What I’m Reading: Steven Rowley

Steven Rowley’s novel, The Editor, now available in paperback, looks at a writer, who after years of struggling, finally sells his novel to an editor at a major publishing house: none other than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Jackie–or Mrs. Onassis, as she’s known in the office–has fallen in love with James’s candidly autobiographical novel, one that exposes his own dysfunctional family. But when the book’s forthcoming publication threatens to unravel already fragile relationships, both within his family and with his partner, James finds that he can’t bring himself to finish the manuscript. Jackie and James develop an unexpected friendship, and she pushes him to write an authentic ending, encouraging him to head home to confront the truth about his relationship with his mother. Then a long-held family secret is revealed, and he realizes his editor may have had a larger plan that goes beyond the page.

When he’s not penning writerly books, author Steven Rowley is a reader. Click below to hear him speak about the books he’s been reading recently, including those that focus on race in America, family dysfunction, and dogs!