Author A.M. Homes Chit-Chats With Kingsborough
by Dahlia Marcano

Kingsborough had the honor of hosting a book signing with the much acclaimed author A. M. Holmes on February 5.

With her work translated into 18 languages, it is no wonder her adoring fans came out to support her. With an amiable and entertaining demeanor, she proceeded to start the night by offering some background information to her very eager audience. Holmes, now 45, wrote her first book, “Jack” at the shockingly impressive age of only 19. As she jokingly explained, “It was originally supposed to be an essay for homework. But I couldn't write essays (laughs) so I asked to write a novel instead.” Much to her amazement, the novel was so good that it was published, winning several awards and eventually being translated into a TV series.

Since then her career has flourished and she has won many different awards, some even in different countries. The modest Holmes comments on her books saying, “they have resonance in other countries, which is a great honor.”

Amongst her several famed books were two short story collections, “Safety of Objects” and “This Book Will Save Your Life” from which she was kind enough to read anecdotes to please her fans with her disturbing, imaginative, and cynical style of writing. As if making a breakthrough into the book industry was not enough, Holmes has had quite successful experiences in the entertainment business as well.

She and some friends collaborated in 2005 to help produce the hit HBO series “The L Word.” The success of the show has given her the confidence to work with HBO once again, this time on her very own production of a drama scheduled to air this year, which she claims is a cross between “Desperate Housewives” and “Grapes of Wrath.”

Holmes informed the fans about her latest work, a memoir of her life as an adopted child called, “The Mistress's Daughter.”

This personal account about her life was a great feat for Holmes, because it was the first time she reached out of her “comfort zone” of writing only fiction. She explained the struggle she had with publishing it, having it rejected at first, and how she was never able to muster up the courage to try its publication again until 2007, ten years later. She gave a short but powerful reading from her memoir describing the difficulty she faced when her birth parents contacted her adoptive parents in hopes of meeting her.

Following discussion of her memoir was a very brief question and answer session in which a few of her devout fans questioned her on the difficulty of translating her books accurately, which she explained could be quite nerve-wrecking because sometimes the meanings of her words would be completely changed due to the translation.

Holmes was also questioned on her personal novel writing process, which she eloquently described as a 4 or 5 year process in which she must be able to “form a relationship” with her work. Following the questions, a humble A. M. Holmes expressed her gratitude and pleasure of visiting Kingsborough and ended the night with a book signing.