Rachel León is a writer, editor, and social worker, who has worked in child welfare for nearly two decades. She serves as Managing Director for Chicago Review of Books, and is the author of the novel, How We See the Gray.
Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. León's reply:
I’m always reading multiple books, often in different genres. Right now, my fiction pick is Yasmin Zaher’s novel, The Coin, about a young Palestinian woman living in New York who gets involved in a scheme selling Birkin bags. Everyone in my writing group is working on novels, and we realized a while back that it would be more helpful to read each other’s entire manuscripts rather than just a chapter or two here and there. But novel writing takes a long time, so we began the practice of reading published novels together and discussing them. WeVisit Rachel León's website.don't exactly have a set reason for picking the books, though typically it’s something one of us has wanted to read. The Coin was my suggestion, as it had been recommended in a writing class I took a year or so ago.
My nonfiction book right now is Guest Privileges: Queer Lives and Finding Home in the Middle East by Gaar Adams, which recently won a Lambda Literary Award. This book was actually a gift from the author at an event I did for How We See the Gray. Gaar Adams lives in London, but was in the States to receive his award, and is from Wisconsin, and stopped in Madison where I was doing a reading. We had a lovely conversation after the event, and he gifted me the book. I’m not far, but let’s just say it’s clear why it won an award, which it certainly deserves.
Q&A with Rachel León.
--Marshal Zeringue
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