What books are on your night stand?
On my proverbial night stand — because we don’t have space in our N.Y.C. apartment for an actual night stand — are “The Gilda Stories,” by Jewelle Gomez, “There There,” by Tommy Orange, “Dictee,” by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, “Winter Solstice,” by Nina MacLaughlin, “Parable of the Talents,” by Octavia Butler, “Playlist for the Apocalypse,” by Rita Dove, “Ninetails,” by Sally Wen Mao, and a sprinkle of Harry Crews.
How do you organize your books?
Poetry has its own section. I have shelves of books I worked on at Oxford University Press, and shelves for series I originated for Penguin Classics. One shelf holds some of the last remaining copies of New Digressions, a literary magazine I published with friends in the early ‘90s. The rest are a mix of books I heard are really good, books I probably will never read but can’t give away because they are gifts from favorite people, and old editions of Penguin Classics.
What’s the last great book you read?
“Stay True,” by Hua Hsu. When we dropped off our son back at college and then visited my own college best friend who lives nearby, I was finishing the book and so much resonated about the various definitions of friendship he explored.
What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?
“Middlemarch.” Too many people I admire love that book.
What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?
“The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook” (my husband’s go-to) and “The Menopause Manifesto,” a subject my friends and I talk about the most.
What are the qualities that make you good at your job?
I get real geek joy out of learning something new. I have great respect for archival work and for writers and scholars recovering texts. I value a sense of humor and think that it helps the workday, especially when people assume we are overly serious about great literature.
Is “classic” a designation that can be a barrier more than an invitation?
It may sound odd, but I approach “Penguin Classic” like it’s a verb. When we Penguin Classic something, we are publishing with an intention to make the most of your experience reading something from the past. We know a reader might have a bias about what is “canonical” or a reluctance to read something assigned for school. We work to provide unique context, including a new foreword by a favorite novelist with a personal connection to the work, or an accessible introduction by a scholar who can offer an inside look into a text, like a private tour.
Was there internal debate about designating Marvel Comics as Penguin Classics?
No, if anything, there were gasps of excitement about the possibilities and at least one “Hell yeah.”
Is there a Penguin Classic that you wish more people knew about?
“Buddhist Meditation,” translated with an introduction by Kurtis R. Schaeffer. It’s an example of a Penguin Classic that is both a great resource for students and is inspired by Professor Schaeffer’s courses, but is fundamentally helpful to general readers for daily living.
What kind of reader were you as a child?
My mother was deeply religious, and she had booklets of daily meditations in her purses that fed my early appetite for poetry. I loved “The Real Mother Goose.” I adored “Nutshell Library,” by Maurice Sendak. My favorite children’s story is still “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The Moby Books Illustrated Classic Editions that we bought at a discount store definitely served as a foundation for learning some classics.
How have your reading tastes changed over time?
In high school I loved the emotional, dark and moody stuff: Keats, Byron, Shakespeare sonnets, Oscar Wilde, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Wuthering Heights,” “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” In college, there was a lot of eyeliner and underlining Milan Kundera, and coffee and Raymond Carver. Now my favorite novelist is Jesmyn Ward. But the through line in my reading life is poetry. Audre Lorde remains a beacon.
What’s the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?
Among so many recovered texts in the Penguin Classic “The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration,” there is a 1944 petition from the Mothers Society of Minidoka, signed by over 100 women, addressed to President Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, to suspend the drafting of their children, incarcerated American citizens of Japanese ancestry.
What’s the best book you’ve ever received as a gift?
“Brown River, White Ocean: An Anthology of 20th-Century Philippine Literature in English.” My father gave it to me for Christmas about 30 years ago. It included a short story by a distant relative, Arturo Rotor. I had never read his work before. He was sort of a myth to me, and I only knew fragments about him — a doctor, an orchid expert, a fiction writer. It was an acknowledgment of the world that I wanted to be in, and it meant a lot to me.
Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?
Actually, no. I should work on that.
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