Programs online apple tv. Org. You are watching tv ons cspan2 with top nonfiction books and authors, book tv, television for serious readers. On this memorial day weekend, three full days a book tv, you will hear from several authors this weekend on our afterwards program, democracy we talk about americas working class and from this years at book expo publishing convention, publisher Chris Jackson talks about between the world to me. You will also look at a former senior advisers of british high minister. On monday, next or daybook to book to be featuring several authors including, Pulitzer Prize winner Annette Gordon reed on the intellectual life of thomas jefferson. Dennis talks about the imports of the ten commandments, nprs diane reames talking about her involvement with the right to die movement, you will learn about the namesake of the john birch society. That is just a few of the authors coming up this holiday weekend, for a holiday weekend, for a complete schedule, go to booktv. Org. Book tv on cspan two, 72 hours of nonfiction books and authors, this memorial day weekend. Now joining us on book tv is Chris Jackson, what you do for living . I am the publisher, am the publisher, editorinchief of oneworld books, it is with the random house, it existed 20 years ago and i am reimagining and reanimating it today. What is the focus of oneworld . Some of the books that my career, the focus was on social justice issues. Really their fiction and nonfiction and it will help us understand the past in different ways we understand our history more, understand or crisis better through storytelling also helps us imagine the future. It is a book about the most conversations were having today and ways of thinking, new ways of imagining from those that are outside to those that we consider the mainstream. Whether that is people were coming from racial or people have political ideas outside the mainstream. But i use the term mainstream loosely, i really me people who are outside and who are in the center what are some of the books that are been published . There is a book that came out last year, i think in some ways its a great example. [inaudible] note on nono on. [inaudible] the world, the body and political conversation but he did it in a way that traumatizes it, that humanized it to personal storytelling and that helped reinvigorate conversations. They gave us Brian Stevenson is a lawyer and one of my personal heroes in montgomery, alabama. There is a straight one particular case and also attempt to redesign, its a narrative on one hand but its a book about what our on our basic values in society and how can you look at those in different ways. Hes another author that i think it sets apart because he to the subject and he talk about mass incarceration and he talked about it in a different way. He talked about it through he opened the door for that conversation i humanizing the story, telling a dramatic narrative about one particular case and at the same time about what justices, what what mercy is, and who we are as a society, what the values are in our society. [inaudible] snows another they talk about the life of jcs music and that also fits the model of what i want to do. Theres a lot of music biographies, its a music biography is the desire to understand what rap music was and what period of time the rap music came out of. The 80s, and then re organizing our understanding of that. On a personal level is a personal story, but also forces readers to think about that. In a different way. When you say you publish this books what is that mean . So i was an executive editor for about ten years, i worked with two publishes their and we worked with teams and terms of publishing those books. Each one of these books is surprising in a different way. Either they come to me through agents or i i approach the writers myself have the conversation with someone and we talk and decide to make it into a book and that i work with the writers on their ideas. Sometimes i work with journalists so that involves helping to direct their reporting and your already working with them on how they will gather materials for the book, what leads they will follow and trying to get ahead of how the information there gathering is going to turn it into an artist. Then the writer goes away and i edit. Of that coach to structure, organization, style and then theres another layer of editing which is just line by line, word by word, and that kind of work. Then, thats the thats the editorial part than you oversee, as an editor or you start to do the copy editing and proofreading, the designing, and you look in the marketing plans, the publicity plans, and you work with people so that they understand what it is theyre selling and a very digestible, affordable way way so they can take it with them where the go. Thats a key function like how do you talk about the book with the most concise, compelling way. Then the audience can go to talk about it. Its a pure, digestible form. How did you get into this . My first job in publishing was when i was in high school. I went to high school that had a senior year you could do an internship. I work for a book packager. That job led to another while i was going to college and then my first real job that i took others, my first real job was at a place called john wiley sons. I stayed there for about five years or so and moved up the ranks. John wiley sons is a scientific, technical publisher and i worked with people who did general publishing in that company i was able to do some interesting books and some black Research Libraries and historic depository of africanamerican culture, literature and i did work where i was able to work with the published some of the younger black and latino, and other writers who are forming like a Literary Movement might be overstated at. , that helped design my perspective. Then i went to random house after that, first time publishing. In a New York Times magazine Vincent Cunningham says, Chris Jackson stands between the largely white culture scenery of artists, do you agree with that . I went say that i stand aloof between those things. Its my aspiration, one might aspiration isnt to stand between writers and white audience at all, although that may at times is more interesting to me, the goal i think i can play for writers its not coming from mainstream points of view is allow them to tell their stories respect to their ideas without feeling that theres a gatekeeper between them and their audiences whos going to diminish their ideas, and and make them more acceptable to a perceived mainstream reader on the other end of that. I want to help them create great work that is great integrity. I feel like thats what we talk about are ready and across my list over the years. Once that work the best are the ones that where the writers are able to express themselves and ideas. I file any kind a gatekeeping function in the culture that you sometimes do if you start blaming that writer will express the ideas and their craft and tries to make them fit into some kind of category or box so that theyre able to appeal to some perceived reader on the end was like the ideal reader for this industry. The reader they identified is already there primary, is a lot like the people who worked in Publishing Companies. But i want to help people get access to that machinery without having to sacrifice integrity of what theyre working on. Are you in a unique place with publishers . I would not say unique. Im happy to say that people, not just people who think differently people who are bringing new energies into the industry. Theres always been people of color and book publishing. Its one of the reasons why i feel like im happy to do the work i do it ran a prospect because in some ways its built by writers of color, whether its morrison, ellison, are whomever. Its they built that company and gave it the prestige they have they built the book with the finance company and they always had a place there. But we we havent always been represented in the editorial and publishing. Theres a number of really great black editors, not nearly enough. Not close to enough. So, almost a scandalous minority of people are people of color. I think it was like 1 of Editorial Staff in Publishing Companies were black. So thats an outrage that something in terms of staffing. So im aware of that being a problem. I think the industry is slowly becoming more aware of the problem and trying to figure out a conclusion and a solution to that problem. I dont like to think of myself we are poorly represented. Where did you grow up . I grew i grew up in new york, and harlem. In the Housing Projects for the first nine years of my life and another Housing Project further up. Was your childhood like . It was great. No it wasnt great. It was tough and odd ways. I was raised, my father died when i was young, as raised by my mother and sister who is very important to me and tommy to read. I ended up going to school, outside of my neighborhood once i had an interesting mix life where as part of the time in harlem with my family and part of the time as it is more cosmopolitan, very intellectually aggressive school. It was new york in the 80s, as hard, violent, we are not welloff at all. But in some ways thats where reading became an important part of my life. Finding people in literature, it was lifechanging, it people who not only were they doing work that i recognized as but there are voices that i understood and recognize, i think it was literally do the work in harlem. It help me rethink even my own experience of being a marginalized person from the ghetto, i was swear that i was in this place that is part of the great cultural movement. Are you a writer yourself . Not really. I write occasionally but i would not call myself a writer. I think its good to try to write for editors because it reminds me how hard it is. I think it we take for granted what our authors do when theyre looking at a blank page and having to formulate ideas out of that blank page and conjure up stories and narratives out of it. So doing myself occasionally reminds me of how difficult it is and how much i should honor that in my writers. But occasionally i will do a little piece for magazine, website website or Something Like that. But no. What was the process between the world and me . Was there competition for that book . I met them when we had a conversation, he is a fantastic agent, longtime agent. We are one day and said we should meet this young writer for tomahawk she coats tanisha coats. Which was a memoir of him and his father. It was maybe seven or eight years ago. And then over that time a struggle came out and his profile started to rise and he started blogging for the atlantic and the writing for the atlantic and then there is an enormous following. Then he wrote the case for reparations which was a blockbuster piece of journalism. Somewhere in there he and i came up with an idea to do something on the self civil war. That book, and he he never offered it to anyone else because he and i had a very close relationship at that point and came up with the idea together. The civil war book. The civil war book never happened. Im not sure how much he ever really try to write and we were not sure what were going to do, didnt seem like you wanted to write the book anymore, and then over the last couple of years through it happened in baltimore and ferguson, in charleston, there there is one incident after another, after another of young, black people being victimized by police fire and he felt like he had to make some kind of response to that. He had a meeting with the president one time, and he had something of an altercation with the president in that conversation. Not a conversation but they had a disagreement. When he left that meeting, when he left the white house he called me up and we started talking he said why dont people write books like that anymore. We decided we are to read it together, were going to read it and he read it and he said i want to write a book like this, but but that you can sit down, read in one sitting and it feels immediate and the response with that kind of passion, but also duty. And. And it was a beautifully written book. At some point we decide that it be written and it was really transformed. And we eventually , i say we as he got this book. Did you know what you had. Not until the last part. We struggle. The book had issues in the first two draft periods like serious issues. And there is a struggling getting the voice right particularly the book, even now i couldnt couldnt say thats a book about black its about a very large subject told through memoirs and at heart trying to shape that was difficult. Trying to find the voice to carry it, the point that he was gonna write it, thats when the narrative began in is like how to explain the super complicated issue. And once i had the final draft it was clear that is a very powerful book. I need that it was extraordinary. I would follow him anywhere. Hes very brilliant writer. I think once we trimmed away and try to figure out. [inaudible] i did not know is can it be that successful. Until i started sharing it with people people with very different backgrounds, theres very similar takes on the wheel, sometimes something that i love maybe i love it too much, maybe im too close to it and then i gave it to people to work with me at random house and their responses were equally powerful and equally moved, thats when i was like okay this is something that really does play people need to be able to hear this. I was there for a year, so coming back in the fall he had never been in a system he had never traveled out of the country until he was a full grown adult. He didnt get a passport until just a few years ago. He wanted his son to have the opportunity, so he went off to college, live in his own life so he wanted to have that experience together. And he had the opportunity to do it. I think thats fantastic. Again its like how to you start. You start thinking that the world is an extreme place and theres always going to be a wall between you and the world. Like your world is always going to be in a box. So thats where he chose to go,. Where did the title come from. The book was originally called temple for my country, that was the original title which is the title when it was still like the civil war with thomas jefferson. And then we kept that is the working title for a long time. And then there is a poem called where the title comes from. So is just in this case. [inaudible] so thats where it came from. There is a little bit of backandforth about the title as we are like brothers in a good and bad way, likely by like crazy all the time, i thought it was a soft title, i dont i didnt think it meant a lot he was certain that it was the right title. At one point he was so certain that i was like okay, if youre that certain thats what were going to go with. Was ray. So thats just another thing in some cases you really trust the writer. And ive always thought that way. And writers a lot of times when they feel that level of conviction. [inaudible] this is nonfiction a real specialty . I think right now are going through an interesting moment in nonfiction publishing. I think tenor 15 years ago when it became a category people started to identified and theres a lot of great journalist and great work, whether its there some folks that really stood out and theyre all escaping me right now, but the orchid piece, perfect storm, i think right now whats happening is its ongoing that is working that has an audience following. I think more interesting is where the genres are blurring between lake criticism and memoir come between the world to me is a great example. Theres it reporting in that where he goes and hes doing journalist reporting, theres memoir in that. Theres essays, theres advancing of ideas. Theyve done a great job. These are books that are playing with different forms of nonfiction. Its an interesting way and its often together with a personal matter. I think its an exciting thing. I think think it bring some of the energy and ideas within the reading experience and not feeling like you have to be this genre are that, its also outward spacing point of view that you get from journalism. All that being brought together in one book is going to be very exciting when its done so i think it is something im very interested in and seeing where it can go. I think theres still so much more to do with it. Okay so one world is starting up again, who are some of the authors . So i have two new books from tanisha coates. What will be fiction, one will be nonfiction. I cant. I cant really say much about that right now because theyre still in development and we dont want to give it away. One will be coming out next fall. Fall of 2017. Im doing a book with a woman who is a play rate who we is a playwright and again with the family memoir that is also about some bigger ideas about the drug war, about about our wars overseas, about the meaning of family, about race but it was written about her family. So the structure of it will be like on opening night, three plates that she wrote but using that structure we can talk about different issues with her family and her family story. Shes a genius. So thats going to be very exciting. And she writes between the world and me. Shes been thinking about writing a book for a long time. Shes doing other projects she has a lot going on as a writer. But she always thought she wanted to do a book just between the world emmy has open up possibilities of what it could be, it could be this entangling of different forms. So we talked for two hours, she went away and wrote up a proposal of what she wanted to do based on that conversation she had and so were doing the book. The bombardment and what that looks like on the ground. Caught up in the liberation movement, and the revolution started there. Two friends became fighters with rebel groups. One of them working with, more extremist muslim group, he ended up being one of the only people i communicated out of that. He found a way to get on twitter etc. Doing is reports of what was happening on the ground and ended up having to flee, as many people that from syria. So he is able to talk about these three major moments in that region of history with some really human, on the ground, and thoughtful perspective as someone who in his writings grappled with, i think, the ethical and moral issues around the choices you make. And it is illustrated with illustrations by molly crabapple. And we have done a few collaborations the vanity fair has published already. So that is really exciting, and im doing a book with alice wagner who is now at the atlantic about immigrants, refugees in exile. And her own family story, someone who, european and as a story of exile and immigration. Have their own story. Comeau what american identity is. That will be fantastic. Final question. What is the Jackson Mcnally bookstore in new york or book tv has been several times . Mcnally jackson. I apologize. Its okay. Its a great bookstore. It is named after my son. And it is owned and run by his mother. It is, i think the best bookstore in new york, although there are many. There is a picture shop around the corner on mulberry street down in soho mcnally jackson, a couple of new stories in brooklyn in Downtown Manhattan still in development. Open now over ten years. And you know, its funny. You talk about book publishing. First opening the store a big concern was making sure were far away from borders and barnes noble. Barnes noble, are the bond all the Barnes Nobles that were close to soho in manhattan close now which is stunning tomorrow though they still have in new york, but that has really flourished over the years. In many ways it is a model. The community has built up around it. And it has it is really all about the taste level of the booksellers there and their passions. Your connection to that customer base. It is a beautiful story. I recommend people. I jack our guest on book tv. Coming out in 2017. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Book tv is on instagram. Follow us for publishing news, scheduling updates, and behindthescenes videos. Listen listen, liberal , that is how it is supposed to be said. It is important. A sort of massive wave of public anger that is out there in this country, and it has been brought on by the failure of the Democratic Party. The the failure of these guys in a situation when the conditions for success were perfect. Okay . The book is not another collection of your standard beltway gripes, complaints about gridlock in dc or how appalling it is that our country is so polarized. The failure i am referring to is bigger than things like that it isis basically the greatest Public Policy professor lifetime. President obama himself is said that inequality is the defining challenge of our time. Thats a pretty sweeping statement. When you you think about it is not anywhere near sweeping enough. Inequality is the shorthand for all the things that have gone in recent years to make the lives of the rich so much more delicious yearoveryear for the last three or four decades and also for the things that have made the lives of working people so,so, you know, wretched and precarious in the same period. Inequality is visible in the ever rising cost of healthcare and college in the coronation of wall street and the slow blighting of wherever it is that you happen to live. You catch a glimpse ofa glimpse of inequality every time you hear about someone who had to declare bankruptcy when the kid got sick when you read about the lobbying industry the dominates the city i live in or the, you know, were new political requirement that all candidates either be chosen for us by billionaires will be billionaires themselves. So inequality is a euphemism we like to use for the apple up to five epileptic condition of the world we live in. I can say that. So inequality is about why speculators and criminals get a helping hand from uncle sam while the vietnam vet down the street from you loses house, the reason that some people find such enormous significance in the ceiling height of an inference for your or the hop content of a beer while others will never believe in anything again. Now, look, it is the republicans,republicans, of course, who bear the primary responsibility for our modern plutocracy, and i have written book after book after book about these guys, the party that launched us on this era of tax cutting and weight suppressing and the ones that made a religion of the market that thought so ferociouslyfought so ferociously to open our politics to the influence of money at every level down in washington, but i think that just blaming the republicans and then getting back into the partisan war is not good enough any longer. I think it is time that we understood that the things i have been describing represents a failure of the Democratic Party as well. Look, protecting the middle Class Society used to be the democrats only mission, and once upon a time they would have taken a look at the situation and roll up their sleeves and tackle the situation with a certain amount of relish, shared prosperity was once the partys highest aim, and defending the middle class world that we lived in was a kind of sacred path for them , as they never tired of reminding us back in the days of truman and lbj, and to this day democrats are the ones that pledge to raise the minimum wage and the taxes of the rich. When it comes to tackling the defining challenge of our time, many of our modern Democratic Leaders falter and acknowledge that inequality is rampant and an awful thing, but they can never seem to find the conviction or imagination to do what is necessary to reverse it. You can watch this and other programs online
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