Walter Mosley's Blog, page 8

Graphomania: A Life in Words

Kate Burns interviews Walter Mosley

WALTER MOSLEY is one of the greats. He’s a prolific novelist who is best known for his crime fiction. He’s also written bestselling science fiction, literary fiction, nonfiction, and beyond — over 43 books at last count. Among others, he’s won an O. Henry Award, a Grammy, PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and he’s the Mystery Writers of America’s 2016 Grand Master.

At 64, Mosley is at the top of his game. He is perhaps a little young to be considered an elder statesman, but he’s easing into the role with grace. He’s deeply knowledgeable but without pretense, rejecting the mystique that sometimes surrounds writing in favor of daily practice and attention to craft. When I met him, he wore his signature fedora and a playfully elegant, oft-described oversized African gold ring.

We sat down during UC Riverside’s Writer’s Week, at which Mosley was a keynote speaker. I took the opportunity to ask him for some tips about writing, to discuss his recent hand-lettered memoir, the musical that he’s working on, and why he doesn’t tweet.

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KATE BURNS: You write about an incredibly diverse array of characters. Any tricks you have to help get into other people’s skins, or write characters from very different backgrounds from your own?

WALTER MOSLEY: I make it up. Honestly. All of us are so different. I heard a story … I think it was J.P. Morgan. His family had money, but his mother was insanely cheap. This guy, who I think was J.P. Morgan (but might not be), got an infection. His mother went to every free clinic in the city to try to get the infection treated and he ended up losing a limb. Part of his leg or something like that. And you would think, being rich, she would have just paid for it. And instead he paid for it with his leg. And once you hear something like that you think wow, so, I think I know what it’s like to be rich, but I don’t. All I know is what I think I would be like if I was rich. But indeed, even that may not be true. So then when you start writing about characters from different races, different classes, stuff like that, it always ends up being about who they are individually. Inside the sphere of wealth or poverty or politics or being a policeman, you know, whatever.

Your most recent book is a hand-lettered memoir, very different from your usual work.

I do a lot of drawing, and a lot of The Graphomaniac’s Primer is drawing. I had this idea, and this really good paper, and a drafting pen, so what I did is — I had the pen, I had the paper — I wrote a tiny little “a” in the upper left and corner and then wrote a’s all the way across. And then another line butted up to that, and another, and another, all the way down to the bottom. Just feeling it out. And it looked really nice. And so I thought let’s do b’s, see what they look like. They look really different. B has that line and the hump so there are spaces. There are no spaces in the a’s that are not interior to the letter, so that made a different form, then the c’s. They’re a little more open than the a’s — there’s less going on — but they’re more closed than the b’s. And so I was about halfway through the alphabet when I thought, this would be a great graphomaniac’s primer.

What exactly is a graphomaniac?

A graphomaniac is a person who can’t stop writing, they’re just writing and writing and writing and writing. R. Crumb and his brother used to write comics together. There was a biopic of R. Crumb and they showed the brother, who wrote normal comics, but then the bubble when they were talking got larger and larger until finally there was only one square on each page, and the person would be down here and the rest would be writing. The guy’s just talking, talking, talking, talking. It’s writing, but it’s also obsessive writing. Excessive talking, obsessive. So I thought, wow, I’ll create this thing and it’ll be the alphabet, and the numbers, and some characters. And then I kept writing, and I was about halfway through it when I realized that I’m saying, almost tongue in cheek, that I’m writing a graphomaniac’s primer, but that indeed, I am a graphomaniac.

What about the memoir part of it?

I’m really critical of memoir. I think it’s overused and misused in literary culture today. People are writing memoirs: my father raped me, my mother never paid attention to me, my mother took me to free clinics when she had money and I lost my leg, and it’s like, what do I care? I mean, I care that these things happen. But memoir to me is like if you were the secondary aide to Robert E. Lee during the Civil War, and then remembering your life is remembering the important moments in the Civil War. That’s interesting. Or maybe you’re Abe Lincoln and you’re writing how you made the decision to free the slaves and what was going on in your life, your country, your friends, your wife, your children. But the idea of just writing psychological memories and somehow trying to raise them up seems like a trick, and memoir, for me, shouldn’t be a trick.

Now of course, the book I wrote, this surreal thing, really seems like a trick. But the trick is … because I was never ever going to write a memoir … a valid memoir for a plumber is to write about plumbing, and maybe to draw how pipes go, and talk about what you do as it reflects your life. This will never be a big seller in a bookstore, but your life is your labor, and a memoir about that is really interesting. And there aren’t many.

So I decided I would do the letters, and I would put my drawings, because they’re kind of a graphomania, and then various essays that I’ve written or that I’ve published, or ideas about memoir, memories of my father and how his stories helped me understand what I was doing with that project. And that was fun. To have a whole book where every moment of it was done by my hand … there’s nothing in it that’s printed or that somebody else wrote. It’s all mine, and I really, really like that.

Would you do a project like that again?

Well I can’t really do it again. It’s one of those things that’s like done, a one-off.

Did it change the way you looked at the bookmaking process or any of your other work?

No.

You say you would never write a memoir, but you did publish a book called World Peace: A Memoir …

I talk a lot about my father in that book, and how my father experienced World War II, and it’s a criticism of America’s so-called war on terrorism. It came out the day we invaded Iraq.

So it’s using memoir and personal experience as a framework to talk about politics.

And actually in most of my nonfiction there are moments of memoir in it where you can find out something about me while I’m trying to talk about something else. In that one, I asked my father, “Were you afraid to be in World War II?” And he said, “No.” And I said “Why not,” and he said, “Well, I thought it was a war between the Germans and the Americans.” And I said, “Well, wasn’t it?” And he said, “Yeah, but I didn’t think I was an American.” Because you didn’t say that black people were Americans. Americans were white people. And then when the Germans started to shoot at him he realized, “Oh, wow, I’m on a side, and even if that side doesn’t like me, that’s the side I’m on, because those people are shooting at me.” It was a good way to teach me. It was not necessarily my memoir, but his.

The Graphomaniac’s Primer was put out by a small press that you’ve worked with for years. Are there advantages to working with a small press over a larger publisher?

The larger publishers can get their hands on more money, that’s a big thing. And when you’re published with one of the larger and more established publishers people take you more seriously, although it doesn’t really matter, either your work’s good or it’s not good. I work with small presses not for artistic reasons, but more because the book cost 30 dollars, and you’ve made all of the 30 dollars possible because you wrote the book. So if you give that book to somebody whose politics and views of life resonate with your own, i.e., Black Classic Press that I’ve worked with, the whole 30 dollars goes to that press before it goes out into the world again. So the people that work for W. Paul Coates, the people he hires, the people who do the distribution are all people who there’s a good possibility will reflect with my own political ideas and beliefs and goals. And so that’s why it’s good. Paul’s an editor like anybody else, it doesn’t make it easier. It’s a little more difficult in some ways because there isn’t that much wealth going into designing the book. But it’s a way to realize who you are through not just the writing but how you shepherd that writing in the world.

While you studied City College of the City University of New York; you formed a mentorship relationship with Frederic Tuten there that led you to your first published manuscript, Devil in a Blue Dress. You also teach. What advice do you have for writers about getting the most out of an MFA program or any creative mentorship relationship?

I did have a mentor of sorts, Frederic Tuten, but we were friends. For a lot of people in the “literary world” — I put that in quotes — everything is about writing, at least that’s what they say. The truth is, you just befriend people and you hang out, you talk together, maybe you get drunk together, you talk about girls, whatever you’re talking about. In that relationship, because you’re both in the same profession, just at different levels, things come out about that. I gave Frederic the first draft of Devil in a Blue Dress and then I went off to the AWP conference, and then I came back, and he said, “I gave it to my agent and she read it and she wants to represent you now.” Things like that happen. I wasn’t asking him to do that, and I wouldn’t have even thought of asking. But he did it because here’s a book, and he likes his agent, and knows what she likes, and it all worked out. But I think it’s more to do with friendships, rather than “how do I make the connection to forward my career?” A lot of people think like that, and sometimes it works, but I think even when it works it works to the detriment of the writer. Because we’re writers, and that’s a beautiful, wonderful art. And it’s not about the business or the technique of writing; it’s more about the fun and the meaning of writing.

Are you friends with a lot of writers?

None of my friends are writers. That’s not completely true, there are one or two people. When I say friends, I mean people I see all that time, and I don’t have any writer friends. Because why would you be … it’s like actors marrying each other. I know they think they have a reason — it’s like life is much more interesting than that. And writing is a beautiful thing, but writers aren’t necessarily a beautiful thing.

You’re asking me a particular thing — about when you’re beginning, about going to a school or trying to find yourself, going to readings. Befriend the people that you’re with, whether they’re peers or teachers or whoever. Try to have conversations with them about life in general. With Frederic: I was a computer programmer for many years, and he had a computer that wouldn’t work, and I fixed it. I showed him: now this is how you can write — I set it up where each chapter was a different file, and it was very helpful for him to look at it like that, and so he broke it down in these files. And so I was useful to him. But this is general in life.

Really often, for instance, not naming names, I’ll know a writer, and let’s say I’ve done something for a writer, I gave them something or I helped them do something or connected them somewhere, which I do all the time. And then like two years later I’ll get a note from them, oh thank you so much for that thing you did two years ago, can you do something else for me now? It’s like, it was okay that you didn’t thank me in the first place, but then to only thank me to get another favor? What’s that about? So I felt good dealing with Frederic because I was able to help him, and he felt good too.

I read that you were working on a musical theater project …

Yeah, we wanna do a musical of Devil in a Blue Dress. I have a wonderful lyricist, a woman named Issa Davis, she’s multitalented, a great playwright. I’m writing the book but she’s writing the songs. She’s also a musician and a singer and a performer and a million other things. She’s a talented woman.

And there’s a director we’re working with, Liesl Tommy, she’s South African, she’s helping us organize it. We’re still trying to find the right composer, but the book is written. It may change a lot, but it’s written right now so at least we have a frame to hang it on. And it’s so interesting because you write the book, and the book looks like the whole thing, but then the songs begin to take over pieces of what people were saying in dialogue, and then expand on things, and make things smaller. So we’ve been working on it, but we have to find a composer.

How different is that from writing a stage play?

A stage play, which I think is the hardest thing to write, is so difficult because all you really have is an actor, or actors, talking to an audience for two hours. It can be really, really boring. Making it interesting — like, keeping it going — is difficult.

The nice thing about a musical is, well, you have music and you have choreography and you have singing and you have all this other stuff, which is entertaining. I think song is probably the most potent human art. To hear a song and to be elated or depressed or frightened … the story goes that when Billie Holiday came out with the song “Strange Fruit,” about the lynchings in the South, that there was a period of time that it was banned from the radio because people would hear it and kill themselves. There’s no painting, sculpture, novel where anyone says “I don’t know if I should let you read this because you might kill yourself after you read it.” But a song gets deep past your brain down into your chest somewhere.

And so that’s where the power of this musical is gonna be. The book is much more like an outline that will be filled out by the music and song.

Has music influenced you as a writer?

I don’t know, I don’t think much. I’m not in any way musical. I can’t even keep a beat. I mean, honestly, it’s awful. RL’s Dream is about the blues, and the blues I think was the articulation of tragedy in the 20th century. I think that that’s probably true not for the whole world, but for most of it. And every century you have something else that’s tragedy — our deepest emotion — so in writing about a guy remembering having played with Robert Johnson, or in other words, in a novel in which Robert Johnson is the negative space, I was trying to connect with that articulation of tragedy.

You don’t tweet. Does social media have a place in a writer’s life?

I just don’t have the time. It would be fine to do if there was something to do it for. Like, tweeting was great in the Arab Spring. We’re organizing there, we’re doing this, we’re doing that, passing information that can’t be stopped. Maybe not even monitored. It’s kind of wonderful. But the idea of doing it — I feel there are two problems with social media for me — there’s no problem with it, it’s fine to do — the idea that number one, you’re doing it for self-promotion. I have a Facebook page, people can go to that, and that much advertising I think people want. They can friend the space, find out what I’m doing, what’s coming out.

The other idea is working on it all the time. I’m a writer, and that’s the writing thing. My criticism going back to the earlier thing about memoir — I’m not really writing about me. Like, I don’t find myself very interesting. There are people who find themselves very interesting and other people find them very interesting, and I want to follow them. An actor, a guy who seems to have this great sense of humor, I like reading him or her because the way they see the world is kind of wonderful. That’s a job that they’ve given themselves, whether or not they make money on it.

But I’m not that. I think things; I write them and put them in my books. So I would rather spend more time with my books than doing something that is less interesting to me, i.e., me. I find my books more interesting than me.

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(via LAReviewOfBooks.org)

Walter Mosley’s ‘Killing Johnny Fry’ Movie in the Works

Walter Mosley (“Devil in a Blue Dress”) and producer Denise Grayson have hired writer-director Paul Chart to adapt Mosley’s thriller “Killing Johnny Fry” for a feature film.

Mosley will produce through his company BOB Filmhouse together with Denise Grayson Productions.

Mosley’s novel, published in 2006, centers on nice guy Cordell Carmel, who’s shocked to discover his long-time girlfriend is secretly enjoying a darkly sexual double life with the handsome but menacing Johnny Fry. Cordell soon finds himself seduced into a twisted world of sex, drugs and murder.

“Having Paul Chart as a writer makes the translation of ideas into script easy, true to the purpose, and all kinds of fun,” Mosley said.

Chart is currently writing the sci-fi TV series “The Fourth Kingdom” for “Game of Thrones” executive producer Vince Gerardis. He recently founded independent production company Lionhart Films with partners Daniel Frey and Steve Valentine.

Mosley is best known for the mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in Los Angeles, including “Devil in the Blue Dress.” Denzel Washington starred in the 1995 movie.

Three other Mosley properties have been adapted for TV — Showtime aired a series in 1993 based on Mosley’s “Fallen Angels”; Laurence Fishburne starred in HBO’s TV movie “Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned” in 1998; and ABC’s “Masters of Science Fiction” aired the “Little Brother” episode in 2007.

Chart directed and wrote “American Perfekt,” which starred Fairuza Balk and Robert Forster and screened at Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 1997.

Chart is represented by Advanced Management. Mosley is repped by CAA and Gloria Loomis at Watkins/Loomis Agency.

(via variety.com)

Live from The Edgars, Crime Writing’s Big Night

Lisa Levy Reports on Walter Mosley, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Speed-Eating While Live-Tweeting

It is a given that everyone loves an award banquet, so much so that if they cannot be there they will watch it on television. Television might be the better option for such viewing. When you are actually at an award show, you are probably wearing uncomfortable clothes; there are inevitably 20 people in front of each bar for the whole hour of the opening reception (cash bar when dinner starts, babe, though people can buy wine for their tables); you run into plenty of people you don’t mind seeing but you can’t find the ones you’d actually like to see. And if you are me last Thursday night at the Edgars, which are the premiere awards for crime writing in the US, you are scrambling through the reception fumbling a phone, an evening bag, a pen and a program while trying to shake hands with all of the people you are introduced to by friends. Oh, and you’re live tweeting and taking photos too. No biggie.

That said, there is an undeniable feeling of a special occasion at the Edgars; well, either that or some women have wardrobes with multiple full-length gowns in them, like a socialite or Vanna White. There were men in tuxedos, too, and until the reception really started to feel like a cattle car I chatted with a whole host of publishing and crime fiction people: writer Hilary Davidson (who I always run into in elevators), editor Clair Lamb, writer and critic Sarah Weinman, writer Megan Abbott, writer Rob Hart, former NBA superstar turned Holmesian crime writer Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and lots of publishing people. The Edgars are mainly attended by nominated writers and their entourages (note: think about who Mark Wahlberg of crime fiction world might be), as well as scattered critics and a few fans active in the community, being up for an Edgar is a big deal. It is actually an honor just to be nominated.

When you check in you get a very detailed program about the evening: the Mystery Writers of America, the sponsoring organization of the Edgars, is an efficient and enthusiastic bunch (a couple of staffers and a lot of volunteers). I couldn’t really open my program given the juggling situation so I had someone look up my table (press people are scattered around the room, not ghettoized at a press table), which turned out to be made up of the winners of the non-writing awards and a few MWA folks. This is only my second Edgars but memory served me correctly: the time in which the staff of the Grand Hyatt serves and clears three courses is Olympic, maybe even Guinness world-record speed. This is all a little weird and awkward when you are, talking to the gentleman on your left about his childhood in San Francisco in the 1950s, Judy Blume, and late marriages; trying to eat like someone who has been around a multiple utensil place setting before; and still live tweeting. I would rate my performance as a combination partygoer and reporter pretty highly so far.

Former MWA President Sara Paretsky (author of the excellent long-running V.I. Warshawski series) introduced the new MWA President Jeff Abbott, who recalled the year he was nominated for Edgars in two different categories and lost twice; an evening, he recalled, “of awkward smiles and brotherly hugs.” Abbott was a endearingly awkward host as well, telling us he had a book due in two days so if he took our his laptop we could just remind him to continue to emcee. Occasionally he mentioned his word count.

To the highlight reel of the 70th annual Edgar Awards!

Janet Rudolph was given the Ellery Queen Award, which honors “outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry.” Rudolph, whose PhD focused on religion and mystery fiction, is the founder of Mystery Writers International, which publishes the quarterlyMystery Readers Journal. Rudolph also blogs at Mystery Readers Journal and Dying for Chocolate, and has been involved in many crime fiction conventions and events (especially Left Coast Crime). If that’s not enough, she and her husband (my charming tablemate) regularly open their San Francisco house for salons where visiting writers can meet local fans. When I asked Rudolph how she felt about the award, she replied, “As a popularizer of all things mystery-related, I promote the pure enjoyment of the genre in many different forms—my goal is to enrich the lives of mystery readers.” And she does.

Two Raven Awards were presented, one to an individual and one to a group. The Ravens are given to non-writers who have made a significant contribution to the community. The first one went to Margaret Kinsman, a London-based professor who was the longtime executive editor of Clues: A Journal of Detection, the only American journal devoted to crime and mystery. The other Raven went to the vital organization Sisters in Crime, which Paretsky (and others) started during Edgars week in 1987. SinC’s mission is to promote women crime writers (though lots of men are also members). Writer and current President Leslie Budewitz accepted the award on behalf of SinC, proud of all that the organization has accomplished but firm in the notion that there is “still work to be done.”

After the awards for TV Episode, Best Juvenile, and Best Young Adult books (a list of winners is here), Best Critical or Biographical book went to Martin Edwards for his account of the real-life club that Agatha Christie and other writers formed to solve crimes, The Golden Age of Murder. Best Fact Crime (which should probably be called true crime now?) went to Allen Kurzweill for a book I’m in the middle of and loving calledWhipping Boy, in which Kurzweill tracks down a boy who bullied him at a Swiss boarding school who is now an international con man. Truth!

Then, people, the Edgars got real. Activist and publisher Paul Coates—who as fellow Baltimorean Laura Lippman pointed out is also the father of a writer who is doing pretty well, Ta-Nahesi Coates—introduced his friend Walter Mosley, the recipient of this year’s Grand Master award (and the first person of color to win), the highest honor in the mystery world. I now wish I had recorded Coates’s speech as well as Mosley’s so I could transcribe it for you. Coates read a passage from Mosley’s A Red Death about the beauty in ordinary, working African-American people going about their business that was both breathtakingly beautiful and poignant. It’s funny how a little literature at a book award ceremony can choke you up. It’s too easy to forget what we are there for.

Beforehand, Mosley appeared in a brief video in which he claimed as long as he could “pay rent, eat, and get laid, I’m happy.” Yet Mosley was thrilled at getting the award. I asked if he had any particular favorites among past Grand Masters. He said, “Choosing this one over that would be an error I feel. But I’m a fan of Rex Stout, Georges Simenon, Agatha Christie, Sara Paretsky, Mickey Spillane, Emore Leonard, John le Carre, Ross MacDonald, Ruth Rendell, and, of course, Alfred Hitchcock.” Mosley added, “The Grand Master Award is the greatest literary honor I have received (so far) in my life. It means that my peers see me in the company of some of the greatest writers in our history.” Mosley finished his speech by thanking those writers and others who made his career possible, especially African-American crime writers, from Chester Himes to Barbara Neely to Gary Phillips. Two standing ovations for Mosley rounded out that presentation.

Oh, so you want to hear who actually won for the books they wrote last year? Lori Rader-Day (my Edgars tablemate last year) won the Mary Higgins Clark Award forLittle Pretty Things, a smart and sardonic mystery that plays out in a cheap motel in small town in Indiana. Best First Novel went to Pulitzer Prizewinner The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. And Best Novel went to Lori Roy for Let Me Die in His Footsteps.Shaking and surprised by her victory, Roy went up to the podium and told a story about her college-aged son coming home with a basket of dirty laundry with a bottle of homemade moonshine on top as a good luck gift. Clearly, the woman can both write and raise her children right.

I swore I wouldn’t bring home a single thing, unless there were amazing chocolate Edgar-shaped truffles I could stuff in my small purse. But of course as the doors of the banquet hall opened and I walked up to the tables of books (mainly nominees and some advance copies) and picked up a few. The siren call was irresistible. It was like being on a tour of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. So I went back into the hall, grabbed a random MWA tote bag (there’s one hanging on every chair), and really got down to business. I grabbed Roy, Nguyen, some Mosley backlist, a collection of Shirley Jackson stories, and Laura McHugh’s upcoming Arrowood. Finally, I put everything in my bag and made my way home through the cool New York City evening, tired and happy with my haul.

READ WALTER MOSLEY’S FULL ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

 

Walter Mosley shares his work and personal reflections of the Watts Rebellion

With his wryly clever conversational style, best-selling author Walter Mosley charmed a packed Loker Student Union ballroom after stopping by California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) Feb. 16 for a reading from his novel “Little Scarlet,” and to share thoughts about writing, racial inequity, and his personal reflections of the Watts Rebellion.

Mosley was the guest speaker for the Department of English 2016 Patricia Eliet Memorial Lecture. He is a prolific writer of more than 40 books—ranging from crime novels to literary fiction—and is widely recognized for his Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins detective series based in Watts, which includes the first book in the series “Devil in the Blue Dress,” as well as “Little Scarlet.”

“I’m going to read the first three chapters of ‘Little Scarlet’ because I think that he [Easy] covers the experience of the riots as I remember it,” said Mosley.

In “Little Scarlet,” Mosley drew from his personal experiences as a young man living in Watts in 1965, the year the five-day rebellion took place. The beginning of his reading found Easy Rawlins navigating a burned out shoe repair store to help the German shop owner who was trying to explain to an angry and indifferent African American customer that his shoes had been lost in the fire. His dramatic reading was descriptively subtle, yet vivid enough to bring to life the narrative in a way that enabled the audience to easily imagine the somber setting, and experience the despair and rage of the rebellion.

Mosley’s reading was a significant occasion in CSUDH’s year-long commemoration of the Watts Rebellion, which 50 years ago resulted in the relocation of the university from Palos Verdes some 15 miles inland to serve not just students in the South Bay beach cities, but those in the inner city who previously lacked access to higher education.

At the beginning of the rebellion, a young Mosley found himself traveling by car through the chaotic streets of Watts with other members of the Afro-American Traveling Actors Association to perform at a local playhouse. The playhouse was empty, due to the riot, so the troupe drove back to their homes.

“When I got home my father was sitting there drinking, which wasn’t unusual, and he was very somber. I said, ‘Dad, is something wrong?’ And he said, ‘Yes, they’re out there rioting, Walt!’” Mosley shared. “My dad said, ‘I know it’s wrong, but I want to do it, too, but I can’t do it because it’s wrong. But I want to.’ I think that was my big lesson. The big lesson was the ambivalence of rage, violence—belonging and not belonging. It was the best lesson I could ever get about being black.”

While revisiting “Little Scarlet” to prepare for his reading at CSUDH, Mosley realized that what he was “thinking about” 15 years ago when he wrote the book had changed.

“I think you hear all the various kinds of tones of the riot in there, and the causes, but when I thought about it the day before yesterday, I sat down and started writing,” he said. “So I wrote this thing for you all. It’s what I think today. It’s a little different.”

Following the reading of the letter, Mosley fielded questions from the audience, including one regarding his thoughts of the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

“It’s interesting to talk about. So many people are unhappy with that [movement] because, you know, they say ‘All lives matter.’ Yeah, but we all know it’s your lives that matter. But at the same time, I need to remember, and I need to remind my brothers and sisters, that when you look at something like The Oscars, it’s a similar thing; black people are not getting this, black people are not getting that. We hear that all the time. But are you seeing a Latino or Chicano man or woman nominated for The Oscars, or Asians and Native Americans? Never,” said Mosley. “The thing is, you have to start with Black Lives Matter, but also remember there’s a larger world, and understand that black is a metaphor. Any guy who is running away from a police officer and gets shot down—I feel bad for that guy. I don’t care if he is white. I’m just thinking, ‘Why did you shoot that guy?’”

Walter Mosley, author, visits CSU Dominguez Hills Feb. 16

Walter Mosley, author, visits CSU Dominguez Hills Feb. 16

CSU Dominguez Hills’ 50th Watts Rebellion Commemoration welcomes author Walter Mosley; Watts is setting for Mosley’s ‘Easy Rawlins’ book series

CARSON – Best-selling novelist Walter Mosley will be a guest speaker in the California State University, Dominguez Hills 2016 Patricia Eliet Memorial Lecture Series, Feb. 16, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. in the Loker Student Union ballroom.

Continuing its year-long commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Watts Rebellion, the university welcomes the author of more than 40 books ranging from crime novels to political essays. Walter Mosley is considered one the most versatile and prolific writers in the U.S. today. He is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, a Grammy, and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Devil in a Blue Dress

The first book in Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series, “Devil in a Blue Dress” was famously made into a 1995 film directed by Carl Franklin and starring Denzel Washington. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures

Mosley is best known for his mystery series featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, an African-American World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. Set from the late 1940s to 1960s, the series weaves in into its plot lines real issues occurring in the Los Angeles area at the time, particularly those related to racial inequalities and social injustice.

The first book in Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series, “Devil in a Blue Dress” was famously made into a 1995 film directed by Carl Franklin and starring Denzel Washington, Jennifer Beals, and Don Cheadle.

The ninth novel in the series, “Little Scarlet,” takes place in the aftermath of the Watts Rebellion.

The Patricia Eliet Memorial Lecture is presented in honor of the late CSU Dominguez Hills professor of English Patricia Eliet, who taught at the university from 1969 to 1990. Past guest lecturers have included Susan Straight (2012), Brando Skyhorse (2013), David Gerrold (2014) and Sara Shun-lien Bynum (2015).

The Loker Student Union is at the heart of the CSUDH campus, 1000 E. Victoria St. in Carson [MAP]. Visitor parking passes are sold for $6 at yellow dispensing machines at each campus lot.

For more information, call (310) 243-3322.

Beyond the 30th Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Author Walter Mosley, filmmaker and critic Nelson George, singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo and President of Medgar Evers College Dr. Rudolph F. “Rudy” Crew reflect on Dr. King’s tremendous legacy, 30 years of celebration in Brooklyn and why his message remains so important today.

(via BAMorg)

MWA Announces 2016 Grand Master, Raven & Ellery Queen Award Recipients

Author Walter Mosley has been chosen as the 2016 Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, and will receive the award at the 70th annual Edgar Awards Banquet in New York City on April 28, 2016. At the same time, two Raven Awards will be presented, to “mentor, teacher, scholar and editor” Margaret Kinsman and to Sisters in Crime, the group of women mystery writers initially convened by Sara Paretsky in 1986, and the Ellery Queen Award will be given to Janet A. Rudolph, director of Mystery Readers International, editor of the Mystery Readers Journal and teacher of mystery fiction.

(via MysteryWriters.org)

Walter Mosley reads from latest Leonid McGill novel, a complicated tale

Walter Mosley has been called “America’s Blackest Jewish Writer.” His father was black and mother Jewish and even though he self-identifies as black, he speaks often about his Jewish heritage.

So, it’s fitting he will be at the St. Paul Jewish Community Center to talk about his new crime novel featuring ex-boxer and P.I. Leonid McGill, as well as being Jewish and why he identifies with Isaac Bashevis Singer.

McGill, a short, black man who still works out at the gym, is leading a messy life in his fifth outing. He meets a beautiful woman who has stolen a valuable ring from a mobster and embarks on a torrid affair with her even though his wife is hospitalized after trying to commit suicide. Also, he’s in love with Aura, who manages his apartment building, but they’re taking a break and he misses her.

When McGill turns away a homeless man who wants him to track down a woman with a secret, and the man is later found dead, McGill takes on his case out of guilt for the way he treated the guy.

A third thread in this complicated plot — or plots — is the involvement of McGill’s son, Twill, with a dangerous, Fagan-like figure who is running hundreds of young people in various scams and killings.

McGill is an interesting mix of integrity when it comes to his cases but less morality when it comes to his love life — or maybe sex life would be a better word. But he’s likable and cares for Twill and his other adult kids.

“And Sometimes I Wonder About You” has a lot of moving parts and readers have to pay attention to the characters and what’s going on.

IF YOU GO

What: Walter Mosley reads from “And Sometimes I Wonder About You” in Twin Cities Jewish Book Series.

When, where: 7 p.m. Thursday, St. Paul Jewish Community Center, 1375 St. Paul Ave., St. Paul

Admission: $25

Information: 651-698-0751

Publisher, price: Doubleday, $26.95

(via Pioneer Press)

‘The Fall of Heaven’ at Trinity Episcopal Church’s Fellowship Hall in Bethlehem

Crowded Kitchen Players’ production of Walter Mosley’s dark comedy “The Fall of Heaven,” which premieres in the Lehigh Valley Friday, will kick off the company’s series of plays designed to provide a forum on racial discrimination.

“The Fall of Heaven” is the first play in “Voices of Conscience: Toward Racial Understanding,” a joint effort by Crowded Kitchen, Selkie Theatre, Allentown Public Theatre, the Basement Poets and other arts organizations.

Crowded Kitchen’s production is only the second of the morality play written by the well-known mystery author. It will be presented in Trinity Episcopal Church’s fellowship hall, 44 E. Market St. Bethlehem.

“The Fall of Heaven,” written in 2011, was Mosley’s first play. Mosley has written more than 40 books, and wrote “The Fall of Heaven,” his first play in 2011, based on his 2008 book “Tempest Tales.”

In the story, based on Mosley’s 2008 book “Tempest Tales,” Tempest Landry (William Alexander Jr.) is a street-wise young black man living in Harlem, who is “accidentally” shot 17 times by police and finds himself at the pearly gates facing St. Peter (David “Oz” Oswald). When St. Peter tells him he is to go to hell, the quick-witted Tempest refuses to go and through a technical loophole is able to go back to earth, with a new identity and body. He also is accompanied by the accounting angel Joshua (Roy Shuler).

In life, Tempest was no angel, but he was far from evil. Joshua is out to prove goodness prevails and the resulting battle of wills takes an intriguing look at good versus evil and what it means to be human.

Mosley’s book was inspired by Jesse B. Semple, the memorable character created by Langston Hughes in his “Simple Stories.”

Director Ara Barlieb calls the play a “comedy of the human condition” and says it is very timely.

Mosley is the author of the acclaimed “Easy Rawlins” series of mysteries, the “Fearless Jones” series and the collection of short stories featuring “Socrates Fortlow,” “Always Outnumbered” and “Always Outgunned,” for which he received the Anisfield-Wolf Award.

The cast also features Erica Baxter and Felicia White. The play is being stage managed by Brian McDermott.

•”The Fall of Heaven” 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Nov. 13, 14; 3 p.m. Sunday and Nov. 15. Trinity Episcopal Church, 44. E. Market St., Bethlehem. Tickets: $18; $14, seniors; $10, students. Info: www.ckplayers.com, 610-395-7176.

(via @mcall.com)

Author Walter Mosley Grew Up In LA But His Writing Is Soaked In The South

Crime novelist Walter Mosley has family roots in New Orleans. In a conversation with Renee Montagne, he offers his reflections on life in Louisiana, before and after Hurricane Katrina.

(via NPR.org)