Carmela’s book on pseudonymous authors has been receiving heaps of praise, and it’s easy to see why. Whether relating O. Henry’s ex-con past, Patricia Highsmith’s obsession with snails or Alice Sheldon’s flirty correspondences with women (as James Tiptree, Jr.), Carmela uncovers the good stuff and lets her own enthusiasm and interest in her topic shine through.

Read on for Carmela’s  best reading experiences, an incident regarding an “oddball character” and the author who turned her into a grinning fangirl.

• What’s one of the most memorable readings you’ve given and why?

“Tough to choose, but I had a blast at McNally Jackson in Soho. It’s one of my favorite bookstores, the event was completely packed, and I was in conversation with a friend, Andy Hunter, who co-founded Electric Literature. I always like my events to be interactive, and we had a lot of fun that night doing a “nom de plume” contest and awarding prizes. But I have to say that I loved each of my NYC events because I’m a frequent customer of all those bookstores: Greenlight, The Strand, 192 Books, and so on.
 
Two other especially memorable events from my book tour come to mind: I’ll always treasure having spent an afternoon with Dick Cavett at the Montauk Bookstore, and reading with Roger Rosenblatt at the Miami Book Fair. I admire both of them, and they were as kind, witty and generous as I could have hoped for. I felt honored to spend time in their presence at these events.”
 

• Any particularly intriguing (or conversely, awkward) audience questions that have stuck with you?

“Nothing terribly intriguing or awkward occurred at my readings. People always asked if I would ever consider writing under a pen name—answer: probably not—and I was often asked whether the pseudonym is dead. (It is, in a sense, and last summer I wrote an essay on this topic for The New York Times Book Review.)
 
Occasionally, there were charming oddball characters in the audience. At one of my first readings, an elderly man embarked on what seemed to be a ten-minute monologue that touched on, among other things, the current tax code and Bob Dylan. I tried to nod my head and smile politely as he rambled on, but I had no idea what he was talking about. It certainly had nothing to do with my book. And I don’t think he asked an actual question.”
 
[Julia: I was there, and no, he did not!]
 

• What’s a reading that you’ve attended that you’ll never forget?

“One of the many pleasures of living in New York City is that if you’re here long enough, you will get to encounter pretty much all of your favorite writers and poets. I’ve been thrilled to hear Lorrie Moore, Joan Didion, Zadie Smith, Susan Sontag, Janet Malcolm, Louise Gluck, Jorie Graham, W. S. Merwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Anne Carson, and so many others read and talk about their work.
 
Years ago, when I attended a Toni Morrison reading, I remember thinking at the time how lucky I was to be living in the same period in which she was writing, and to hear the sound of her voice that night, which I could have listened to for hours.
 
Recently, I got to hear Margaret Atwood read, and I learned so much about the craft of writing at that event. She’s been one of my favorite writers for years, so I was excited to be there. She had a sly, mischievous sense of humor, which I loved, and she was very charismatic.
 
I was also impressed to see that although she got lots of silly, irrelevant, and just plain bizarre questions from the audience, she listened patiently to every single one and provided such thoughtful responses.

After the reading, she was incredibly kind to me. I’ll never forget that. She praised the book I had written and asked lots of questions about it. That was quite a surreal, amazing moment, and I left the building with a big stupid happy grin on my face.”

Thanks so much, Carmela!

For more on Carmela and Nom de Plume, check out my first and second BookStalker writeups.