Can White Novelists Only Write About White Characters? Black Only Black Characters?
Today’s identity politics has led many in the publishing industry to insist that writers can only tell stories about people like themselves. That’s bad for fiction and for our democracy.
Why My New Novel About Racial Conflict Ran Into Trouble
Bestselling novelist Richard North Patterson’s latest may be his best work yet. But the New York Times Best selling author had trouble finding a publisher….because he’s white and two of his main characters are black
By
PUBLIUS SPECIAL GUEST: Richard North Patterson, author of Trial.
Trial confirms Richard North Patterson’s place as “our most important author of popular fiction.”
In a propulsive narrative that culminates in a nationally televised murder case, Trial explores America’s most incendiary flashpoints of race.
A Black eighteen-year-old voting rights worker, Malcolm Hill, is stopped by a white sheriff’s deputy on a dark country road in rural Georgia. His single mother, Allie, America’s leading voting rights advocate, restlessly awaits his return before police inform her that Malcolm has been arrested for murder. In Washington D.C., the rising, young, white congressman Chase Brevard of Massachusetts is watching the morning news with his girlfriend, only to find his life transformed in a single moment by the appearance of Malcolm’s photograph. Suddenly all three are enveloped in a media firestorm that threatens their lives—especially Malcolm’s.
PLUG BOOK: Trial
BIO: Richard North Patterson, author of Trial, is the author of The Spire, Eclipse and fourteen other bestselling and critically acclaimed novels. Formerly a trial lawyer, he was the SEC liaison to the Watergate special prosecutor and has served on the boards of several Washington advocacy groups. He lives in San Francisco and on Martha's Vineyard with his wife, Dr. Nancy Clair.
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Richard North Patterson, author of Trial.