Baba Yaga Mask, was inspired by her family’s experience in the post-WWII Ukrainian diaspora and has been called “A complex, poetic tale” by Kirkus Reviews and “edu-tainment at its best” by the Historical Novel Society. Her latest book, Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist & Witch of the Woods, is new nonfiction that explores how understanding ourselves, our complex world, and our place within history are only a matter of turning to a boney-legged old woman who lives deep in the Eastern European woods. Kris fully believes that well-written words and well-told stories have always changed the world and that they will continue to. She can’t wait to tell you her next tale. Learn more at Kris-Spisak.com