{"id":24792,"date":"2018-04-04T10:49:47","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T14:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=24792"},"modified":"2018-04-04T10:53:39","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T14:53:39","slug":"polish-off-portuguese-in-providence-with-victor-lavalle-on-episode-63-of-eating-the-fantastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2018\/04\/04\/polish-off-portuguese-in-providence-with-victor-lavalle-on-episode-63-of-eating-the-fantastic\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish off Portuguese in Providence with Victor LaValle on Episode 63 of Eating the Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s time to head back to Providence, Rhode Island for the third annual StokerCon—and for dinner with award-winning writer Victor LaValle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My story \u201cThat Perilous Stuff\u201d was up against his “The Ballad of Black Tom” for a Bram Stoker Award in the Long Fiction category last year, and it was such a powerful piece of work, I was sure he was going to win. Well, neither of us won, but that doesn\u2019t make his story any less amazing. In fact, it\u2019s so amazing AMC recently announced it’s planning a TV adaptation, with LaValle as co-executive producer. Among his critically acclaimed novels are Big Machine<\/em>—which won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel in 2009, the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, plus an American Book Award in 2010—and The Changeling<\/em>—which was selected as one of 2017’s ten best books by the New York Public Library. <\/p>\n

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We stole away on the Friday night of StokerCon for O Dinis<\/a>, one of the many Portuguese restaurants in Rhode Island, which I’ve been told contains the largest Portuguese-American population in the United States. I was extremely impressed with the restaurant. The food was delicious, and our server took great care of us, making us feel like part of a family, as if we were in someone’s home, not a restaurant. It was my favorite food experience of the weekend, and I\u2019ll definitely try to return the next time I’m in Providence. Their hospitality was much appreciated!<\/p>\n

We discussed the lunch during which his editor and publisher helped make The Changeling<\/em> a better book, the graphic novel which made him fall in love with the X-Men, which magazine sent him the best rejection letter he ever received, why reading Clive Barker’s “Midnight Meat Train” for the first time was glorious, the differing reactions his readers have depending on whether they come from genre or literary backgrounds, the unusual way a short story collection became his first publication, why he was so uncertain of his critically acclaimed “The Ballad of Black Tom” that he almost published it online for free, the reason so many writers are suddenly reassessing H. P. Lovecraft, how his graphic novel The Destroyer<\/em> came to be, and much more.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s how you can dive into a bowl of tripe and beans with us—<\/p>\n

1) Head over to the iTunes store<\/a> and subscribe. While there, I hope you’ll be moved to sample some of the other 62 available episodes.<\/p>\n

2) Use the RSS feed of http:\/\/eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com\/rss<\/a> and download the episode to the device of your choosing.<\/p>\n

3) Or simply listen here via the embed below.<\/p>\n