New York Magazine talks to Alicia Erian (left) about her debut novel’s title…
How did you come up with such a provocative title?
The book had a different title initially–Welcome to the Moral Universe. It comes from a speech that Daddy makes to Jasira. Then I turned the manuscript in, and then my editor said, “Okay, new title.” I was flipping through the book just looking for words, and the word that kept jumping out was towelhead, and I thought, Oh, that’s horrifying–I could never call the book that. But then I thought, Well, this is a publisher’s wet dream–this has got to be the way to go.
Another wet dream for publishers? Hearing authors give in to publishers’ “horrifying” “wet dreams” … Because, at every point along the writing process, the key word is submission.