Mary Laura Philpott is neither a novelist nor a journalist, but she makes her living as a writer anyway. In fact, studying Philpott's work could serve as a kind of crash course in turning a gift for words into a career: She's been an op-ed columnist (for The New York Times, no less), a ghostwriter (she's not saying for whom), an editor (she runs Musing, the online journal at Parnassus Books), an essayist (most recently for Proximity magazine), a blogger (at Miss You When I Blink), even a poet of humorous legal verse and a member of Us Weekly's fashion police. And next week Philpott will add author to her list of writerly titles — on June 2, Penguins With People Problems officially hits stores.
The book features a charming set of hilarious cartoon penguins that Philpott draws with her finger on an iPad mini. They came to life in 2012, back when Penguin Books and Random House, two major U.S. publishers, announced plans to merge: Philpott started playing around with possible names for the new company, and in a flash the Random Penguins were born — and soon found a home on Tumblr. These penguins make mistakes, get into trouble, lose their temper, drink too much, make bad fashion choices, behave in an unprofessional way at work, inexpertly apply sunscreen, and date the wrong guys. In other words, they have a lot in common with some people you know.
In advance of her appearance at Parnassus, Philpott recently answered questions via email:
Let's play a game where I make up a scenario, and you draw a penguin cartoon to illustrate it. Here goes: A naughty random penguin at Parnassus Books just got into big trouble with Ann Patchett and Karen Hayes.
Ooh, good one. OK, let me think of the first quirks that come to mind for Ann and Karen. ... I think for Karen it's got to be how passionate she is about keeping a neat, clean store. She doesn't believe that a bookstore has to be messy and smell musty. As for Ann, I think it's funny that one of the greatest novelists alive concerns herself with whether our candy is well-stocked. She's diligent about making sure we have plenty of York Peppermint Patties in the bowl by the register. So I think a bad little penguin might hoard the Peppermint Patties and eat them all while getting sticky chocolate wing-prints on the books.
What does it do to your traffic when a larger outlet runs a cartoon or when someone like Queen Latifah tweets about it?
Wasn't that awesome? Back when she had The Queen Latifah Show, they commissioned some custom penguins, and that one she tweeted was one of them. There's always a bump in traffic when the penguins run somewhere else, and it's fun to see what sorts of people come over to the site. I'm a religious reader of The Toast, for example — because it's brilliant and hilarious — so I'm thrilled whenever I can connect with that audience. I still can't believe The New York Times is doing a special miniseries leading up to the pub date. My editor there had the idea to make it a special series on parenting, which is genius. That's not a topic I usually address, and that series helps me reach a different segment of readers. I'm so grateful whenever anyone shares this stuff, honestly. It means there's something there that people identify with, I guess.
The Tumblr penguins have been known to cuss like sailors. Did it break your heart to have to tone down the language for print?
Well, we did have a very funny conference call about cusswords, in which my editor and I ranked their relative offensiveness. There are still a few in the book, but no F-bombs.
You were born in Nashville, but you were away for a long time before you came back last year, and Music City certainly changed during that time. What do you think of Nashville so far?
If you'd told me a few years ago that I'd be moving to Nashville, I wouldn't have believed you. I didn't really "get" Nashville until I had spent some time here. I love the vibrancy of the creative community and how well-integrated the arts are into mainstream life here. It's not like, "Here are the normal people," and "There are the artsy people," and "Over there are the business people." That, and the lack of traffic. I know people here say the traffic is getting worse, but coming from Atlanta, it feels wonderful to be able to get around so quickly.
As a writer, you wear a lot of hats, and I'm hoping you can talk a little bit about what it means to be a working writer in the Internet age.
Storytelling is an essential part of almost every business. And I think you can bring literary elements—thoughtful construction and carefully chosen words and images—into all writing, even if it's not "literature." I can hear it when all the sounds and words snap into place, whether I'm writing a poem or an article or a crazy caption on a cartoon bird. It's very satisfying. If I'm doing that, I'm happy.
Penguins With People Problems is dedicated to Matt Damon. What's the story there?
We have an invisible bond. It's so invisible that only I can see it.
For a longer version of this interview — and more local book coverage — please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.
Email arts@nashvillescene.com
