Anjali Singh Loves Comics and Prose
by Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 4/11/2007
After publishing a string of acclaimed graphic novels at Pantheon, Anjali Singh moved to Houghton Mifflin last year. In an interview, Singh, a senior editor specializing in international literary fiction and nonfiction as well as comics, discussed plans to publish a new comics work in early 2008 by Frederik Peeters as well as prose novels by Rudolph Delson and by Samantha Hunt.
During her time at Pantheon, Singh was the editor of such critically acclaimed works as Persepolis (2003), Marjane Satrapi's groundbreaking memoir of growing up during the Iranian revolution; Epileptic (2006), David B's haunting memoir of family illness and his own artistic evolution; and The Rabbi's Cat (2005), Joann Sfar's whimsical fictional treatment of Sephardic Jewish tradition. Singh also acquired Jessica Abel's 2006 graphic novel La Perdida, a story of American expatriates and criminal betrayal in Mexico City.
Eager to discuss new acquisitions, Singh described the graphic novels and prose works slated for release in the next year. In early 2008, Houghton Mifflin will publish Blue Pills, a memoir by Swiss comics artist Frederik Peeters, winner of the Best Book prize at Angouleme in 2002. Blue Pills is a memoir that recounts Peeters's encounter with a young woman at a party and their subsequent romance. The woman confesses that she and her young son are both HIV positive, and the book goes on to describe the couple's developing intimacy even as they deal with illness and the possibility of death. "It's a life-affirming book," Singh explained. "Yes, he learns that having sex is a little bit complicated, but he also learns that living under the specter of death teaches you to value every minute you have with the people you love."
Singh also plans to publish an original graphic novel tentatively called Tina's Mouth, written by Keshni Kashyap, a screenwriter, and illustrated by Mari Araki. Still in production, the book is a fictional account of the life of a teenage South Asian Indian-American girl who goes to a wealthy prep school. Although the book is inspired by Persepolis, Singh described it as "Clueless meets Ghostworld. But it's also a sweet and introspective look at an over-the-top wealthy Indian-American community of intellectuals, doctors and kids driving SUVs and imitating hip-hop culture."
Singh joined Houghton Mifflin, a publisher not known for comics, during a year in which the house added The Best American Comics 2006, edited by Harvey Pekar, to its famous series of best-of collections, and also published Alison Bechdel's memoir, Fun Home, named the best book of the year by Time magazine.
"Houghton has stepped up its comics publishing," Singh said, laughing during an interview at Houghton's New York City offices, "and I didn't have anything to do with it." Despite her success publishing a string of notable foreign language graphic novels, Singh is quick to emphasize, "I'm hardly a graphic novel authority. People like to clump all comics together. They assume that if you've read one graphic novel you must like them all. But for me, it's book by book. I'm interested in a small subgenre of comics works that speak to me like prose literary fiction and have the same depth and complexity that would draw me to any story."
Literary fiction is her specialty, and she is enthusiastic describing Rudolph Delson's Maynard and Jennica, a first novel about an eccentric love affair between a very quirky pianist and a nice Jewish girl from California that begins on a subway train in New York City. Slated for the fall, Singh said the book is "smart and funny. It's a real New York story about the kind of people who come to this town to make a new life." And coming in early 2008, Samantha Hunt's The Invention of Everything Else, a novel that imagines a relationship between the eccentric inventor Nikola Tesla (he invented AC electric current) and a young chambermaid, set in the historic Hotel New Yorker."Samantha's prose is stark, playful and inventive, and really brings 1940s New York to life," said Singh. "She's fascinated by Tesla's life and the Hotel New Yorker, which is a real character in the novel."
Singh began her publishing career in 1996 as a scout for Mary Anne Thompson Associates. She joined Vintage Books as an editor in 2002, acquiring books for both Vintage and Pantheon before joining Houghton Mifflin in early 2006. She's most proud of her role in publishing Satrapi's Persepolis for English-language readers. "It was right after 9/11, and I thought the book would open American eyes to what it's like to be from the Middle East. It's really convinced people of what literary comics can do." Singh admits she's very attracted by memoir and its obvious connection to life and social history.
"That really encapsulates what attracts me to certain books,"she said. "I like to get my history distilled though a really personal perspective."
