Out Loud! Series brings Ann Patchett to Cedar Rapids

Ann Patchett doesn't see her line of work as much different from many others.

"It's just a job. You've just got to do the work. There's no mystery to it, which is sad in a way because we want to believe that the blue fairy comes and kisses us on the cheek and it's going to be magic,” she says.

But as a New York Times best selling author, Patchett seems to have found a little bit of magic at least.

A successful mid-list author for years, Patchett's fourth novel, “Bel Canto,” became a 2001 best-seller and gained critical acclaim, earning the PEN/Faulkner Award, Orange Prize, BookSense Book of the Year, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She's written other novels - “Run,” “The Patron Saint of Liars,” “Taft,” “The Magician's Assistant” and “State of Wonder” - as well as two works of non-fiction: “Truth & Beauty” and “What Now?”

She arrives in Cedar Rapids on Friday to kick off the 2013 Out Loud! Author Series presented by the Metro Library Network. She'll speak at 7 p.m. at the Hotel at Kirkwood Center in a free event.

While she won't be reading from her books, Patchett plans to share insights on her career.

“It becomes this kind of performance art thing you shape over years. It's really a little like writing a book with an audience and I find that really interesting. I've been talking about work lately. I've become really interested in how it is that this is my job over the course of my whole life and that people still want to know about my inspiration.”

Patchett appreciates the opportunity to interact with readers at such events.

“When I go out on book tour, most of the people there have read all my books. Those people are really hard core fans,” she says. “It's different for an authors speaking series, though. I love it when someone comes up to the signing table and says ‘I've never read one of your books, but you were really good and that was really interesting and now I'm going to read your books.' It really is this way of connecting with a group of people you wouldn't have otherwise.”

Patchett attended the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop years ago after getting an undergraduate degree at Sarah Lawrence College. She has been back in Iowa only a handful of times since.

“It's always exciting going back to a place you've lived,” she says.

In Nashville, where Patchett has lived most of her life, she feels most comfortable.

“It doesn't inform my writing in the way Mississippi informed Faulkner. I'm not that kind of a writer. But Nashville is a good, solid place to live. It's my place,” she says.

Even more so, one might argue, since Patchett opened an independent bookstore - Parnassus - with business partner Karen Hayes in November 2011 after both large chain bookstores in Nashville closed.

“I don't work the cash register or order the books, but I promote this thing all over the world,” she says. “I do a lot for the store but I'm not in the store doing it. Karen is in the store all the time making it work.”

Patchett's Cedar Rapids stop is one of her last speaking engagements before a book tour this fall to promote “This is the Story of a Happy Marriage,” her latest work of non-fiction slated for release Nov. 4.

“For the last couple of years, I've really been in this non-fiction head,” Patchett says. “I tend to write personal essays. I love the essay and thinking about your life in terms of a narrative. ‘This is the Story of a Happy Marriage' is all about different things in my life that I feel married to - work, dogs, bookselling and my husband - the things you really do anything in the world for.”

Another novel is next.

“I know a lot of what it's about, but I hate starting. I'm at the point when I'm ready to start and I wake up every morning and think of something else I can do, like cleaning out my sock drawer. I get down to doing every last thing that could be done and then finally when there's nothing else to do, I start writing.”

It's probably a safe bet that many readers can hardly wait for her to get back to work.

MEET THE AUTHOR

 Who: Out Loud! presents Ann Patchett

When: 7 p.m. Friday

Where: The Hotel at Kirkwood Center, 7725 Kirkwood Blvd. SW, Cedar Rapids

Cost: Free

More information: Metrolibrarynetwork.org