5 Questions: Kevin Roose

Kevin Roose is a writer, a college student at Brown, and a prankster who pulled a fast one on the publishing industry a few weeks ago with a satirical piece written for The Brown Daily Herald: If RISD ran the world. Go ahead and read it, it’s funny. I’ll wait.

Coincidentally, Kevin is also the author of a book released last week by Grand Central: The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University. I’d summarize but I think the title pretty much says it all.

Kevin took a short break from his busy schedule of answering calls from Christian radio hosts to answer a few questions for Editor Unleashed.

1. Give me your back cover copy as you (not the marketing department) would have written it.
I actually had some measure of control over the back cover copy we used for the book, so I don’t have too many qualms with it. But knowing what I know now, and in the spirit of total candor, I’d probably write something along the lines of: “Have you ever wondered what would happen if a college sophomore took on a journalism project far beyond his means, threw himself into a borrowed existence at a Bible college where kissing was tantamount to murder, went back to secular college and spent almost two years painstakingly writing, re-writing, and re-re-writing about his Christian immersion, went AWOL on most of his classes, temporarily alienated his family and friends, and somehow pulled it all together a mere three months after deadline? If so, The Unlikely Disciple is the book for you.”

2. All of the envious older writers want to know: How in the world did you get a book contract at such a young age?
When I was a freshman at Brown, I worked for AJ Jacobs (author of Year of Living Biblically) who took me under his wing as a biblical slave (read: unpaid intern) during his project. I spent the summer helping him with his book, and got the idea for The Unlikely Disciple while on a research trip with him. I wrote a proposal, AJ introduced me to my agent, and it was off to the races. I really have been incredibly lucky (or blessed, as they say at Liberty) to have great mentors along the way.

3. What’s been the most surprising thing about publishing your first book?
How much is required! Between writing, copy-editing, fact-checking, website-designing, blogging, publicizing, and everything else involved in the process, it’s been an incredibly long and involved experience. It’s also been exciting and life-changing, of course, but taking this project from conception to publication has been a Herculean task, especially while also having to deal with midterms, a cappella concerts, and all the day-to-day distractions of college life.

4. Tell me about the controversy surrounding your book.
Oddly enough, there hasn’t been all that much controversy surrounding the book. I expected more, given the subject matter. But there was a small flap a couple weeks ago, when Liberty pulled the book off the shelves at the campus bookstore. I talked to Jerry Falwell Jr., Liberty’s Chancellor, who told me that a bookstore advisory committee composed of faculty members and administrators was reviewing the book’s content to see if it was appropriate to be stocked in the campus store. Eventually, the committee voted 3-1 to stock the book, which I hadn’t expected at all. It was a lovely surprise.

5. What’s next up for you?
First on the priority list is graduation. I’ll graduate in December, God and Registrar willing, and I have no idea what I’ll do next. Maybe another writing gig, maybe grad school, maybe something else entirely. I’ll have to pray about it.

Get more Kevin Roose at his blog.

-Maria Schneider

Tagged as: author interviews