We’re thrilled to be introducing our new Content Editor at Bookclubz, Gabriel Sessions. He’ll be the curator recommending you books on our redesigned blog, and the wry but supportive voice fielding unique discussion questions to get your club focused.
With lifelong interests in writing and art, Gabriel earned B.A. degrees in English and music from Wesleyan University, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Pennsylvania. From 2018-19, he served on the English faculty at Haverford College, leading courses on literature and the environment, the British empire, and the relationship between art and fascism. He’s also held positions at Arcadia University and Bryn Mawr College. His apartment is overstuffed with contemporary fiction of all kinds, and he believes “trashy” or “guilty pleasure” are judgmental words we don't have time for.
In the classroom or outside of it, Gabriel has devoted his professional life to making critical thinking and creative work accessible to a larger public. That’ll be his niche here at Bookclubz too. He's run interdisciplinary conferences on art and climate change. Taught first-year college students why everyone cheats on each other in novels. Edited scholarly and popular book manuscripts on subjects ranging from Russian history to art therapy in terminal cancer patients. Wrote essays on an enigmatic British mystic named May Sinclair. Translated Homer and Marguerite Duras, and even produced his own short stories.
He’s very excited to be at the service of Bookclubz’ outspoken community of users.
I asked Gabriel a few key questions about what he'll be doing for you. See below.
AF: When did you first know you wanted to study (or dedicate your professional life to) literature, and why?
GS: I didn’t fall in love right away. I’ve wanted to do a lot of things with my life. But I did start writing short stories as a very young child. They were predominantly military thrillers in the style of Tom Clancy, but I was more interested in fighter jets than world politics. Those were only my first phase--I’ve always been drawn to writing as a way of turning something I’d learned about into something more alive and real for myself. Deciding to study literature and make working with books my profession was a gradual process. But I think that affinity for getting to know someone through their words was always there.
In my senior year of college, I took a course called Poetry and Visual Culture taught by an incredible poet named Elizabeth Willis. Reading poets like Jack Spicer and Alice Notley and Bernadette Mayer and juxtaposing them with all these contemporary experiments in visual arts, film, performance--that pushed me to make it a profession.
AF: Tell us more about your position and what you’re going to be doing for Bookclubz users.
GS: Short answer: I’m going to be creating content that helps you leave club meetings feeling like you really talked about the book.
What that means specifically is that I’m going to be writing for and helping redesign our Bookclubz blog, which you can subscribe to here: https://bookclubz.com/blog and I’m going to be writing discussion guides for books I think are worth your time, as well as for books YOU think are worth your time, which you can request here: gabriel@bookclubz.com and find here: https://bookclubz.com/discussion-guides.
A content editor more generally usually shapes the voice and mission of whatever they’re editing. Because Bookclubz is so collaborative and community-based, I see editing here as a dialogue with all of you, to help us all get the most out of what we love to read.
AF: What about book clubs do you find most inspiring?
GS: I love how you can never tell where a discussion will go: what ideas or jokes or moments of connection will arise, even if you think you know the people involved in the discussion. And I love how considering what an imaginary character is going through can feel so meaningful and provide such insight into one’s own life.
AF: What do you think the challenges a book club faces are? How can they meet them and why should one stay together?
GS: Bookclubz is a great platform to keep you organized, and organization and consistency are probably the biggest challenges a book club faces. So by being here you’re already avoiding a lot of unnecessary and tedious work.
But beyond that, motivation can be a challenge--sometimes you need to sit down and talk with your club about what you’re looking to get out of it. And sometimes it can be motivationally helpful--and this is where I see my role--to have a clear road into something as formidable and complicated as a book. You don’t have to stay on the road, though. It’s just there if you need it.
AF: You’ve facilitated many types of discussions on books, for students, for friends etc. What’s your best tip for someone leading a book club discussion?
GS: Ha. Don’t underestimate how hard it is! It takes enthusiasm and patience. Don’t fear silence if you ask your club a question and they don’t respond right away. Trust me, I know how terrifying silence can be. In teacher training, they told us to wait fifteen seconds before we spoke again. Try asking someone a question and then staring at them in silence for fifteen seconds. I wanted to call all my former teachers and apologize.
Another big one: don’t ask questions where there’s one specific answer you’re looking for. In the discussion questions I’ll write for you, there will never be one right answer. A question should be interesting and make you think of certain parts of the book and want to discuss them. Relax. You’re not in class.
AF: What can a book club be?
GS: Whatever your club wants to be. The possibilities are human and therefore endless. Suffrage movements, civil rights movements, and LGBTQ+ rights movements have all been organized around reading together. Book clubs go back to 1634, or maybe even Ancient Greece, as we can see in this cool piece my colleague Carrie Thornbrugh showed the team.
It might be hard to decide on a name for yourselves, or a purpose for why you’re reading together, but it can be a useful exercise to help you get more out of your club. Be intentional, as they say.
AF: What are ways our users can connect with you to help better their experience?
GS: I’ll be checking my Bookclubz email all day every day, or you can always direct comments to me through Bookclubz’s social media.
AF: What are you reading in your off time? What’s your favorite book/recommendation for everyone?
Right now I’m reading Hell of a Book by Jason Mott and really enjoying its thought-provoking self-referential plot. It’s also hilarious. Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados, which--ahem--just got a discussion guide on Bookclubz, is another I’d recommend, especially if you’re interested in the legibility of a unique kind of woman’s experience that isn’t put out there often. A book I loved, which may not be for everyone, is Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian, which is exquisitely written, translated into like twenty languages, and makes Ancient Rome seem very contemporary.
My favorite book of all time is Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert.
AF: When you aren’t reading or writing for Bookclubz, what do you like to do?
GS: I live in Philadelphia and I’m out and about. Taking a life drawing and painting class was one of the most rewarding things I’ve done recently. I can't stop copying artists for practice and drawing now. Cooking, especially improvising meals once I’ve done a recipe a few times, is up there too. I like to stay involved.
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