Interview: Book Critic + Author, Bethanne Patrick

I spoke to The Book Maven about her new podcast, book reviews, and more.

This week’s interview is with Bethanne Patrick, a.k.a. “The Book Maven,” on Twitter (X).

Bethanne hosted “Missing Pages,” the award-winning podcast about the book-publishing industry. Her work appears in the Los Angeles Times, Oprah Daily, NPR Books, and The Atlantic Online, among others. She edited The Books That Changed My Life for Regan Arts. Patrick’s debut memoir, Life B, is out from Counterpoint Press; she is working on a second memoir and a novel manuscript. Her creative work appears in VQR, The Rumpus, and the Grace & Gravity anthologies. Patrick serves on the PEN/Faulkner Literary Foundation board, teaches creative writing at DC’s American University, and lives in Northern Virginia with her family and far too many books.

Bethanne is launching a new podcast called THE BOOK MAVEN - A LITERARY REVUE. Each new 30-minute episode will drop on a Friday, starting October 11, 2024. Season One has ten standalone episodes that each include a writer-to-writer interview, a themed list of recommendations with a gamification twist, a soundscape narrative alternating between reviews of the classics and roundups of adaptations, and an informal shoutout to various people on social media who use the #FridayReads hashtag to talk about their current reads.

Let’s dig in to our conversation!

PC: You’ve just launched a new podcast,  THE BOOK MAVEN – A LITERARY REVUE. Tell me a little bit about it and how it came to be.

BP: I had an amazing experience when I was hired to host the award-winning podcast “Missing Pages” (which is now up for two Signal Awards, in case anyone would like to vote!) from The Podglomerate. During our two seasons, I got to cover so many aspects of the book-publishing industry.

However, my first love will always be talking with writers – and I wanted to start talking with them as a writer myself. As my credits and experience grow, I wanted to find a new way to lift up the novelists, memoirists, poets, and journalists who create the books our community loves. I decided to work with two younger colleagues, Jordan Aaron and Christina McBride, to create a new podcast for me to host that would be all about writing and reading and books – but also provide something a little different for our audience.

The Book Maven podcast is a weekly, half-hour show – our first season consists of 10 episodes, and we’re working on our second – that includes four different elements. The first is a round of #FridayReads shoutouts, the second an interview with an author, the third a scripted take from me about well-known books, and finally, a bit where I give six recommendations in three minutes of less. I don’t always succeed. When I don’t? You’ll hear a bookcase full of volumes topple over.

PC: Who would you say is the audience for the podcast?

BP: Avid readers, active writers, and anyone who’s curious about finding new book recommendations. I give a themed list of those in every episode. Since I’ve been an active book critic for a while, and studied literature in grad school, you can trust that when I say something about a book, I’ve read it and I stand behind my opinion.

PC: Do you have a list of dream guests, and if so, who are the top five?

BP: Jesmyn Ward

Tayari Jones

Garth Greenwell

Claire Keegan

Hernan Diaz

OR

Ada Limon

Jericho Brown

Diane Seuss

Maggie Smith

Tyehimba Jess

OR

Deesha Philyaw

Sarah Broome

Natasha Trethewey

Kwame Alexander

Marlon James

I could go on. It’s a problem!

PC: What do you hope the literary community gains from listening to the podcast?

BP: Some fun and entertainment, as well as some new information about the classics, about adaptations, and about books people may have missed. It’s meant to be a palate-cleanser of sorts, perhaps after you’ve listened to a long one-on-one interview, or a huge list of new releases. Our show is shorter, lighter, and, we hope, funnier, too.

PC: Switching gears. What are the biggest challenges in being a literary critic today?

BP: I could develop an entire Substack around this question. First, there are fewer and fewer outlets for book reviews. We also know fewer and fewer people are reading book reviews, no matter how many women at my local pool say they read them all the time. But let’s go beyond reviews to the real stuff of criticism, longer, analytical essays that really do matter to scholars, editors, and the well-read public. You can find them in a few places (the NYRB, the LRB, Bookforum, a few others) but those places mostly have some kind of private funding (remember, Bookforum shut down not that long ago, before being revived). Those pieces have a real place in the cultural discourse, now and in the future. It’s challenging to get to the point where you can pitch those pieces, and it’s challenging to get pieces published regularly.

However, it’s also difficult to get the time to read and review and write thoughtfully because few places offer full-time jobs as literary critics. Most of us (and I’m really at the low end of the totem pole in some ways) have other full-time or part-time jobs, or we work as freelance writers. It’s not just the low pay for a piece about literature that is tough. It’s that few people can take the time to read a book carefully and then write about it in the same way. We want to, and thank goodness, I have colleagues who do so, but it’s a challenge.

PC: How do you see book reviews evolving over the next 3-5 years?

BP: I already know how things are evolving, from publications I write for: Fewer reviews, briefer reviews, and mostly positive reviews. It might surprise readers to know that editors publish mostly positive reviews not because they’re averse to negative statements, but because they realize few people have time to pay attention to books they might not like. I think that’s a shame, because I’ve learned a lot from the flawed books I’ve read.

PC: What changes would you personally like to see in book publishing?

BP: ::Rubs hands together with glee:: At last, my chance!

To paraphrase the maverick Meg Reid of Hub City Press in South Carolina, DECENTRALIZE PUBLISHING. I get that we’re the United States of America and we have certain “industry towns.” I live near and teach in one of them: Washington, DC.

But we’re losing out on too many great stories and great ideas by silo-ing book publishing in Manhattan, especially because book publishing, done right, is important. The regions that don’t have publishing might well be the same regions that are most interested in. . . self publishing (I don’t have studies on this. You might. I’m busy working on a second memoir!) Let’s bring best practices out to the rest of our country.

PC: What advice can you give writers struggling with their craft right now?

BP: If you’re struggling, look around: Everyone is. Very few writers can make a living from writing projects alone. Some of us teach, some of us work in publishing, some of us live on shoestrings, some of us rely on a spouse’s income, and some of us combine lots of different things. Your work means something, though. I’m glad I can teach creative writing now because I see that each and every student, whether they want to make writing part of their lives or not, has a story to tell. My memoir is not a bestseller or an award winner, yet I’ve heard from quite a few people that it has actually changed something for them – they realize my diagnosis is one they’d like to bring up with their doctor, or they have found a new way to think about family trauma, or they now have greater compassion for a person in their life who is struggling. Your work, fellow writers, means something. Write on.

END NOTES:

What I’m Listening To/Reading: Ina Garten’s excellent memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens.” Her voice is a balm for the soul.

CLASSES:

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PLATFORM BUILDING FOR AUTHORS AT EVERY STAGE (OCT 18)

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DATE: Friday, October 18

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COST: $150

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