{"id":139,"date":"2012-09-21T07:54:17","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T07:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/?p=139"},"modified":"2021-07-17T18:13:19","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T22:13:19","slug":"excavating-evan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/?p=139","title":{"rendered":"Excavating Evan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evan Galloway, the protagonist of The Namesake<\/em><\/strong>, has been a part of my life for over ten years. At times, he was my primary focus, pushing aside flesh-and-blood folks, demanding to be heard. There were also dormant stretches when I was unable \u2013 or perhaps unwilling \u2013 to listen. His has not been an easy story to tell, but it is one I knew I had to attempt. Creating The Namesake <\/em><\/strong>has taken me to places both unexpected and familiar.<\/p>\n

The story began taking shape in my first graduate class at Wesleyan University. It was a leap of faith, after writing papers about young adult novels, to imagine I could write a novel of my own. I\u2019ve been fortunate in that leap to have had the support of incredible teachers, friends and family. <\/p>\n

In his book, On Writing<\/em><\/strong>, Stephen King likens stories to \u201cfound things, like fossils in the ground,\u201d defining \u201cwriting as excavation.\u201d I\u2019ve found this to be true, and there were definitely times I doubted my agility in digging carefully enough to unearth the thing unharmed. As Evan\u2019s story deepened, taking dark and surprising twists, I\u2019ve felt at times it was my job just to hang on and listen. <\/p>\n

Through his struggle to know his lost father, Evan learns an awful lot about himself. For me, creating Evan has been a learning experience as well. I\u2019ve discovered how poetry can inform my fiction, how the tiniest detail can make all the difference, and how faith truly can sustain us. My faith in this story grew slowly, nurtured by that early support I mentioned. <\/p>\n

Recently, The Namesake<\/em><\/strong> has garnered pre-release attention and praise, winning the Young Adult category of the 2011 Tassy Walden Awards for New Voices in Children\u2019s Literature. When I read an excerpt at the awards ceremony, someone compared my book to The Catcher in the Rye<\/em><\/strong>; my agent, Victoria Marini, has likened it to the work of the supremely talented John Green; and my editor, the amazing Jacquelyn Mitchard, referred to my writing as \u201cmasterful.\u201d All this acclaim is, of course, wonderful as I prepare for the release of my debut novel. At its heart, though, this book is simply Evan\u2019s chance to share his story, to relate his painful journey with truth and humor. <\/p>\n

The Namesake <\/em><\/strong>is an important work for me on so many levels, and I\u2019m truly honored and humbled to share it with you. I hope you\u2019ll enjoy it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evan Galloway, the protagonist of The Namesake, has been a part of my life for over ten years. At times, he was my primary focus, pushing aside flesh-and-blood folks, demanding to be heard. There were also dormant stretches when I was unable \u2013 or perhaps unwilling \u2013 to listen. His has not been an easy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevenparlato.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}