“Your Alma Mater is Proud of You!”
That was the subject line of the email I got from Erik Inglis, Oberlin professor of medieval art and a fellow Oberlin art history grad from the class of ’89. He had seen the August New York Times piece on A.D., and dropped me a congratulatory email. One thing quickly led to another and soon enough I had been officially invited back to Oberlin to present A.D. to the school. The fact that Kwame, one of A.D.’s characters, is also a student at Oberlin, and was willing to take part i

Hallowe'en 1973 vs. Hallowe'en 2009
Like father like daughter...The Super Neufelds wish you a happy Hallowe'en!

A.D. goes Dutch
I'm excited to announce that A.D. will be translated into Dutch! The upstart publisher De Vliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman) is going to be releasing A.D. in The Netherlands some time next year. (They have also done Dutch translations of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Y the Last Man, Stitches, and Logicomix, among others, so I'm in good company.) I find it only fitting that an Amsterdam-based publisher would relate to my story of broken levees and flooded cities: in 1953 the Netherlands was flooded when the dikes protecting the southwest of the country were breache

This weekend: Portland, OR's Wordstock
If you happen to be in beautiful Portland, Oregon, this weekend, please come to the Wordstock Literary Festival. I will be appearing at Wordstock on Saturday, Oct. 10, @ 1pm, alongside Laurie Sandell (The Imposter's Daughter), to share our work via slideshows, do a Q&A, and sign books. And check out this humorous and clever Wordstock viral video.

NAACP's The Defenders Online
Paula L. Woods just posted a review of A.D. on The Defenders Online, the blog of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. I was pleased to see her piece focusing on aspects of the book that many other reviewers have overlooked: the warmth of Abbas and Darnell's friendship; the sadness and pessimism Leo felt when he first returned home to rebuild; the fulfilment Denise found when she began counseling battered women hurricane survivors. To my mind, Ms. Woods' piece is one of the more thoughtful discussions of A.D. so far.