Jessa Crispin
Jessa Crispin has a lot to answer for. Not only did I quit my full-time job so I could focus solely on my book blog – thinking it would bring me worldwide success, fame and free books like it did for her – but now I spend more time checking out her posts on Bookslut, The Smart Set and NPR than I do writing my own blog. I cry most days.*
Jessa, you started bookslut.com in 2002. Tell us how you went from being an ‘awkward geek’ to the proprietor of a book review website so popular that people thrust books into your hands when they meet you.
I am still mostly an awkward geek, so it’s not like I’ve advanced in leaps and bounds or anything. Sometimes I pretend like I had a grand master plan for Bookslut, and that things are unfolding exactly like I envisioned them. But really all I’ve been doing for the last seven years is to try to keep myself entertained. I like the online format, I like that it embraces experimentation, so nothing feels like life or death. You can putz around, try certain things and abandon them, and the consequences for fucking it up (can I say “fuck” here?) are pretty small. Really, you can build a little empire without even noticing it, which is sort of what happened here.
As a pioneer in publishing formats, you are probably asked your thoughts on the future of publishing, print and literary criticism pretty often.
I am. And you would think that by now I would have a rote answer that I could trot out, but I don’t. “Visionary” is much better than “Example of all that is wrong with the direction the publishing industry has turned,” which is what I used to be trotted out as. Although they expect more from me now, I can’t just call everyone a cocksucker and be on my way. (Can I say “cocksucker”?)
What will people learn about you during your Writer in Residence session (on Sunday 30th August)?
Considering I have no idea what I might write, they might get to watch me answer email. Depending on who I am writing — either responding to press releases or writing love letters — they might learn way too much.
How many books did you bring with you to Melbourne, and how many have you bought since you arrived?
If I count the number I have bought, I will cry, so don’t ask. I do have two lying out on the hotel bed right now, so I can tell you I bought “Chocky” by John Wyndham and an art book about Brett Whiteley. I hid the others I bought at the bottom of my suitcase, so I won’t think about how much money I’ve spent already. As for how many I brought: I brought two I was writing up for a column, which will be left here in Australia, probably in this hotel room. Then there are three for airplane reading (Vanity Fair, Little Big, and Henry Green’s “Loving”), and Shaun Tan books to prepare for the interview I’m doing. I did, however, have about four other books in my bag that I pulled out last minute when I remembered I would need space to bring books home.
I couldn’t even guess how many books you read in a year. Amidst all the paper and glue, what kind of book still makes you sit up and take notice?
When I still lived in Chicago, I got an absurd amount of books in the mail. Often up to 30 a day. There would occasionally be those books that I knew immediately upon opening the package I had to read. Karinthy’s “Metropole” was like that. The cover was interesting, although not enough to override all the other books I saw that day. I just knew I had to read it immediately, and it was the best novel I had read in five years. Now that I live in Berlin and the main bulk of the review books are screened by my managing editor Caroline, there’s a lot less noise. But still there are those books that just show up and take the top spot in the stack by my bed.
* I regret to say that this is a lie.
Estelle Tang, 3000 BOOKS
Festival Blogger
Nice interview. I’ve been reading Jessa since long, and continue to be fascinated by her blog, column, and even occasional crap that she sometimes jots down.
I saw Jessa a few years ago on a panel at the Texas Book Festival, where she was quickly brought to her knees by critics from print media. I don’t believe she deserves the “clout” she’s earned, and especially not to be questioned regarding literary criticism. She reviews book but in no way participates in actual literary criticism, as her appearance on that panel proved.