{"id":28169,"date":"2025-07-28T00:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T00:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/28169\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T00:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T00:56:09","slug":"origin-story-by-leigh-haber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/28169\/","title":{"rendered":"Origin story – by Leigh Haber"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In our Ink Book Club conversation with author Karim Dimechkie last Wednesday, which around 1000 of you attended \u2014 thank you! \u2014 Dimechkie explained how his book, The Uproar, came to be. I\u2019ve been a publishing nerd for upwards of four decades, so you\u2019d think such tales might get old. But hearing authors\u2019 singular creation stories never ceases to fascinate.* <\/p>\n

Dimechkie said that one of the things he loves most about life in New York City is that it forces you to \u201cshare space with people of diverse classes and backgrounds.\u201d His comment reflects what we risk losing as the Trump administration turns back the clock on diversity, equity, and inclusion. <\/p>\n

When Dimechkie took on a social work job in Flatbush soon after Trump\u2019s election in 2016, he reveled in the melting pot he encountered. For him, \u201cdiversity\u201d wasn\u2019t some mandate imposed on an unwilling population. It was just reality. And it fueled both his novel and his worldview. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s an idea floating around right now \u2014 one ripped right from the grievance playbook \u2014 that white male writers<\/a> have been victimized by the rise of diverse voices in publishing<\/a>. But with The Uproar, you have a white male novelist who finds inspiration in the many different types of stories and voices around him. Dimechkie bravely plunged into literary territory few dare to wrestle with, and he did so as a means of rendering human complexity, and thus compassion.<\/p>\n

So as we close this chapter, let us say: Thank you, Karim! We\u2019ve loved reading The Uproar and unpacking its many layers. We can\u2019t wait for your next book. <\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n

And now we switch gears. When Anand and I talked about launching a book club, he emphasized his desire to (1) uplift emerging novelists and (2) spotlight non-fiction work that tackles themes of democracy and its potential decline. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In our Ink Book Club conversation with author Karim Dimechkie last Wednesday, which around 1000 of you attended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-28169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}