Vollmann continues to be part of a community that has long provided him a home base while he\u2019s forged an unlikely career, churning out door stopper-level novels about the CIA, sex workers, climate catastrophe and colonial wars against Native Americans as the literary industry contracts amid fears about<\/a> the \u201cend of reading.\u201d<\/p>\n The earliest news stories about Vollmann\u2019s writing career, dating from the late 1980s after he published \u201cYou Bright and Risen Angels,\u201d describe him as a San Francisco writer.<\/p>\n Vollmann came to Sacramento in the early 1990s after his wife Janice Ryu, a radiation oncologist for Sutter Health, completed a medical residency in New York.<\/p>\n Sacramento was the closest city to San Francisco that Ryu could find work in her field. They settled in Land Park.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first few years I was here, I just hated it,\u201d Vollmann said. \u201cIt was like the most boring, conservative place.\u201d<\/p>\n In time, he grew to enjoy Sacramento for its coffee and beer offerings, the fact he could ride freight trains and explore the Sacramento River Delta. He stood in line for Christmas pies from Freeport Bakery. He met neighbors like longtime Land Park real estate agent Sue Olson, who said she had run into Vollmann on walks or visits to Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I see him when I\u2019m walking and or if I see him at the coffee house, he always makes a point to come over and say hi and he\u2019s very friendly,\u201d Olson said.<\/p>\n His work as a reporter, which subsidizes his writing career, has taken him to Afghanistan, Bosnia, Ukraine, Kosovo, and most recently, Kuwait, for an upcoming magazine story about drones and the war in Iran.<\/p>\n For all of Vollmann\u2019s willingness to explore, his candor has limits.<\/p>\n He acknowledged his daughter Lisa\u2019s death at 23 in 2022 from alcoholism and bulimia. Her voice is still the outbound greeting on his and Ryu\u2019s answering machine, which warns that the family is unavailable due to being overtaken by an infestation of firebreathing ants. Vollmann, who eschews cell phones, email and social media, still has a landline.<\/p>\n \u201cI told my wife I thought it was kind of morbid, \u2018Why don\u2019t you get rid of it?\u2019\u201d Vollmann said. \u201cShe said no. I said, \u2018All right, it\u2019s up to her.\u2019 Now, it\u2019s been four years. She wants to keep it for the rest of her life. Why not? It gives her comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n His studio contains reminders of Lisa, including a few paintings, an Easter card addressed to Vollmann from her pet lizard Greenie and an old report card that notes her excellence in subjects like language arts and French.<\/p>\n Lisa enjoyed showing friends around the studio, pointing to hanging photos of Vollmann dressed as Dolores.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019d say, \u2018Do you know who that is?\u2019\u201d Vollmann recalled, \u201cAnd then she\u2019d laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n But he was reluctant to talk much about what his daughter was like as an adult.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last couple years when she was actively destroying herself, she wasn\u2019t really close to anybody,\u201d Vollmann said. \u201cShe\u2019d rip off her friends. She was homeless for a while. And so I think she probably is better off dead. That\u2019s what she wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n Vollmann was also circumspect about his cancer diagnosis. He answered a question about if there was a chance of remission by quoting a line from a 1966 song, \u201cThat\u2019s When I\u2019ll Come Back to You\u201d by Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, how does that song go? \u2018When boxcars are flying around and blue turns to brown, that\u2019s when I\u2019ll come back to you,\u2019\u201d Vollmann said. \u201cIt\u2019s something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Months of research before writing<\/p>\n Critics and articles about Vollmann note how long and commercially inaccessible his books are, which they liken to contemporaries like Thomas Pynchon in terms of subject matter and prose.<\/p>\n \u201cVollmann has been sometimes considered part of a new wave of metafictional writers, including David Foster Wallace, Richard Powers and Susan Daitch; he is also sometimes grouped with quite a different movement known as \u2018transgressive fiction,\u2019 including writers like Catherine Texier, Joel Rose and Dennis Cooper,\u201d Madison Smartt Bell wrote in a 1994 New York Times profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bell added, \u201cIn fact, while he has appropriated styles and techniques from both groups, he belongs fully to neither; the complexity of his work defies pigeonholing.\u201d<\/p>\n Before turning to writing, Vollmann spends tens of thousands of dollars and often devotes months to researching his subjects. He smoked crack and slept with sex workers for research while writing a quartet of books about prostitution that ends with \u201cThe Royal Family,\u201d his 2000 novel about a private detective from Sacramento searching for the \u201cQueen of Whores\u201d in San Francisco\u2019s Tenderloin neighborhood.<\/p>\n Vollmann estimated that he spent between $70,000 and $80,000 producing \u201cA Table For Fortune,\u201d far surpassing his $10,000 advance. He said his publisher, Viking Books, dropped him after he refused to change the fonts, which he used to depict classified intelligence documents, or to whittle the 4,000-word manuscript to a more concise 600 or 700 pages.<\/p>\n Across four volumes spanning 1968-2019, the book blends a deeply researched history of U.S. foreign policy with the saga of the family of a CIA analyst. The boxed set, more than 3,000 pages long, has a retail price of $199.99.<\/p>\n \u201cI went through it and I said, \u2018I cut it, but I\u2019m really sorry but unfortunately, it\u2019s like 400 pages longer now,\u2019\u201d Vollmann recalled telling his editor. \u201cSo he was not happy, and they fired me. I felt bad because it was the same year that Lisa died and this and that. Then I thought, \u2018So what?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When prompted for his thoughts about the state of his industry today, specifically on the seeming inevitability of artificial intelligence, he\u2019s less emphatic than expected for a writer who famously shuns the Internet and relies on an encrypted laptop when traveling.<\/p>\n \u201cI say more power to them if they don\u2019t care what they think,\u201d Vollmann said of bots like ChatGPT. \u201cThey\u2019re thinking what someone else has made them think. I can\u2019t necessarily respect what they think and then at the same time, I don\u2019t have any right to make them think the way I do. The world doesn\u2019t owe me a living, and I\u2019ve been so lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n Until his condition worsened in recent years, Vollmann slept in the studio for days at a time, to drive off people who would try and break in, like a would-be copper thief he once chased off the roof.<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to be, I\u2019d just go out and deal with them, with or without my gun,\u201d he said. He pointed to a boarded up window where someone once tried to break in.<\/p>\n In the bedroom of the studio, he installed an industrial meat locker as a closet.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I bought the place, I had some electricians come and put in a light. They said, \u2018What do you want a light in here for?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI said, \u2018Sir, I\u2019d like to watch the faces of my victims.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Vollmann has relinquished many of his firearms and allows homeless people to stay on the property in exchange for keeping an eye on the place.<\/p>\n Vollmann said between the pain pills and chemotherapy treatments, neither his memory nor his stamina are what they once were.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most miserable things about my existence. These sudden holes in my memory, and it\u2019s very, very disconcerting and humiliating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Vollmann said when he realized his time was short, he could be braver, likening his condition to elderly female ants.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the ants get older, they can\u2019t lay eggs anymore, so they\u2019re less valuable to the colony,\u201d Vollmann said. \u201cSo they start foraging farther and farther away for food because if something happens to them, who cares?\u201d<\/p>\n Life in Sacramento today<\/p>\n Bob Lytle didn\u2019t know who Vollmann was when he first visited Lytle\u2019s coffee cart near 16th and N streets.<\/p>\n Vollmann gave fake names, such as James Bond. He lacked a smartphone or debit card and Lytle\u2019s business didn\u2019t take cash, so Vollmann worked out an arrangement: He would pay $100 and have a running tab.<\/p>\n Lytle has since opened Burnside Coffee Bar at 902 K St. Every time Vollmann comes in, Lytle said, he orders the \u201cEl Scorcho,\u201d a Mexican mocha with sugar, hot honey and pepper.<\/p>\n In time, one of Lytle\u2019s employees figured out who Vollmann was. His books now sit on a coffee table in the shop.<\/p>\n Lytle said that, in a sense, Vollmann is Sacramento.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s weird, he\u2019s quirky, he\u2019s got his own kind of thing going,\u201d Lytle said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t really care what anybody else thinks about him. He\u2019s just living his life the way he wants to live it.\u201d<\/p>\n Vollmann has also been a customer at Temple Coffee on 9th Street. He also stops closer to his home at 5 Sips Coffee & Tea.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a little dog at the 5 Sips place,\u201d Vollmann said. \u201cShe just loves me and I think she can smell my cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n Vollmann, who had a long-running feud with the city over allowing homeless people to sleep on his property and has written about sleeping rough to expose the bureaucracy of Sacramento\u2019s encampment policy, empathizes with marginalized people.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know the MMPI, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory?\u201d Vollmann said. \u201cYeah, so I took that in psychology and I was very proud to see that I am the absolute lowest possible percentile for tolerance of authority and I think I got that from my dad.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Vollmann traveled to Cuba<\/a> on assignment for Granta Magazine with his friend, Sacramento attorney Mark Merin.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s very good at really getting into people\u2019s psyche,\u201d Merin said. \u201cWhen we met somebody, we would not just interview that person, but also get to their homes, meet their parents, their grandchildren. So it was a very in-depth, intense week.\u201d<\/p>\n Plans came together quickly for the event at the Crocker with Vollmann and Defoe.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been quite a whirlwind,\u201d said Lily Rushing, a program assistant for the Crocker. \u201cThe Crocker usually plans our events at the very least six months in advance. But it\u2019s not hard to say yes when \u2026 it\u2019s Devyn and William.\u201d<\/p>\n Defoe, a Beers Books seller and Sacramento native, said she discovered Vollmann in 2018, when she read his Harper\u2019s Magazine essay<\/a> about homelessness in Sacramento.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not someone I necessarily grew up reading,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Defoe recently published her first novel, a quasi-noir set in Sacramento called \u201cBurnside.\u201d The book follows the unnamed narrator, a college student working at a used bookstore, and her roommate September as the two endure perpetual wildfires and precarious housing and employment while on a quest to find the titular character, a homeless man with whom September has a disconcerting run-in.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been a hero of mine for a while now,\u201d Defoe said of Vollmann. \u201cHe\u2019s been very helpful and supportive of me, helping me navigate the drop of the book.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSacramento is so isolated for writers,\u201d she said, comparing it to larger literary scenes in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. \u201cThe isolation of Sacramento can be a good quality, to bunker down and write, but when you\u2019re on the business side, it can be a hindrance.\u201d<\/p>\n She read \u201cThe Royal Family\u201d the year before she began writing \u201cBurnside.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some thematic interests there,\u201d Defoe said of her love of Vollmann\u2019s work. \u201cSome of it is subject matter, others it\u2019s his writing style. Everything sounds so uniquely him. Knowing him, his persona is infected in his writing style. It\u2019s very conversational and so funny.\u201d<\/p>\n Vollmann said he\u2019d never given a reading in Sacramento and that he wanted to bring a crowd for Defoe. Fans of his from all over the world attending.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m excited for him to see how loved he is,\u201d Defoe said.<\/p>\n Depending on how one defines the term, Vollmann might be Sacramento\u2019s greatest writer.<\/p>\n Writers with greater levels of fame have spent time in the region. Mark Twain wrote for the Sacramento Union in the 1860s. Joan Didion grew up in the area and graduated from McClatchy High School in 1952, but spent much of her adult life elsewhere. Oscar-nominated director and screenplay writer Greta Gerwig has also made her life outside the city.<\/p>\n But perhaps no writer as celebrated as Vollmann has spent more of their adult life here. Not that he really cares at the end of the day for the accolades.<\/p>\n \u201cTwenty years from now or 200 years from now, at some point whatever I did is going to be forgotten anyway,\u201d Vollmann said. \u201cSo why not just do what I want to do?\u201d<\/p>\n Follow More of Our Reporting on Uniquely<\/p>\n Graham Womack<\/a><\/p>\n The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n Graham Womack is a general assignment reporter for The Sacramento Bee. Prior to joining The Bee full-time in September 2025, he freelanced for the publication for several years. His work has won several California Journalism Awards and spurred state legislation.\n <\/p>\n![\"Sacramento](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SAC_7038_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\" "\\"SAC_7038_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\\"")
Sacramento novelist and journalist William T. Vollmann at his studio in September. Vollmann\u2019s latest release is a four-volume novel titled \u201cA Table for Fortune.\u201d HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com Sacramento \u2018was like the most boring, conservative place\u2019<\/p>\n![\"Sacramento](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SAC_7035_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\" "\\"SAC_7035_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\\"")
Sacramento novelist and journalist William T. Vollmann at his studio in Sacramento in September. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n![\"Sacramento](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SAC_7032_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\" "\\"SAC_7032_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\\"")
Sacramento novelist and journalist William T. Vollmann holds a gum bichromate print of his late daughter Lisa at his studio in September. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n![\"Sacramento](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SAC_7037_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\" "\\"SAC_7037_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\\"")
Sacramento novelist and journalist William T. Vollmann holds a copy of his book \u201cImperial\u201d at his Sacramento studio in September. Vollmann\u2019s latest release is a four-volume novel titled \u201cA Table for Fortune.\u201d HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n![\"Sacramento](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SAC_7034_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\" "\\"SAC_7034_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\\"")
Sacramento novelist and journalist William T. Vollmann rests at his Sacramento studio in September. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n![\"Sacramento](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SAC_7033_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\" "\\"SAC_7033_WilliamTVollmann_HA_260909.JPG\\"")
Sacramento novelist and journalist William T. Vollmann at his studio in Sacramento in September. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
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