“One sentence from Toni Morrison can inspire a lifetime of writing.”
"By the Book: What Does the Author of ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ Think You Should Read?,” The New York Times, July 11, 2019.
CBS News, March 17, 2019, 10:11 AM
“It’s almost in Canada, with a view of Montana. That’s how remote this northern corner of Idaho really is, worlds away from almost everything, except nature. For writer Delia Owens, it’s heaven. Wildlife is her church, vast isolation her muse.
Does she get lonely out here? “I do. I get so lonely sometimes I feel like I can’t breathe.”
”But you like a part of that though, right?” asked correspondent Lee Cowan.
”I do, I do. And I decided to write a book about it.”
That book, “Where the Crawdads Sing,” has become a phenomenon. At a recent book fair in Savannah, Georgia, she had readers lined up around the block just to meet her.”
Did you catch the CBS Sunday Morning show segment on Where the Crawdads Sing’? Lee Cowan is the correspondent and we explored some of Kya’s marsh during the filming. If you missed it, you can watch it on the CBS News website.
“In its first eight weeks, its sales exceeded those of several of Putnam’s other best-selling debuts, its editor Tara Singh Carlson said. The book has spent nine weeks both on the New York Times best-seller list and Amazon’s most-sold fiction chart. It is also one of seven fiction nominees for the 2019 Southern Book Award….
“Where the Crawdads Sing” gained a high-profile fan in Reese Witherspoon, who named it a September pick for her Hello Sunshine book club….
When Ms. Carlson read the manuscript, she made an offer to Ms. Owens’s agent within a week, which successfully pre-empted an auction.
‘Part of what made me move so quickly had to do with Delia’s specific life experience that gives this book some of its special magic,’ Ms. Carlson says. ‘It’s a story that speaks to where people have come from evolutionarily and about what motivates us and what causes us to do what we do.’”
I'm excited to share this article from the Wall Street Journal, which ran in Monday's print edition! It's online and if you have a Wall Street Journal subscription, you can read it at the link below.
Tobias Grey, "With ‘Where the Crawdads Sing," a Debut Novel Goes Big," Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2018.“When Delia Owens was growing up in Thomasville, Georgia, her mother encouraged her to venture deep into the wilderness, saying, ‘Go way out yonder where the crawdads sing.’
Owens took that advice to heart.”
Read more in the BookPage interview about how I came to write Where The Crawdads Sing.
Alice Cary, "Delia Owens: A natural way of storytelling," BookPage, August 2018.