http://www.afterellen.com/column/2007/10/scenenewyork?page=0%2C0
Welcome
"In Nightlight, Avril tells a moving coming-of-age story laced with family secrets and tragedy. As she grapples with the loss of both parents, an uncle reveals a shocking piece of information that hits her hard but also helps her to understand some of her childhood's more confounding questions.Avril's style is straightforward and spare. Simple, declarative sentences move her narrative along at a brisk pace." -Excerpted from The Washington Post Book World:9/2/07
"Janine Avril's memoir is a luminous gift for navigating the often shadowy notions of truth we are presented by our loved ones. Nightlight is a clear-eyed look at how parents protect their children with loving intent but darker results. Avril's story shines with love even in its darkest places and her writing reflects a kind of spiritual maturity that is hard won and rare. This is a book worth revisiting and time and again, and I will come back to it, eager to find its insights afresh. Nightlight is a memoir that will remain in my stack of books to be savored as I mature as an artist, as someone's child and my own person."Jay Quinn, Author of The Beloved Son
"An electric story told with deep feeling--a real life mystery that tracks to its source the corrosive and deadly consequences of a family secret." Katherine Forest, Author of Curious Wine
Avril’s narration is honest and without judgment, and her voice is clear throughout. The pain of losing her mom to a rare form of cancer and the anger towards her father are expressed beautifully. The challenging attitude of young adulthood also comes alive on the page. Avril’s writing is crisp and at times, wise beyond her years. She has strength for dialogue, letting the characters tell their own stories. " Adela Brito, Edge New York
"Janine Avril's memoir, Nightlight, is an unflinching account of childhood and a young woman's coming of age. Nightlight is a story of what at first seems to be the life of an average upper middle class family in New York. As the narrative unfolds one is lead through childhood perceptions and feelings with the realization that very little protects one from the realities of life. Janine has pieced together meaning through memory and adult revelations which have profoundly affected her identity and an untold truth of her family’s history. Nightlight is a memoir that will speak to and for a generation." Grace Moon, Publisher/Editor Velvetpark Magazine
Interview with Janine Avril by Ellis Avery for Velvetpark
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Saturday, October 6, 2007
A Special Thank you GO MAGAZINE
There is a piece on Nightlight in the October 5-Nov 2nd issue of Go Magazine: A Cultural Roadmap for the City Girl, and a premier lesbian magazine in America. Thank you so much Go!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is an excerpt.
"There are a lot of stigmas still surrounding homosexuality, AIDS, being HIV positive, says Janine Avril, a Brooklyn writer whose first book "Nightlight" was published last month. "I think I'm challenging those." The 31 year old founder of monthly Brooklyn women's writing group Girlsalon lost both of her parents before she was 21. Four years later she found out that her mom's mysterious death could be AIDS related. Nightlight documents Avril's personal investigation into her parents' illnessses, and challenges the family ties that kept the elusive truth hidden for so long. "I think it's the first of its kind in terms of representing the first crop of children who have lost parents to AIDS," says Avril. "I wanted to be that voice if I could." Before the hype surrounding her memoir, Avril was already a celebrated writer. Her Girlsalon group that meets at Park Slope's Perch Cafe is a Go Magazine and Time Out New York hit, and Avril blogs for OurChart.com. But the memoir is a decidedly more personal project. "I really didn't know the truth about my childhood until I was an adult," says Avril. "When I learned what happened in my family, it sent me on an investigation. Based on the research I was doing, I was motivated to write." Nightlight with its stark and precise prose, is a haunting family memoir just begging for Oprah's Book Club status."
***I want to thank Go for mentioning that this book deals with the impact of AIDS on a family. My heartfelt thanks goes out to them.
Here is an excerpt.
"There are a lot of stigmas still surrounding homosexuality, AIDS, being HIV positive, says Janine Avril, a Brooklyn writer whose first book "Nightlight" was published last month. "I think I'm challenging those." The 31 year old founder of monthly Brooklyn women's writing group Girlsalon lost both of her parents before she was 21. Four years later she found out that her mom's mysterious death could be AIDS related. Nightlight documents Avril's personal investigation into her parents' illnessses, and challenges the family ties that kept the elusive truth hidden for so long. "I think it's the first of its kind in terms of representing the first crop of children who have lost parents to AIDS," says Avril. "I wanted to be that voice if I could." Before the hype surrounding her memoir, Avril was already a celebrated writer. Her Girlsalon group that meets at Park Slope's Perch Cafe is a Go Magazine and Time Out New York hit, and Avril blogs for OurChart.com. But the memoir is a decidedly more personal project. "I really didn't know the truth about my childhood until I was an adult," says Avril. "When I learned what happened in my family, it sent me on an investigation. Based on the research I was doing, I was motivated to write." Nightlight with its stark and precise prose, is a haunting family memoir just begging for Oprah's Book Club status."
***I want to thank Go for mentioning that this book deals with the impact of AIDS on a family. My heartfelt thanks goes out to them.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Pitch letter for Nightlight: editors and producers
(This is my publisher's pitch letter)
Dear Editor or Producer,
Dear Editor or Producer,
Finally, a fresh — but preternaturally wise — literary voice, and a singularly compelling life story, have arrived to churn up the doldrums of the memoir genre. With NIGHTLIGHT, Janine Avril has made a memorable authorial debut, casting light on an element of the American experience that, till now, was unacknowledged.
Janine’s childhood is, for a time, an idyllic one. She grows up in the affluent Manhattan suburb of Roslyn, NY, where she is cared for by a devoted mother; fights innocently with a rascally little brother; and can look up to her father, a French immigrant who, through hard work, fought his way from homelessness to become a leading chef in Manhattan. But the inscrutable, premature, and seemingly unrelated deaths of both her parents overturn the otherwise happy situation in which she is being raised. Their ends remain veiled by secrets and lies, told by family members for her protection, as a nightlight is placed to make a child feel safe in the dark. A telephone call from her uncle, years later, flips off the nightlight, forcing the recognition of what really happened to her parents. Like Oedipus, Janine commences an unrelenting search for the entire truth about her past, no matter how startling it may be. She learns that all through her father’s life he was harboring a furtive attraction to men — and that her parents, most certainly her father, died of AIDS. These revelations are particularly jarring as Janine questions her own sexuality. Another quest must then begin — this time for self-knowledge, inner peace, and forgiveness — and it is ultimately successful.
The appeal of NIGHTLIGHT reaches into dimly lit corners of
NIGHTLIGHT, by Janine Avril, is slated for a September release.
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