Today on the site, we’re revealing the cover of The Wasteland by Harper Jameson and W.A.W. Parker, a historical novel releasing January 5, 2021 that imagines the life of poet T.S. Eliot. Here’s the blurb:
It’s the roaring twenties and London’s elite enjoys a Great Gatsby lifestyle. Poets like Robert Frost are the rock stars, attracting thousands of fans to each of their readings. Gay nightclubs titillate as a youth sub-culture thrives. But beneath the veneer, fascism’s message of nationalism, traditional values, and violent intolerance is on the rise.
Poetically written, The Wasteland follows T.S. Eliot’s rise from obscure bank clerk to the world’s most famous poet. But more than anything, it explores his profound struggle to accept his sexuality. The book weaves a narrative inspired by Eliot’s poems, his letters, and his iconic characters, and is as much a meditation on art, intolerance, and demagoguery as it is a story about the poet’s life.
And here’s the deliciously deco cover, designed by Mark Karis!
When HARPER JAMESON graduated from Brown University with a history degree, there was no inkling that a career as a writer would follow. After running a successful business for years, then launching the Social Impact Conference to support business owners, artists, and activists dedicated to positive social change, Harper realized that storytelling was fundamental to improving the world and that history housed the greatest stories of them all. Harper especially enjoys finding important but forgotten, or misunderstood, figures from the past and bringing them back to life.
W.A.W Parker focuses on telling stories about queer people in history in order to reclaim our cultural legacy. His debut novel, The Divine Proportions of Luca Pacioli, is out now. When he’s not busy rewriting his own queer historical musical, he’s enjoying his husband Raul’s cooking.
Oh wow! I had not heard of this and it is so very much up my alley!