The Muse & the Marketplace 2016

Jacqueline Sheehan has sold over half a million books and has been on the New York Times bestseller list twice. Yet when it came time to sell her fifth novel, The Center of the World, publishers were hesitant to buy it. Why? Because the novel was partly set in another country and to quote one publisher, "American readers don't like books about other countries." Her new book is set partly in Guatemala, amid the indigenous people of the highland, the Mayans.
Jacqueline will discuss the hazards of writing from the sensibility of another culture. How can an outsider ever truly understand a culture that is so different from her own? Are we underestimating American readers? Are we truly xenophobic in our reading inclinations? What happens if writers never try to experience another culture?
If there is time, we will use a short writing exercise.