Sarasota Library Foundation Presents Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett

You could practically feel the tremor of excitement across Sarasota when it was announced that Ann Patchett would be the speaker at this year's Library Foundation luncheon. The tickets -- not inexpensive -- flew out the door in record time. Some friends and I were among the 500+ readers who listened raptly as Patchett talked about a variety of topics, including three book-related people/experiences that changed her life. 

The first occurred when Patchett was just 26 years old. Already divorced and waitressing at TGI Fridays, she received a fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She arrived late and missed the orientation. So there she sat in her cabin on her first night, alone and feeling a bit lost and out of sorts. Patchett called her boyfriend who made the best suggestion of their short relationship -- go out and knock on doors until you find a friend. The third door she knocked on was answered by fellow author Elizabeth McCracken. Decades later, the women are still both best friends and each other's first readers. Patchett said with a laugh that she doesn't need to actually give her pages to McCracken to know what she'll say. And a note of interest: Patchett's "Patron Saint of Liars" (now a banned book in Cook County, Florida) was the product of that residency. 

Fast forward to 2011, when Patchett was introduced to Karen Hayes. Hayes wanted to open a bookstore in their hometown of Nashville. Would Patchett be interested in participating in the endeavor? Not really, was the truthful answer. But all the bookstores in Nashville had closed, and Patchett didn't want to live in a place without one. So she said yes, thinking she would be the checkbook and Hayes would do all the work. It hasn't turned out as anticipated. 

Patchett confessed that she had always been a person with a "wall and moat." Her drawbridge would be raised when someone asked for something that would require a significant commitment of her time. After all, those books don't write themselves. To Patchett's surprise, her involvement with the store has expanded both her life and her writing. 

Like most bookstores, Parnassus hosts authors who have new books coming out. And while I'm sure the store welcomes its fair share of local authors, you can also find big names there. Patchett does some of the interviews herself and said the person she has most enjoyed talking with was Harlan Cobin. The mystery author might seem a bit of an unlikely choice, but Patchett said he was both nice and funny. She also shared that back in her college days she'd dated two of Cobin's classmates at Amherst and was kind of curious to find out what she'd missed. (Yes, Patchett is funny too.) If you want to check the series out, the store has a YouTube channel called "Parnassus Presents." 

It's also worth noting that Parnassus has a book of the month club of selections that Patchett carefully curates. She's found that the more she reads other authors, the more she wants to read. Go figure. For a list of those books, click here. 

The final transformative event (so far) took place at Parnassus when Robin Preiss Glasser, a children's book illustrator, arrived on the scene to promote one of her Fancy Nancy books. The women got talking and -- surprise, surprise -- it turned out that Glasser was a big fan of Patchett's books. And so she gamely asked Patchett, "Would you write a book for me to illustrate?" 

Patchett didn't have to think about it. The answer was "no." Having no kids of her own, she knew nothing about children's books and didn't have much interest in learning. But Glasser wore her down, and the pair have just finished their fourth collaboration. ("Lambslide," shown here, was their first.) 

What has been life changing for Patchett wasn't her pivot to writing the occasional children's story. It was what happened when the pair went out on tour. They would go to three or four schools a day, with books being distributed to the students (who, she noted, had paid the $19.95 purchase price). It didn't take Patchett long to figure out the demographics of the schools they were -- and weren't -- visiting. And so the Parnassus Books Foundation was created. The mission of the Foundation is to put books in the hands of children who attend Title I schools in the Nashville area. The Foundation is funded by the fees Patchett is paid for speaking at events like the Library Foundation luncheon. Learning this made me even happier to have attended this event. 

For more about Ann Patchett, click here. And for info on Parnassus Books, click here. If you're in the Nashville area, make sure to leave time for a visit to the store.