Why I’m excited to interview Danny Goodman, author of Amerikaland:

Say what you will about MFAs, but one of the great things about getting one is that, eventually, some of your classmates publish books, and, sure, you could get all green-eyed about it, but it’s much more fun to be excited. Hey, I KNOW that guy! I used to workshop his short stories! And then your heart swells with pride.

Danny Goodman and I both got our MFAs in Fiction Writing from the University of New Orleans, and I couldn’t be more excited and proud to interview him about his debut literary novel, Amerikaland, coming soon (June 4) from LEFTOVER Books.

All the blurbs and reviews for Amerikaland are glowing, and many talk about its compelling plot and beautiful language — a literary page-turner. Here’s the scoop: 

In a reimagined present day, Sabine, a guarded, independent German tennis player, and Sandy, a Brooklyn-born Jewish baseball player, find themselves in New York City for World Day-a sporting event meant to celebrate international peace.

For years, Sabine was regarded as a tennis legend until an act of violence threatened her life and career. Now, she is determined to stand before the crowds once again a winner. Sandy is the beloved star of his hometown team, but a recent horrific antisemitic crime nearly unravels him.

Their lives are forever changed when a massive terrorist attack strikes World Day. As Sabine and Sandy emerge from this destruction, their journeys take them across the Atlantic and back again, where they come to understand how they are each connected to the attack-connections veiled by shocking family secrets and geopolitical motivations. After these revelations, they’ll have to decide if their love and friendship can bridge a path forward.

In striking resonance with today’s rising antisemitism, AMERIKALAND tells the emotional story of people battling their histories and charting their own fates.

Now, without further ado, here are my questions for Danny, about the book and how it came to be. 

Amerikaland takes place in a “reimagined” present day. What’s been reimagined, and why?

The world in which Amerikaland takes places is not unlike our own in most ways. In its initial, very early writing, the novel was set in more of a “near future,” but as I got into it, I found what I really wanted was to be writing more of a present day, with some details changed here and there.

I wanted the freedom to alter history or world events, as needed (though much remains as we know it), and I changed the names of locations around New York City in an effort to create a city that resembles our own but is ultimately divergent. This was true, too, for the baseball teams mentioned in the novel—I used historical names, such as the Brooklyn Atlantics and New York Highlanders, and imagined new locations in order to create a familiar but different New York City.

 

Where did the idea for Amerikaland come from?

I began writing the novel in 2017, largely in response to the fear and anger I felt after the 2016 election. Something monumental had shifted, and out of my anxieties and fear, Amerikaland was born, part simply getting out that anger, part trying to make sense of what the world had become.

The first scene I wrote for the novel came from an experience I had on the New York City subway:

Upon boarding the train one afternoon, I was greeted by a swastika drawn in marker on the glass covering of a subway map. It nearly knocked me down, its brazenness, and I stared at it for several stops before I frantically began trying to rub it off with my sleeve, to no avail. Then, a bottle of hand sanitizer appeared in front of me. I looked over at the women sitting beside the map, who was holding up the bottle. It won’t come off like that, she said. Use this. I did, and the swastika was gone, and the woman and I sat beside each other for the remainder of the trip, both of us tearing up but saying little.

Out of that moment, so much of the novel grew.

 

Wow. That’s a powerful moment… This book seems, sadly, quite timely. Has it been hard to speak about your novel, given all the recent antisemitism in the U.S. and abroad?

Antisemitism and bigotry are by no means new, and writing about them feels, to me, always timely. After the 2016 election, and every day since, intolerance and hate have felt especially important to write about. I fear they will always be important.

 

What made you decide to write about a pro tennis player and a professional baseball player?

The honest answer is that they’re the two sports I’ve followed most closely throughout my life, and I love them both—tennis and baseball—dearly. I’m fascinated by athletes, especially those performing at the highest levels, like Sabine and Sandy, and from the very beginnings of this novel, they were the two characters I wanted to go on this journey with. Their perspectives on the world of Amerikaland felt particularly unique, which allowed me the freedom to write this story in the ways I wanted to (and, frankly, to write a literary tennis/baseball novel, which still feels like a dream).

When you first conceived of this novel, did you think you were writing a dystopian novel, an adventure story, a literary epic, or something else entirely? 

At the outset, when I thought I was writing a sort of “near future,” the novel felt more dystopian in nature. But as I moved ahead (and after a wonderful workshop with Jami Attenberg), I understood more clearly the book I wanted to write. In the end, I wanted to write some kind of mashup of Don DeLillo and John le Carré. I’m not sure if I was successful, but that was my hope.

 

Amerikaland is being published by LEFTOVER Books, a small, indie press based in Rochester. How did you end up publishing with them?

I love small presses, and I wanted very much to explore that route for Amerikaland, to find a home where this weighty, sports-bending literary novel could live. I entered the novel in a couple of contests and was lucky enough to be long-listed for both. Galvanized, I sent the book to Patrick Trotti at LEFTOVER Books, and our visions instantly aligned. I feel so fortunate to have found a publisher who shares a love and passion for this novel.

 

Your wife is an editor… did she give you editorial notes on your manuscript, or would that have been bad for the marriage?

I really love this question haha—it was not bad for our marriage! My wife, Laura (an executive editor at Atria), has long been my first editor, and this novel was no different. In fact, she read and gave me notes on the first draft of the full manuscript, after which I cut nearly 30K words (and a major character and plot point). She asked questions of the novel that helped guide me through rewrites and revisions, undoubtedly making the novel so much stronger. She is an editorial force to be reckoned with, and I feel endlessly lucky to have her wielding her power in my corner.

 

You and I received our MFAs from The University of New Orleans long, long ago. How do you think you’ve changed as a writer since then? 

Long, long ago…wow. The grey in my beard and along my temples can attest to that, haha. And, of course, my life has changed dramatically since my mid-twenties. I’m a more mature writer now, and though I don’t always love that—there was a wildness, a carefreeness, to the writing I did during my MFA years—I feel more confident these years on, at least to the extent that I know myself, and my writing, better now.

 

Do you feel getting your MFA helped you get to where you are now?

I certainly feel getting my MFA was beneficial—if nothing else, the friendships I forged during those years (and beyond) have made me the person and writer I am. Those years, and the writing I did then, also helped me find my voice as a writer, discover what I wanted to write and how to do that. (I discovered I love writing nonfiction, which I didn’t know I loved!) I’m not sure I would’ve made it here without those years in New Orleans.

 

And finally… what’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

My favorite remains one of the first I was ever given: Good is the enemy of great. Jeanne Leiby, my first college writing professor, didn’t know when she spoke those words that I would carry them with me for the decades since, but I certainly have. To not settle, to write something you (not other people) consider truly great, continues to drive my writing. And, even though we lost Jeanne too soon, her words guide me often, especially in moments when I most need light.

 

Danny Goodman’s writing has appeared in various publications, and he was the recipient of a writer-in-residence fellowship from Rivendell. He earned his MFA in Fiction from the University of New Orleans, where he was a two-time winner of the Samuel Mockbee Award. He lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife, a book editor, and their editorial cats. Amerikaland is his debut novel.