(Once you click on the image, you’re committed: no pause button here!)
Two weeks ago, I mentioned a video that poet Beth Ann Fennelly had shot with United States Artists as a perfect example of book trailer making, and now USA tells us they’ve launched “Encounter: USA Fellows,” a series of short films about American artists who have recieved fellowships from the organization (as has the director, Phillip Rodriguez). One of the first subjects is Victor LaValle, the author of Slapboxing with Jesus and The Ecstatic. As scenes from home movies swirl around the screen, LaValle talks about his early love of horror stories, and the blurry line between his fiction and his autobiography:
“I don’t actually mind sorta putting all my business out there,” he says. “For whatever reason, I don’t really have that much shame about myself or exposing the secrets of loved ones… My mom was like, “I gotta read this stupid book you just wrote, ’cause, you know, how many ways did you embarrass our family?’ And so then she read the book and she was really upset, and she called me screaming, saying, ‘I’m going to have to change your sister’s name now…'”
An accompanying article indicates that he’s completed a new novel, “about a man, a woman, and a monster baby.” Sounds like one to watch for next year.