Meet Anthony DePalma | Author, lecturer and journalist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anthony DePalma and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anthony, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I’ve never gambled at a casino, and a dollar a hand is about the upper limit my friends and I have set on a card game. But I have always embraced risk in my career, especially since striking out on my own. There’s a quote I like from Nelson Mandela that I think pretty much summarizes my approach to risk. He said “May your choices reflect your hopes not your fears.” I wasn’t always aware of that saying but looking back on the decisions I’ve made I think they all strictly followed that advice. When I left what may be the best job in journalism–correspondent for The New York Times–in order to launch my book-writing career, I gambled that what lay ahead would be even more satisfying that what I already had accomplished. Had I focused on the possibility of failing, and losing all that I had already gained, my decision would never have been to leave. That’s what Mandela meant by making your choices reflect your hopes and not your fears. It requires a degree of self-confidence as well as faith in your own abilities. Ultimately, it is a decision that no one else can make for you. It has to rise up from deep inside you. and carry you forward with optimism and hope.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve written four non-fiction books and am now working on a fifth. Writing them, I’ve tried to take a serious look at important issues and convey what I know in a common-sense way that sheds light on complex issues. I’ve tried to do so in a writing style that is more approachable than the one that is most associated with The New York Times where I worked for 22 years and where I continue to write. And it’s not only the writing style that I’ve changed. In all my books I’ve attempted to write about big issues from a personal perspective, following an old adage among correspondents that says “The bigger the news, the smaller the story.” I came closest to achieving that in my most recent book, The Cubans: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times. As the title suggests, I did not write about Fidel Castro or Che Guevara–enough has already been written about them. Rather, I focused on five individuals in the small town of Guanabacoa, which sits just across the harbor from Havana Vieja, and how they have managed to live with an interminable revolution. The book was well-reviewed by all major publications, and the comments that I found most gratifying were the ones that remarked that it read like a novel. Maybe a novel by John Steinbeck. The Cubans has been translated into several other languages, including Polish, Chinese, even Bulgarian but not Spanish. I’m trying to raise money to pay for a translation as I’m searching far and wide for a Spanish-language publisher. Please contact me with any suggestions.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Okay, as I mentioned earlier, I write in the Steinbeck mode, and I also tend to live my life that way. When I visit Miami I tend to avoid the glitz (I live within sight of midtown Manhattan. Do I really need more glitz?). Instead, to quote Paul Simon, I lay low, “seeking out the poorer quarters where the ragged people go, looking for the places only they would know.” We’d start near the airport, stopping at Catch of the Day on NW 42nd for a few cold ones and maybe the special grilled mahi and shrimp on a bed of sauteed spinach. On another night I’d take them down to Garcia’s on North River Drive for some oysters, a few shots of tequila and a view on the patio of whatever is going on in the Miami River. Maybe Versailles, or more likely La Carreta across the street. One day I’d take them over to the Ermita de La Caridad on South Miami Avenue to get a sense of what the Cuban refugees have done to make Miami their home since 1959. And without a doubt, I’d take them to one of Miami’s authentic treasures, the original Books & Books in Coral Gables for a cafe con leche and to browse the shelves. .

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
For the past decade, I’ve also taught at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. One thing students always ask is how I managed to balance a writing life with my family life. I readily credit my wife, partner and coach, Miriam, for the sacrifices she made and the encouragement she gave to helping me do what I do. Without her constant support I certainly couldn’t have focused on my work and, in fact, without her believing in me I might not have been willing to take the risks that I’ve taken. When I left The Times to focus fully on book writing, we gave up a large degree of financial security that would obviously affect both of us. She never hesitated in pushing me forward, and still does. I also want to mention that from my earliest days in journalism, I have had on the wall in front of my desk a poster for the author John Steinbeck that I got from a local post office in 1973 when a Steinbeck commemorative stamp was issued. The first line of the poster lists his work as newspaperman, novelist and correspondent, a dream combination of talents that I embraced as the ideal I would strive to reach. And below that was the long list of his books and a reproduction of the Steinbeck stamp, showing him in a stern, straight-ahead stare. As I sit writing this, that stare continues to bore into me like a challenge asking “And what did you do?”

Website: www.anthonydepalma.com

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Image Credits
photos of book covers and purple car and flag in Cuba –Anthony DePalma photo of me with notebook and in leather jacket: Phil Cantor B &W photo of me in boat in Guyana…Phillippe Diederich poster: Books & Books Coral Gables