Podcasts, Interviews, Opeds

Publicity for my book is gearing up, and I’ve started recording podcasts, participating in interviews, writing op-eds, and the answers to Q&As. It’s stressful, because you want to do a good job, and having a new book out in the world feels so vulnerable. You’ve worked for years on this thing, its your baby, and people will pounce.

But it’s great, and it’s exciting as well. And I’m being offered a lot more opportunities for this book, which seems to indicate there’s interest in the subject. It’s also such a pleasure when the person asking questions is familiar with your work (I’m looking at you Citizen Reader) and asks meaningful questions.

I recorded a podcast at the New York Public Library this week. The host, Aidan Flax-Clark, and the producer, Schuyler Swenson, were incredible. They really were into the subject, and got what I was trying to do, although this led to a sad moment. Schuyler told me about learning about a German immigrant while working at the Tenement Museum. He’d come to America and built up a life, and a business. She knew he ended his life on Blackwell’s Island, but she didn’t know at the time exactly what that meant. Now she does. (It was not a happy ending.)

Empty stacks at the New York Public Library (books are being moved around).