The Pulitzer Prize-winning author opened up about his novel “Cool Machine” on Craig Melvin’s “Glass Half Full.”
Add TODAY to Google One of the core pieces of creative writing advice is rebuffed by bestselling novelist and two-time Pulitzer winner Colson Whitehead.
“People say, ‘Write every day. ’ That seems like a real imposition on my lifestyle, frankly,” Whitehead told Craig Melvin for the July 21“Sometimes I’m not feeling it. Sometimes it’s like, Thanksgiving, and you have to be present for your family or whatever. So that’s a lost week,” he said as Craig laughed.
“If I can do like six pages a week: Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday. That’s an accumulation. After a month you have like 20 something , and after 10 months, you got, you know, 240,” he said. Whitehead added that he feels “lucky” to work from home, where his writing routine can be a little more flexible — and unconventional.
“That’s quite the process,” Craig said, before asking about Whitehead’s hobbies outside of work. “When I’m not working, I’m really not working at all,” Whitehead said. “I cook a lot. I have a smoker, so a big slab of ribs, a brisket, that’s always fun in the summer.
I’ll goof off and play video games. Stare off into space. Think about my regrets. And then when I’m ready to work, I’ll go back to work.
”Whitehead’s latest project, “Cool Machine,” hit shelves July 21. It’s the final volume in his “Harlem Trilogy,” which also contains bestsellers “Harlem Shuffle” and “Crook Manifesto. ” Although Whitehead told Craig that his newest book is always his favorite, “Cool Machine” still stands apart. The novel feels “closest” to who he is, he said.
“My next work — my next book is enough of a stretch and a challenge,” Whitehead said. “It’s a novel. It takes place in the 19-teens, and it’s not something I’ve done before. So the challenge of, ‘What am I doing?
Why did I take this on? ’ is exciting,” he added.
“The characters are coming together. ”Talia Wexler is an editorial intern at TODAY.com and an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California majoring in journalism. Torrey Liddell / Viking ‘Pineapple Street’ Author Jenny Jackson Shares the Opening Lines of Her Next Book — and the Real Incident that Inspired Them
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