I have had the pleasure of interviewing writer Jake Lamar on more than one occasion, including an exchange that led to a feature article on Africana.com in 2004, shortly after the publication of his fourth novel, Rendezvous Eighteenth. A lot has happened since then, so I contacted Jake for an update. Read on to find out what twists and turns his career has taken in the last seven years.
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Jake Lamar
© Mimi Haddon
Jake Lamar is a novelist and a journalist. On the journalist side, he contributes to the The Root, “the leading online source of news and commentary from an African-American perspective.” At the time of this writing, his latest article for the publication addressed the domestic terrorist attack in Norway. On the novelist side, he is working on a book that is a big departure from his “normal” genre – he says that “it’s not a thriller, it’s not set in Paris, and it does not deal with racial questions.”
Jake mentions Paris because his last two novels, Rendezvous Eighteenth and Ghosts of Saint Michel, were set in the French capital. This is a distinguishing factor between these works and his other novels – three of them are classified as thrillers and all address racial issues.
Most of Jake’s novels, including Rendezvous Eighteenth and Ghosts of Saint Michel, have been translated into French. The French version of his first novel, The Last Integrationist (Nous avions un rêve), won the Grand Prix du Roman Noir Etranger (grand prize for foreign mystery novel) at the Cognac Film and Literary Festival in 2006. Only Close to the Bone has not been translated and Jake is not sure if or when his French publisher will do so. When asked what one additional language he would like to see his books translated into, he replied “Maybe German.” He says he has the impression that “Germans have the same enthusiasm and respect for writers and literature that the French are so well-known for.”
Jake and Dorli Lamar
Jake holds the Grand Prix du Roman Noir Etranger
Jake notes a definite difference in the way that U.S. and French publishers market new books. He has had different experiences with publishers in the U.S., from a 12-city tour for Close to the Bone (Crown Publishers) to no marketing at all for Ghosts of Saint-Michel (St. Martin’s Minotaur). In contrast, he says there is always a general interest in new books and many channels for getting a book noticed in France, whether it's through invitations to literary festivals, interviews in the media, or exposure in one of the many publications that publish book reviews.
In addition to novels, Jake writes short stories. His “Madame Secretary’s Lover Man” from the 2008 crime story publication Politics Noir “paints Condoleezza Rice as a sultry viper drawing unsuspecting dupes into secret liaisons and certain doom.” He also contributed a story to the 2007 book entitled Paris Noir: Capital Crime Fiction. He comments that “writing a novel is like running a marathon; writing a short story is like a 100-meter or 200-meter sprint. Both activities are very satisfying but you are much more exhausted after a marathon.”
I was particularly interested in learning Jake’s opinion about the rapid shift in publishing to favoring electronic media over print publications, and how he thought this would affect him personally. Here’s what he had to say on the subject:
In light of this response, perhaps it is not surprising that Jake does not have a blog and does not use social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. He does not believe that an author’s presence on social media has any bearing on what readers in general will think of his or her work, though he admits that there may be evidence to the contrary that he is not aware of because he is not using the media!
In a departure from his traditional activities, Jake served as the official “writer-in-residence” at the MC93 theater in Bobigny for the 2009-2010 season. He continues to work as a literary consultant there, conducting roughly 95% of his interactions in French. In this capacity, he has advised the theater’s director, Nicolas Bigards, on his adaptation of the USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos and is now advising Bigards on an adaptation of James Ellroy's novel American Tabloid. As part of the theater's community outreach program, he conducted a creative workshop for adults at the Elsa Triolet Library in Bobigny. Other activities included directing a playwriting workshop and a journalism workshop for junior high school students at the Collège Jean Renoir in Bondy, hosting a series of debates on American politics and culture at the MC 93, and giving talks on the life and work of Chester Himes at the MC 93 and at other media centers in the region.
Inspired by his work at the MC 93 and in response to the shift in the traditional publishing market, Jake has begun to write for theater. He is currently working on a play about the friendship/rivalry between Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Chester Himes in Paris in the 1950s. He is writing the play in both English and French and hopes to begin “workshopping” it (having actors and a director playing out scenes before a play goes into formal rehearsals) at the MC93 in the next year or so.
With regard to Chester Himes, there are many parallels between Jake’s writing career and that of Himes – both men received financial support from non-profit foundations because of their writing skills; both deal extensively with race issues in their books and found the thriller to be an effective genre in which to explore these issues; both found love and encouragement from European women in Paris for their writing . . . I asked Jake to comment on whether he has seen additional similarities with the passage of time, or whether he is diverging from Himes’ in terms of developing his career. He responded:
Unlike Himes, Jake is able to communicate in French. In fact, he is often asked to appear on French television to comment on about U.S. politics and sociopolitical mores, and was particularly sought after during the last U.S. election because of the Obama campaign. Jake insists that while he may be perceived as speaking for the African-American community during these broadcasts, he is only a spokesperson for himself. He is also asked his opinion about racial issues in France – particularly about discrimination positive (the French version of affirmative action). He says that he minces no words about his absolute support of this policy.
Jake recently recorded a brilliant defense of Barack Obama at a Democrats Abroad event – click here to view it. To learn more about his writings and to view his television interviews (in English and French), visit www.jakelamar.com.
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© Mimi Haddon
Jake Lamar is a novelist and a journalist. On the journalist side, he contributes to the The Root, “the leading online source of news and commentary from an African-American perspective.” At the time of this writing, his latest article for the publication addressed the domestic terrorist attack in Norway. On the novelist side, he is working on a book that is a big departure from his “normal” genre – he says that “it’s not a thriller, it’s not set in Paris, and it does not deal with racial questions.”
Jake mentions Paris because his last two novels, Rendezvous Eighteenth and Ghosts of Saint Michel, were set in the French capital. This is a distinguishing factor between these works and his other novels – three of them are classified as thrillers and all address racial issues.
Most of Jake’s novels, including Rendezvous Eighteenth and Ghosts of Saint Michel, have been translated into French. The French version of his first novel, The Last Integrationist (Nous avions un rêve), won the Grand Prix du Roman Noir Etranger (grand prize for foreign mystery novel) at the Cognac Film and Literary Festival in 2006. Only Close to the Bone has not been translated and Jake is not sure if or when his French publisher will do so. When asked what one additional language he would like to see his books translated into, he replied “Maybe German.” He says he has the impression that “Germans have the same enthusiasm and respect for writers and literature that the French are so well-known for.”
Jake holds the Grand Prix du Roman Noir Etranger
Jake notes a definite difference in the way that U.S. and French publishers market new books. He has had different experiences with publishers in the U.S., from a 12-city tour for Close to the Bone (Crown Publishers) to no marketing at all for Ghosts of Saint-Michel (St. Martin’s Minotaur). In contrast, he says there is always a general interest in new books and many channels for getting a book noticed in France, whether it's through invitations to literary festivals, interviews in the media, or exposure in one of the many publications that publish book reviews.
In addition to novels, Jake writes short stories. His “Madame Secretary’s Lover Man” from the 2008 crime story publication Politics Noir “paints Condoleezza Rice as a sultry viper drawing unsuspecting dupes into secret liaisons and certain doom.” He also contributed a story to the 2007 book entitled Paris Noir: Capital Crime Fiction. He comments that “writing a novel is like running a marathon; writing a short story is like a 100-meter or 200-meter sprint. Both activities are very satisfying but you are much more exhausted after a marathon.”
I was particularly interested in learning Jake’s opinion about the rapid shift in publishing to favoring electronic media over print publications, and how he thought this would affect him personally. Here’s what he had to say on the subject:
I'm a paper-loving 20th century man. I love books as objects, I love browsing in bookshops. Even though I write on a computer, I print out my day's work every day. Somehow, it doesn't feel real to me unless I see it on paper. People like me are becoming sort of ridiculous, certainly in the USA. I do not own an iPad or a Kindle but there's no point in decrying modernity. Plenty of people I know, even older writers, rave about the new technology.
My hope is that [electronic media] will make the concept of books being ‘out of print’ obsolete. If any reader could have access to any of the books I've published over the past 20 years with just one click on a device, I'll be happy...happier still if I manage to see any royalties from those downloads.
In light of this response, perhaps it is not surprising that Jake does not have a blog and does not use social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. He does not believe that an author’s presence on social media has any bearing on what readers in general will think of his or her work, though he admits that there may be evidence to the contrary that he is not aware of because he is not using the media!
In a departure from his traditional activities, Jake served as the official “writer-in-residence” at the MC93 theater in Bobigny for the 2009-2010 season. He continues to work as a literary consultant there, conducting roughly 95% of his interactions in French. In this capacity, he has advised the theater’s director, Nicolas Bigards, on his adaptation of the USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos and is now advising Bigards on an adaptation of James Ellroy's novel American Tabloid. As part of the theater's community outreach program, he conducted a creative workshop for adults at the Elsa Triolet Library in Bobigny. Other activities included directing a playwriting workshop and a journalism workshop for junior high school students at the Collège Jean Renoir in Bondy, hosting a series of debates on American politics and culture at the MC 93, and giving talks on the life and work of Chester Himes at the MC 93 and at other media centers in the region.
Inspired by his work at the MC 93 and in response to the shift in the traditional publishing market, Jake has begun to write for theater. He is currently working on a play about the friendship/rivalry between Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Chester Himes in Paris in the 1950s. He is writing the play in both English and French and hopes to begin “workshopping” it (having actors and a director playing out scenes before a play goes into formal rehearsals) at the MC93 in the next year or so.
With regard to Chester Himes, there are many parallels between Jake’s writing career and that of Himes – both men received financial support from non-profit foundations because of their writing skills; both deal extensively with race issues in their books and found the thriller to be an effective genre in which to explore these issues; both found love and encouragement from European women in Paris for their writing . . . I asked Jake to comment on whether he has seen additional similarities with the passage of time, or whether he is diverging from Himes’ in terms of developing his career. He responded:
I doubt that I will go as far into the genre of crime writing as Himes did. But I do think that, like Himes, I will continue to be better known in France than in the USA.
Unlike Himes, Jake is able to communicate in French. In fact, he is often asked to appear on French television to comment on about U.S. politics and sociopolitical mores, and was particularly sought after during the last U.S. election because of the Obama campaign. Jake insists that while he may be perceived as speaking for the African-American community during these broadcasts, he is only a spokesperson for himself. He is also asked his opinion about racial issues in France – particularly about discrimination positive (the French version of affirmative action). He says that he minces no words about his absolute support of this policy.
Jake recently recorded a brilliant defense of Barack Obama at a Democrats Abroad event – click here to view it. To learn more about his writings and to view his television interviews (in English and French), visit www.jakelamar.com.
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