A Q&A with Pamela Paul & Kelly McMasters Transcribed by Claire Feasey
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amela Paul might be the most powerful woman in publishing. As the editor of The New York Times Book Review, Paul oversees the most vital book coverage pages in the literary landscape. She previously served as children’s books editor and features editor for the Book Review, and launched the popular weekly “By the Book” interview column in which historians, novelists, artists, and politicians share their reading habit and the literary life. Paul is also the author of five nonfiction books, including The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony (Villard, 2002), an exploration of failed first marriages, and Pornified: How Pornography is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families (Times Books, 2005), which led her to testify on the subject of pornography before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her sixth book, How to Raise a Reader, co-written with Maria Russo, publishes this fall. Her love of books started early; Paul grew up in Port Washington, Long Island, in a house that once functioned as the town’s original public library. At her event, Paul discussed her memoir My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues (Henry Holt & Co., 2017), which details her diary of books she’s read for the past twenty-eight years and the way literature impacts her life. Kelly McMasters, an Assistant Professor of English and Director of Publishing Studies, spoke with Paul after a reading co-sponsored by the Department of English and Hofstra Cultural Center during the 15th annual Great Writers, Great Readings series. Although this was her first visit to campus, Paul’s father graduated from the Hofstra University; during her visit, she met with students, read from her new book, and talked about publishing, literature, and how books can alter a reader’s daily reality.
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