In this week's edition of Endnotes, we take a look at Joy Williams' The Pelican Child, a collection of stories longlisted for the National Book Award.
Here's how the book came together:
Joy Williams
“Most of these were conceived after the collected stories in The Visiting Privilege were published in 2015. That seemed somewhat like a pre-obit to me, a feeling I wanted to dispel. A collection of short stories can be just the ticket.”
Amelia Atlas
“Joy is lucky to have had a wonderful long-term home at Knopf, and The Pelican Child was the second book in a two-book contract that also included her novel Harrow. So it was quite straightforward. I had long been a fan of Joy’s work, so to get to work with her is a dream.”
Deborah Garrison
“Joy’s manuscript doesn’t look like another writer’s would—she doesn’t send a Word file or PDF. It’s a combination of hand-typed, hand-corrected pages and scanned magazine tear sheets for previously published work, with her markings on them where she had the urge to revise a little. In an old-schoolprocedure that rarely happens anymore, a typesetter created the manuscript we used for copyediting and production.”
Kelly Blair
“The cover was a real collaborative effort with the author. I presented several design ideas, which were considered. Eventually, the author asked if we could connect with the artist Walton Ford to see if he would be able to create a painting based on the story, which he did, to wonderful effect.”
