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Boots!

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good?

No, Timberg.

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we need without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and welcome to Bookworm.

Today I'm very excited to have, as my guest, a first-time novelist, but a woman who's written five books of poetry.

Her name is Honoré Fanon Jeffers, and her book is The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois.

I think I'm talking to the author of a great American novel,

not just a great American novel, a great American feminist novel, and a great American

black feminist novel.

All three things.

I can tell that the love songs of W.E.B. Du Bois took a long time to write.

It's fabulous.

It's so readable, moving, historical. It has taught me so much about American history

and about writing. So I want to begin by thanking you, Honor, for such an amazing book. How does it feel now that a book you've spent

such a great part of your life on is finally published? I feel very relieved, and I'm hoping to sleep a

little bit at some point.

Thank you so much for those beautiful words.

Thank you.

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