I got to interview one of my heroes,
Madison Smartt Bell, for the
Baltimore Fishbowl, and will also welcome him next Wednesday, December 11th, to the Ivy Bookshop for a reading from his new collection,
Zig Zag Wanderer. In a time of publishing uncertainty, it's refreshing to see a prominent author like Bell embrace new publishing paradigms, particularly one in which his collection is given away for
free. The publishing industry isn't dead yet, and neither is Bell, although he does have a few thoughts about his tombstone:
Here lies one whose name was writ in water is my favorite epitaph I can remember. Saint Augustine, I think, has something good to say about the indifference of the dead to the opinions of the living. It’s mentioned toward the end of “A Record as Long as Your Arm,” a story by my old friend and teacher, the late George Garrett. If I ever get a tattoo, it will say "être humain." Not sure how that would look on a tombstone, though.
To read more of the interview, go
here.
