Who Gets to Decide Your Story?

American Fiction, the hilarious and provocative film directed by Cord Jefferson, earned critical acclaim, five Academy Award nominations (and one Oscar), and a 93% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s the story of Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a Black college professor who’s written well-regarded novels that don’t sell. When publishers reject his latest work for not being “Black” enough, he dashes off a manuscript that incorporates all the tropes that he’s disdained — and it becomes the object of a bidding war and is honored with a prestigious award.

One of the major themes in American Fiction is who chooses the people who speak for underrepresented groups and what stories those people are allowed to tell.

In our closing event for the weekend, we’ll show the film and follow it with a panel of publishing pros, who’ll share their insider views on this and other major themes that the film raises.

Yahdon Israel
Yahdon Israel is a senior editor at Simon & Schuster whose passion is promoting literacy and connecting readers with books. He brings an entrepreneurial spirit to these pursuits as the founder of a popular book club, host of a literary podcast, event producer, magazine editor, and writer, as well as through his work in support of several prestigious literary awards, including the NBCC, Aspen Words Literary Prize and the Young Lions Fiction Award.Some of the books Israel has acquired and edited at Simon & Schuster include Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden by Camille T. Dungy; What Winners Won’t Tell You by two-time NFL Super Bowl champion Malcolm Jenkins; Growing Up Urkel by Jaleel White; and Tenderheaded: A Memoir by Michaela Angela Davis. Israel’s first acquisition, Aaliyah Bilal’s debut short story collection Temple Folk, was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction and the Aspen Words Literary Prize and won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence.

Hana Park is an editor at Simon & Schuster, where she focuses on acquiring narrative nonfiction, memoirs, pop culture, history, biographies, and literary fiction. Her interests include works that explore social issues, political power, and existential anxieties. She has worked on books by prominent authors such as Walter Isaacson and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Her forthcoming titles include Boat Baby by NBC correspondent Vicky Nguyen and Elegy Southwest by Madeleine Watts. Park was born and raised in Los Angeles.

Hyeseung Song is the author of Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl. Her book has been described as a “scorchingly honest…hugely evocative memoir” in the tradition of bestsellers like Crying in H-Mart and Minor Feelings. She was born to Korean immigrant parents and grew up in suburban Houston. Her upbringing was marked by financial struggles, cultural challenges, and the high expectations of her parents, which shaped much of her identity and many of her experiences. Song excelled academically, attending Princeton University as an undergraduate and later pursuing studies at Harvard Law School. However, she eventually left Harvard to focus on her mental health and artistic passions. She now lives in Brooklyn and upstate New York as a painter and writer.