2015 is shaping up to be a memorable year for Jill Bialosky, the prize-winning poet, memoirist, and novelist. Her latest book of poetry, The Players, was published in March, her New York Times bestselling memoir History of a Suicide was just released in the U.K. to stellar reviews, and her new novel, The Prize (Sept.), will be Counterpoint’s lead fiction title this fall. Set in the New York art world, Bialosky’s novel asks a provocative question: What do we prize most? And how do we value art ... or a human life? Edward Darby has a rising career at a gallery and tries his best not to let the ambition of the art world corrode the sanctuary of his domestic life. But then a celebrated artist betrays him, another artist awakens his heart, and he finds himself drifting away from his mannered life. When the desperate artists maneuver to capture an important prize, Edward learns that betrayal comes in many forms.
“Literature and art are my two passions,” says Bialosky, whose day job is executive editor and Vice President at Norton. “Although now that I think about it, I wouldn’t want to place one above the other. I remember the first time I went to a museum, I was maybe in second or third grade and we took a class trip to the Cleveland Museum of Art. We toured the museum with our little fold up stools and when I looked at a painting it was as if an entire world unfolded.”
For Bialosky, who spent nearly a decade working on her memoir, History of A Suicide, “it was thrilling to dive into this fictional world, it was engaging and great fun. The novel is about four marriages: a conventional marriage, the marriage between two artists, the marriage between art and commerce, and the marriage between work life and domestic life. I loved writing from the point of view of a man who is haunted by his past and is at a crossroads. I loved not quite knowing what my character would do and being surprised by his discoveries. Ultimately, the novel seeks to discover what we prize most in our lives.”
Bialosky was at BEA wearing both of her hats--signing her books at the Counter point booth on Friday, May 38; and doing face time at Norton's booth.
