Susan Keselenko Coll
Author Interview - Susan Coll
Author of The Literati and Word Salad
About Word Salad:
Matilda loves logic and order, and now her structured world is falling apart—in a bookstore, of all places.
Former economics major Matilda is living where she never thought she would—back in her hometown of Washington D.C.—at a job she never imagined she’d take—at her neighborhood bookstore. She’s coping with the recent loss of her mother and trying, in vain, to make sense of illogical business of books. To make things worse, she’s forced to team up with a new hire—the enigmatic, flaky, larger-than-life, Sage—who shows up on her first day of work with zero administrative skills and her tiny, puffy, incessantly urinating dog that resembles an underfed rat.
Something in the chaos begins to remind Matilda of her long-neglected creative side, and she starts to rediscover the person she once was before so much got in the way. But things get even more unmanageable when Matilda and Sage are tasked with putting together an event for a reclusive and controversial windbag of a public intellectual with a cult following that includes a number of people who would like to literally and figuratively see him dead. Add in a lawsuit and an impending snowstorm and Matilda is about to come undone.
Bestselling author Susan Coll’s gastric, bookish, laugh-out-loud comedy of manners reminds us that sometimes things have to completely fall apart for them to perfectly come together.
Author Interview with Susan Coll
About The Literati:
An unexpected catastrophe of literary proportions . . .
Aspirant, bookish, and close to broke, 26-year-old Clemi steps into her dream job at a prestigious literary nonprofit and finds herself in the bull's eye of a financial, legal, and existential calamity. The executive director has disappeared, leaving behind an inscrutable cat to which she is highly allergic. Meanwhile, the bank accounts have been overdrawn, the FBI is asking questions, and she has three days to pull off the annual fundraising gala, a glamorous affair filled with famous writers and local literati.
On the upside, she will get to meet her all-time favorite writer, who has won the award. Clemi has read and reread her novels, pouring over her every word. But her interactions with the author and her eight-year-old son, as well as with the nonprofit's Board Members, leave her wondering whether certain writers are better on the page than in person.
All the while, Clemi is trying to sort out her own life: her current boyfriend is, like every boyfriend before him, a pompous poseur, and the clock is running on her apartment-sitting gig. She finds herself wondering what all the goings-on in this dysfunctional, scandal-plagued nonprofit have to do with literature. And if it's time to let go of her literary aspirations and apply to law school.
In the week in which this madcap story unfolds, USA TODAY bestselling author Susan Coll weaves together a charmingly witty and warm comedy of manners that offers a peek behind the literary curtain--one that anyone who's ever been a little bit uncertain of what the future might hold can relate to.
Author Interview - Susan Coll
Author I Draw Inspiration From:
2026: William Boyd. I discovered his work around the time that I first began to write fiction, and was drawn to---and envious of--- his range. From short stories and novels to comic fiction to thrillers, he has written roughly 20 novels. A Good Man in Africa and Brazzaville Beach are among my favorites.
Favorite place to read a book:
2026: The bath! I have destroyed many a book in the bath, but it's still my favorite place to read.
2025: The bathtub. I have destroyed any number of books while reading in the tub, but I persist, nonetheless. I recently finished a PDF of a book that isn’t yet in print, which meant I read it on my iPad. I had to prop it on the side of the tub and hope for the best.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
2026: Rather than overthink this, I just took a cursory look at the stack of books beside me and will go with the unnamed protagonist of Miranda July's All Fours. She is a semi-famous artist who is completely outrageous in her personal behavior -- the opposite of timid me---and I'd love to get some pointers from her on boldness and audacity.
2025: Does a comic book count? If so, let’s say Spiderman, for obvious reasons. I don’t want to have a three-hour conversation about anything --- I just want to get out!
Author Interview - Susan Coll | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
2026: At some level I always wanted to write in some capacity, but per the above, my aha moment about writing fiction was when I read A Good Man in Africa and Brazzaville Beach in succession, and was dazzled by, and inspired by Boyd's range.
2025: There wasn’t any aha moment that made me want to become an author, but I always knew I wanted to do something that involved working with words. I told myself that I’d be happy in any language-adjacent job – editing crossword puzzles, writing advertising copy, proofreading whatever. Right out of college I applied for a job writing captions for the local public television network, which I was pretty excited about, but I wasn’t hired. Even captioning the evening news seemed glamorous---and for a long time out of reach.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
2026: I prefer physical books--hardback or paperback are both fine. I'm not a regular ebook reader but appreciate the ability to instantaneously download a title if I'm traveling or if the physical book is not easily accessible. And I love to listen to audiobooks, and usually have one or two in progress, even if that's not my go-to option.
2025: I am agnostic when it comes to format. Sometimes I have both a hardcover and an audiobook going at the same time, and if I’m not near a bookstore and I need something quickly, an e-book is fine. But because my favorite place to read is in the bathtub, paperbacks work best.
The last book I read:
2026: One of my book groups is selectively reading Women's Prize winners and finalists, and we recently read Anne Enright's The Forgotten Waltz. It's been a great way to engage in backlist that I wouldn't otherwise think to pick up. I hadn't read Enright before. It's an engrossing novel about an adultry and its effects on a child, and I'm glad to have read it, but I'm still processing my thoughts about the unlikeable narrator, which is of course a subject all its own.
2025: I just finished reading Jenna Blum’s forthcoming Murder Your Darlings. It’s a very entertaining (and chilling) thriller about writers that is so close to the bone about the business of publishing that it’s making me think about switching careers.
Author Interview - Susan Coll | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
2026: Computer. I'm a fast typist, and writing by hand feels slow and laborious.
2025: Computer. I’m not sure I could write effectively with pen and paper. I’ve been working at either a typewriter or a keyboard of one sort or another since high school term paper days. I’m a fast typist and I think my brain is hardwired to the keyboard.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
2026: I love reading memoir and want to be best friends with just about every author because of their willingness to open themselves up and to inadvertently help readers figure out how to navigate life. I could name so many memoirists I'd love to sit down and have coffee with, but if I have to pick one I'll say Cheryl Strayed because who didn't want to be her best friend after reading Wild, not to mention Tiny Beautiful Things?
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
2026: I love working in an independent bookstore and that actually does feel like a dream job much of the time, being surrounded by books and getting advance copies of forthcoming titles. One of my other dream jobs has always been to work in publishing, but that said, I think being an author and working in a bookstore are probably the more satisfying gigs.
2025: Oh I ask myself this question pretty much every day and I might at long last have an answer. I’ve been working at an independent bookstore on and off for some 15 years, and I find that just as satisfying most days as writing. I think I would throw myself into bookselling full time if I decide to stop writing.
Favorite Decade in Fashion History:
2026: I'll go with the sixties if only because I am partial to denim skirts.
Place I’d most like to travel:
2026: Berlin has been on my bucket list for years. I love cities -- museums, cafes, bookstores, music. I travel a fair amount and have no excuse for not having been there yet.
2025: Berlin has been on my bucket list since Covid; I don’t know why I haven’t booked tickets yet. Why? Museums, restaurants, music, plus I’ve never been to Germany, apart from long layovers at the Frankfurt airport.
My Signature Drink:
2026: I wish I had an interesting answer but I am a total lightweight in the drinking alcohol department even though I am married to a vodka enthusiast. But if you twist my arm, I'll order a Manhattan. Otherwise, an herbal iced tea for me.
Favorite artist:
2026: Maira Kalman. She has been inspiring me for years. I just wrote an essay (not yet published) about how my inability to paint has informed my writing. One of her books plays a role in Word Salad, in fact.
2025: I love Maira Kalman's work, and even have one of her paintings as the background on my desktop. I once took painting lessons and told the teacher I wanted to paint like Maira Kalman. We tried that for a while, but after a few weeks she gave up on me, and suggested I go back to writing.
Number one on my bucket list:
2026: I've been writing in more or less the same style since I began nearly 20 years ago, and would like to exercise a different writing muscle. What that means exactly I'm not sure, but I'm excited to start the next project and see what happens.
2025: Ha, my bucket list is sort of the opposite of a bucket list at this point in life. I’m always a little too busy, so I’m looking forward to doing a little less, and finding more time to read and write and spend with family.
Find more from the author:
@susan_keselenko_coll (Instagram)
About Susan Coll:
Author Interview with Susan Coll
Bestselling writer Susan Coll is the author of eight previous novels, including The Literati, Real Life & Other Fictions, and Bookish People. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR.org, The Atlantic.com, The Millions, and other publications. Her novel, Acceptance, was made into a television movie starring Joan Cusack. Susan is the recipient of multiple grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She works as an event consultant at Politics and Prose Bookstore and was the president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation for five years. Coll teaches workshops at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Her new novel, WORD SALAD, will be published by Harper Muse in September 2026.
