The Altogether Factual, Wholly Bona Fide Story of a Big Dreams, Hard Luck American-Made Mad Kid.
Up Close with Jason Mott By Venita Jenkins
Jason Mott ’06, ’08M describes his latest novel, Hell of a Book, as the Rocky Balboa of all his books. Every time he thought the novel was “down for the count, it would come back swinging.” When Mott first pitched the project, he said no one would support a story about a Black author on a cross-country book tour. He continued to work on the book, drawing from recent headlines and his personal experiences to create a story that addresses race and racism. The novel he thought would never be published became, of all things, the 2021 National Book Award winner.
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What inspired the idea for Hell of a Book? It started back in 2013 when I was on the book tour for The Returned. When I finished the tour, I told my agent that I wanted to write a story about an author on a book tour. She wasn’t a big fan of the idea. I wrote about half of a manuscript then put it away. Every few years, I would bring it up, and it was shot down by my agent and editor. Around the time of the death of Freddie Gray and the Baltimore riots (2015), I had a friend living in Baltimore, and we talked about Freddie Gray and being Black in America. I had a lot of thoughts I needed to put down, and my friend said I should write something about it. I started writing my thoughts on being Black, little anecdotes from my childhood, certain points of my life, things that have happened. Eventually, I had about half a book of my thoughts. I combined the two manuscripts and sent it to my agent. She loved it.
