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In this edition of PEN to Paper, James Hannaham talks about how “word choice creates atmosphere and character all by itself” and leads writers through several language-related exercises, including one that involves taking a New York Times online quiz on dialect.
This behind-the-scenes short film directed by Yvonne Shirley of a 2018 T Magazine photo shoot at the Brooklyn Historical Society features Black American male poets, playwrights, and novelists—such as James Hannaham, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Ishmael Reed—speaking on identity in the publishing world and paying tribute to their favorite Black female writers.
James Hannaham speaks about the importance of a good narrative and why people continue to read even when there's a spoiler to the plot. Hannaham was awarded the 36th annual PEN/Faulkner Award for his second novel, Delicious Foods (Little, Brown, 2015).
One BookTuber offers his view on 2015's book lists from the New York Times to Publishers Weekly, Amazon to Goodreads. Paula Hawkins's debut novel, The Girl on the Train (Riverhead Books, 2015), James Hannaham's Delicious Foods (Little, Brown, 2015), and Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau, 2015) are books that top the lists.
