Questlove is getting his own publishing imprint. These celebrities should too.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson — musician, author, award-winning documentarian — is going to have his own publishing imprint, AUWA, nested under MCD books, which is part of one of the Big Five publishers, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Thompson, best known as drummer for the Roots and director of the Oscar-winning documentary “Summer of Soul,” says he sees his new imprint as similar to a record label. His goal will be to “keep my ear to the streets, keep it underground and keep my eyes on people that you otherwise would have never have heard of, but who I feel can really do a paradigm shift.”
This is great news on the publishing front. I’ve long been a champion of publishers tapping talented creators as scouts for writers who may not grab attention via the traditional routes.
I said the same thing just about two years ago, following the announcement that Roxane Gay would be overseeing her own publishing imprint for Grove Atlantic. I wish I was championing this kind of news more often than every couple of years.
Perhaps the problem is that publishers need some help thinking of celebrity artists who they should consider for the gigs. If that is the problem, I’ve got some suggestions below.
At the top of my list is Janelle Monáe because there’s obviously nothing that the singer, rapper, actress and writer cannot do, so having a publishing imprint shouldn’t be too tough. More important is the fact that she has already created a multimedia narrative with her album “Dirty Computer,” which was also turned into a sci-fi film and associated short story collection, “The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer.” While Questlove may have his ear to the streets, Monae seems like she’d have her eye on the stars.
Next on my list is my favorite of the acting Chrises, Chris Pine, star of the most recent “Star Trek” reboots and super charming in his role as Wonder Woman’s love interest, Steve Trevor. Pine was an English major at UC Berkeley. He recently revealed an eclectic taste when giving Esquire a list of 15 books he thinks everyone should read, blowing past the magazine’s requested number of five. Sounds like a guy who knows what he likes, a necessity for a good head of an imprint.
Since we’re a Chicago publication, we need some Chicagoans, so how about a joint effort between two of our own who are already buddies: Jeff Tweedy and Nick Offerman?
Wilco frontman Tweedy has published poetry, memoir and the delightful quasiself-help book, “How to Write One Song,” while Offerman is a passionate reader and author of several books of his own, including, “Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside,” which features a hiking trip between Offerman, Tweedy and writer George Saunders. I’d love to see what they would do if they put their heads together. They can invite Saunders along as a creative adviser.
Quinta Brunson’s ABC sitcom “Abbot Elementary” has done more to illuminate the lives of teachers and students attempting to work under very trying conditions than a dozen sober documentaries, while being delightfully funny and utterly charming in the process. For Brunson, I see an imprint that takes on contemporary issues but does so in a way that’s engaging and illuminating to regular folks, much like her show.
I know these are all busy people and the relatively low glamour of books and publishing pales next to their primary gigs, but I’d be genuinely fascinated to see what kind of books they’d shepherd into the world.