The Rumpus Long Interview with Dave Eggers
Eggers: And their story intrigued me from the start, given that it’s at the intersection of so many issues in recent American life: the debacle of the government response to Katrina, the struggles facing even the most successful immigrants, a judicial system in need of repair, the problem of wrongful conviction, the paranoia wrought by the War on Terror, widespread Islamophobia . . .
Rumpus: How was it working with the Zeitouns? How involved were they?
Eggers: They’re really a beautiful family, and we worked on the book together for a long time. With a book like this, I think you get the most accuracy when you involve your subjects as much as possible. I think I sent the manuscript to the Zeitouns for six or seven reads. They caught little inaccuracies each time. They have to live with the book, of course, as much as I do, so I needed their approval. With What Is the What and with this book, I consider the book as much theirs as mine. So they were intimately involved in every step, as were their extended families. We had many months to get everyone’s approval over everything, to make sure it was accurate.
Rumpus: The anniversary of Katrina is coming up.
Eggers: We definitely knew that, and didn’t want to release the book too close to that. It’s such a horrific anniversary that we didn’t want to seem to be timing the release to coincide with it in any way. I meant to get it out in April. It was scheduled for April but it wasn’t ready in time.
Rumpus: You’re setting up a nonprofit for Zeitoun the same way as with What Is the What.
Eggers: With the help of some lawyers working pro bono in New Orleans, we’re setting up a foundation to distribute the funds from the book.
Rumpus: So you’re not being paid.
Eggers: Not for this, no.
Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng
Rumpus: Is this the same or different from the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation? And who runs that organization?
June 9th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Great interview, Steve! Eggers constantly impresses me. I saw Away We Go and am reading What is the What, so I am being reminded lately of how talented he is as a writer and a go-getter. But what most impressed me most about this interview was his ability to not give you credit while you were fishing for a compliment. Nice work, Dave!
June 9th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Wonderful interview, I can’t wait to pick up a PRINT copy of Zeitoun!
June 9th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
That is not how I pictured the upcoming McSweeney’s newspaper edition. It’ll be on that days news? It’s going to have a business plan to help out small newspapers? Interesting stuff.
June 10th, 2009 at 4:49 am
Eggers is designing a newspaper? Good news. But as he said here, it will: “look and read like a daily newspaper.” Isn’t that one of the main problems of the daily newspaper? They are too large, with too many folds and cannot be read comfortably in the tight quarters of a subway. Not to mention the difficulies of navigation.
The newspaper needs a redesign as an object, not just a new business model.
Please McSweeney’s, you redesigned the book, now redesign the newspaper!
June 10th, 2009 at 5:37 am
Dave Eggers on TED:
http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html
June 10th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Can I get in on this U of I, SF, south Sudan convergence?
Just read What is the What before coming to Juba, capital of the south, where I’ll be working for the UN for the next year… and yes I graduated from Champaign in 93, lived in SF from 94-98…
Thanks to Dave for providing a timely glimpse of the complex situation in Sudan, and a note for the record: VAD, a Dinka, came across as a saint, and south Sudan’s hero, John Garang, was also Dinka…two facts that left me with a rosy view of the dominant tribe. I was then surprised to learn from colleagues and friends here that the Dinka have mixed reviews to say the least, and are “known” to be an agressive, even violent tribe, who have made the most of their association with Garang by dominating Government and Army positions and otherwise making off with many of the spoils of war. I share the generalization as just that, not as an endorsement, but rather to broaden the picture for interested readers.
June 11th, 2009 at 8:18 am
With positivity like that… Dave will have a forever fan in me! It’s such an invigorating breath of fresh air to hear someone in the business talk about how print publishing is far from dead. YESSSSSS!
June 21st, 2009 at 3:50 am
How interesting… and how wonderful that Dave is addressing the issue of print’s inevitable and necessary revitalisation. I worked on an essay last year about how McSweeney’s is at the forefront of defeating this supposed hegemony of the virutal text, and this proves it!
August 18th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Wow! Listening to Dave Eggers talk about this stuff is like watching a hero discover that he has even more powers than he knew about. The writing, and humanitarian efforts that are offshoots of the writing are sort of a known and appreciated quantity at this stage, but still fascinating. Even more compelling to me though, is the chance to hear Eggers talk about his efforts to create a sustainable business model for serious journalism. Illuminating, exciting and hopeful to say the least. It’s like he’s firing a flaming arrow across the night sky, allowing us all to see the landscape in a different way. It’s going to be up to the rest of us to realize that we too can light up the darkness with our own arrows. That might just be me getting a little too excited, but in this case, I’m more than happy to be excited. Trying to ensure that we live in a world with a free and effective press is a noble cause indeed, so fire away Dave. Thanks to Stephen Elliot for putting together a fascinating interview!