Three Questions with book critic & author Bethanne Patrick
The Book Maven on publishing, pursuing, and picking books!
One of the first people I think of when I think of book critics is Bethanne Patrick. She’s a sort of nine-lives-of-book-publishing critic, board member, magazine editor, columnist, podcaster, teacher, author of Life B, and on top of all of that created the popular Twitter hashtag #FridayReads—a spark of joy on a platform that has become increasingly hostile. You can read her book recommendations in LA Times, her previous reviews in Washington Post and NPR, follow her on Twitter, listen to her podcast, Missing Pages Pod, and check out her recent work on her website.
I also loved the following interviews with her: Oldster Mag, Identity Theory, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Poets & Writers, and this conversation with Maggie Shipstead too!
Without further adieu, Bethanne Patrick (claps!)
A few years ago in a Poets & Writers interview, you said you’re “less nervous about your opinions” these days, which I loved reading in the sense that you’re trusting your gut, particularly in a culture of social media highs and lows. For folks who might want to get into criticism, how did you build that gut-muscle?
For me, it took a while. That had less to do with my opinions themselves than it did with my mental health (which I've written about in my memoir Life B from Counterpoint Press). But once I began to write from my gut instead of my head -- meaning I wrote what I really thought about books instead of what I believed sounded smart -- I found my voice and realized that I had things to say.
You mention in several interviews that what helps you navigate the ten to twenty books a day arriving on your doorstep is receiving books from trusted sources, or folks who have proven to have a keen eye—what three things stand out to you in a pitch or make you look twice at a particular book?
I receive between 40-50 email pitches each day.
1. Keep the subject line useful *or* make it truly surprising. author name/title/release date, or mention a factoid/prize/comp title.
2. A brief note attached to a galley or arc goes a long way toward making me take a look, because then I know the publicist understands my preferences *or* really wants to connect with me on a particular book.
3. Check back in with me. I'm busy, too, but I really do care about books and literature. I miss great stuff all the time, and I so appreciate when a publicist sends a follow-up email to say you really should take a look at this title, Bethanne, and here's why…
You do not live in New York City (arguably the hub of publishing), what are some ways you built a career in publishing outside of the usual routes and / or what advice might you give to folks who are "off the beaten path" but want to pursue a publishing and writing career?
I had a choice between a job as a big-five publisher publicity assistant -- or getting married and moving overseas. Since my spouse and I are still married, I think I made the right decision, but I couldn't get past wanting to work in book publishing. I earned a master's in English, pursued various freelance-writing gigs, and finally got a couple of lucky breaks when first I became an editor at large for a magazine about books and reading, then was hired as the books editor at AOL. From there, my network and opportunities grew.
Thus, my advice would be to follow your passion for publishing and writing and remain open to all kinds of opportunities. I spent a few years writing middle-school curricula (which was far from wasted time; it taught me a lot about writing for the web) before I started writing for Pages Magazine. I've had ups *and* downs. If you know you want to work in publishing, stay the course, learn that rejections truly aren't personal, and think about creating something that's yours alone along with any full time positions you may have along the way.
BONUS: You’re creating a time capsule to be opened a century from now, what books do you put in it to represent 2023/2024, and what book criticism?
What a difficult yet important question!
One of the finest books of 2023/2024, which i'll define as June 2023 through June 2024, has to be Vengeance is Mine by Marie Ndiaye, a slow burn of a book about a bourgeois frenchwoman, an attorney, who must contend simultaneously with memories of sexual abuse, and with a housekeeper's refugee status. Ndiaye writes more honestly about power structures and social justice than many of her peers.
Another remarkable 2023/2024 book, nonfiction this time, is Beyond The Wall by Katja Hoyer, a major study of what it was like to live in East Germany, by a major scholar of German studies. Hoyer shows the humanity of people who continued to work, raise families, create art, and even experience joy as citizens of a repressive regime, and argues successfully that East Germany's existence is part of German history rather than something shameful that should be forgotten and hidden.
When it comes to book criticism, The Book At War by Andrew Pettegree; I hope that counts as book criticism, since it's also history! Its subtitle is "how reading shaped conflict and conflict shaped reading." The author covers books as "solace and inspiration," but also as places in which experiences of war can be shared by those who are not combatants.
Bethanne Patrick is a writer, author, and book critic whose work appears regularly in the LA Times and has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, at NPR Books and Lit Hub, and many other publications. She is Programs Chair for the PEN/Faulkner Literary Foundation board and has served on the boards of the National Book Critics Circle and the Smith College Libraries. Patrick teaches creative writing at American University and is a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellow. She hosts the award-winning "Missing Pages" podcast, about the book-publishing world. The author of two books for National Geographic and an anthology for Regan Arts, Patrick wrote a memoir, "Life B," that came out in May 2023 from Counterpoint Press. She lives in Northern Virginia with her family, and far too many books.