Ep. 5: Tom Barbash - The Dakota Winters

Page One, produced by Booxby, celebrates the craft that goes into writing the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of your favorite books. The first page is often the most rewritten page of any book because it has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. We interview master storytellers on the struggles and stories behind the first page of their books.

In Episode 5, we interview bestselling author Tom Barbash about all the decisions that went into the first page of his novel, The Dakota Winters, about a family living in New York City’s famed Dakota apartment building in the year leading up to John Lennon’s assassination. It’s the fall of 1979 in New York City when twenty-three-year-old Anton Winter, back from the Peace Corps and on the mend from a nasty bout of malaria, returns to his childhood home in the Dakota. Anton’s father, the famous late-night host Buddy Winter, is there to greet him, himself recovering from a breakdown. Before long, Anton is swept up in an effort to reignite Buddy’s stalled career, and ends up on a perilous journey that takes him out to sea with John Lennon. Barbash shares some secrets of the craft and approaching the first page as a promise to the reader. If you're aspiring to write a modern historic novel, Tom discusses wise approaches to the painstaking research he did for The Dakota Winters and staying in a '1979' frame of mind.  

About the author:
Tom Barbash is an American writer of fiction and nonfiction, as well as an educator and critic. He is the author of the novel The Last Good Chance, a collection of short stories Stay Up With Me, and the bestselling nonfiction work On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick & 9/11: A Story of Loss & Renewal. His fiction has been published in Tin House, Story magazine, The Virginia Quarterly Review and The Indiana Review. His criticism has appeared in the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

A well-regarded speaker, panelist, and interviewer, Barbash has served as host for onstage events for The Commonwealth Club, Litquake, BookPassage, and the Lannan Foundation, and his interview subjects have included Kazuo Ishiguro, Brett Easton Ellis, Jonathan Franzen, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, James Ellroy, Ann Packer, Mary Gaitskill, and Chuck Palahniuk.[1]

He taught at Stanford University, where he was a Stegner Fellow, and now teaches novel writing, short fiction, and nonfiction, at the California College of the Arts. Barbash has held fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The James Michener Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.[2] He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

About the host:
Holly Lynn Payne is the CEO and founder of Booxby , a startup helping authors succeed. Holly is also an internationally published novelist in eleven countries whose work has been translated into nine languages. In 2008, she founded Skywriter Books, an award-winning small press, publishing consultancy and writing coaching service. To learn more about her writing coaching services, please visit hollylynnpayne.com.

Thank you for listening to the Page One Podcast, where master storytellers discuss the stories and struggles behind the critical first page of their books. If you liked this episode, please share it on social, leave a review on your favorite podcast players and tell your friends! 

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For the love of books and writers,

Holly Lynn Payne
@hollylynnpayne
www.hollylynnpayne.com