Roy Blount Jr. has written 23 books and hundreds of articles over the years. He's won over countless fans with his writing and appearances on NPR’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!" He'll be in Louisville Tuesday for the Lillian O. Seligman Forum Series.
Blount sat down to speak with me about his writing, his fascination with words, and even his turn as a rock star with his band Rock Bottom Remainders. You can listen to our conversation in the audio player above.
On words and food:
"Yeah I think that southern culture, in general, is very oral. Involves and gets the mouth fully committed. And words and food and imagination tend to get threaded together into a beautiful, sometimes beautiful expression."
On language:
“I truly believe the best words, the most effective, expressive words involve pleasurable or at least significant mouth movements and movements of the tongue.”
On the state of the publishing industry:
“Every day I get notified by some pirate that my book is available for free. It’s getting harder and harder for an author to make a living. Same thing that happened to the music business is happening to the book business and at least musicians can go on the road and get paid to perform, but authors only go on the road to sell people their books."
Blount's latest book is called "Save Room for Pie: Food Songs and Chewy Ruminations." He'll appear in Louisville on Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Lillian O. Seligman Forum Series. More information can be found here.
