Sacramento authors William T. Vollmann and Devyn Defoe share an event ‘beyond words’

Jillian Dowis faced an 11-hour drive back to Olympia, Washington on Sunday after this, her first visit to Sacramento. But she didn’t regret the decision to make the long trek to come to town.

Read more Sacramento authors William T. Vollmann and Devyn Defoe share an event ‘beyond words’

Dowis and others travelled from around the U.S. to a reading held Saturday afternoon at the Crocker Art Museum for National Book Award-winning author and Land Park resident William T. Vollmann and another local writer, Devyn Defoe. It was the first Sacramento reading for Vollmann, 67, who is self-effacing and private. He agreed to the reading to help Defoe, 34, who Publisher’s Weekly recently called “a writer to watch” for her debut novel.

The two read from their latest novels, took questions from the crowd at the sold-out event and signed books for more than an hour until the museum closed. Vollmann and Defoe adjourned with many people from the reading to the patio of Urban Roots Brewery & Smokehouse in Southside Park, with Vollmann having invited everyone as the event closed.

“I’m going to remember this until the day I die,” Dowis said as she sat at Urban Roots with Vollmann nearby.

‘A moment like this is special’

The room had space for 250 people, with the vast majority of seats filled as the 2 p.m. event got underway. Lily Rushing, public programs assistant for the Crocker, in her introduction, asked how many in the crowd were making their first visit to the Crocker. Many people raised their hands. Rushing followed this by asking how many people were in Sacramento for the first time. At least a few hands went up.

First-time visitors to Sacramento at the reading included Eli Winter, a 29-year-old artist from Chicago.

“His work is, even though I work in somewhat of a different field, a really big inspiration,” Winter said.

Winter also noted other motivating factors for his making the trip to Sacramento, including Vollmann’s health “and the sense that a moment like this is special, and there might not be many moments like it.” Vollmann disclosed in recent years that he had been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer.

Defoe, who works at Beers Books, read first during the event Saturday from her novel, “Burnside,” which she spent roughly six years writing and was published on Aug. 4 by Astra House. Defoe read the words “the juncture where 80 meets 5,” revealing her local touch.

People in the room applauded as Defoe finished her reading, including Vollmann, who sat alongside her onstage and had been quiet as she read.

Now it was his turn. He spoke up.

“I’m a little on the shy side and I never would have been here if not for my colleague twisting me around her beautiful little finger,” Vollmann said, with Defoe smiling and people in the crowd laughing. It was the first of several times that Vollmann drew laughter during the event, which surprised Bob Lytle, owner of Burnside Coffee, where Vollmann is a customer.

“I guess I didn’t know Bill was such a jokester,” said Lytle in the lobby after the reading while Vollmann and Defoe signed books for a seemingly never-ending line of people.

Vollmann, the author of a dozen novels, read during the event from his latest work, “A Table For Fortune,” a roughly 3,000-page, four-volume set scheduled to publish Oct. 20. The room was fairly quiet as Vollmann read, though he received sustained applause from the audience as he finished reading.

From global to personal

After each read, Vollmann and Defoe took questions for about 30 minutes.

One person asked Vollmann and Defoe what they thought of the world’s current state and how it informed their writing.

“From a young age, I was already catastrophizing,” Defoe said. “And we finally caught up to a lot of those things we could see from that point. I feel pretty bleakly about a lot. However, I also feel as individuals we maybe have more reserves of power than I’ve sort of felt in my life until this point.”

Vollmann was also pessimistic, relating that feeling comes from more than America’s current political issues, but also from the world’s environmental problems.

“Our planet is very, very sick and probably drunk,” Vollmann said. “I wrote a book called ‘Carbon Ideologies.’ I found out that if we were to cease our carbon emissions today, the planet would continue to warm for another 11,000 years. That’s how long it takes for the carbon to break down.”

He added, “So unless we come up with some high-tech miracle, and those always work so bad, it’s not going to be good.”

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But some more personal moments surfaced during the Q&A. An Iraqi-American woman in the crowd spoke about being a victim of hate crimes and asking what Vollmann thought.

Vollmann gave an expansive reply. He started by acknowledging the speaker’s suffering, that he cared about it and was sorry what she had been through.

One of Vollmann’s hallmarks as a writer and journalist has been his willingness to travel to out-of-the ordinary destinations,such as Cuba and Afghanistan. He said he had been to Iraq at the time of the birthday of Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq from 1979 until his 2003 overthrow after the U.S.-led invasion.

“It was actually the same as my dad’s,” Vollmann said. “But my poor dad. His birthday only lasted one day. Saddam’s lasted three days. It must have been a difficult delivery or something.”

That drew laughter from the crowd, though Vollmann struck a more somber note for the speaker not too long after.

“You have no obligation to like me,” Vollmann said. “No obligation. But I suggest that if you can, you try to forgive people who are ignorant.”

He also offered to form a study group with the woman and later chatted amiably with her at Urban Roots.

Being a friend and a neighbor

Crowd responses following the reading and Q&A were, by and large, positive.

“I loved the readings themselves,” said Sacramento resident Ann-Marie Doersch. “I loved all the answers to the questions. I thought they were very thoughtful in their responses.”

Atom Murata, who lives in San Francisco, traveled to the reading with his mother Yukie Murata, a San Jose resident. He said the event lived up to his expectations “and then some.”

“It was great hearing Bill talk,” he said. “I’ve kind of consumed just about everything that’s out there and we’re so lucky to have an event so close to us.”

Defoe’s work also resonated.

“I’m looking forward to her doing more things,” said Yolanda Garcia, who lives in east Sacramento. “She’s going to be exciting.”

Both of Defoe’s parents attended. Her father Steve White took photos as his daughter and Vollmann signed books. Off to the side, Defoe’s mother Laurel White stood. A smile spread across her face when she was asked what it was like to see her daughter signing books for hundreds of people.

“It’s beyond words,” she said.

Defoe is working on her second novel. She said that planning for the event had distracted her somewhat.

“I didn’t have a lot of time to think about actually doing it,” Defoe said. “So I was kind of just eager to get through it and get to this part of it, I guess, as opposed to being on stage, which is a little nerve-wracking.”

Asked if she could see herself doing what Vollmann did for her for another writer in 30 years, Defoe replied, “Yeah. I mean, we’ll see where I’m at. Hopefully.”

Vollmann said as he sat at Urban Roots, hours after the reading ended and with plenty of people who had attended still nearby, that he had wanted to ensure an audience had a chance to connect with Defoe and that he hoped she was happy.

“I just never wanted to be more than a friend and neighbor in Sacramento,” Vollmann said. “I said, ‘Well, alright, this one time I’ll do it.’ And I’m glad I did. It was nice to meet everybody.”

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