I, Iago

Nicole Galland’s fourth book, I, Iago, goes on sale today and is the subject of this afternoon’s Author Talk at the West Tisbury Library.

Galland, who was born and raised on Martha’s Vineyard, is thrilled to have the West Tisbury Library be the site of the book's first reading. Galland grew up in West Tisbury, went to the West Tisbury School – where Pat Gregory was her math teacher, and graduated from MVRHS. However, back then, staying on the Island was not what she thought she wanted to do.

“When I graduated from high school, there was this sense that if you can get away from the Island, you should. So I did, but then I found that it was never feasible to come back.”

Galland was living in the Bay Area when she realized that she really wanted to move back home, but at that time she worked in theater almost exclusively and knew that there was no way to support herself on theater alone and live on the Island.

“I don’t think of this place as being rich in jobs,” said Galland. “I knew from experience that the only way to live here was to be independently wealthy or have a career that allowed me to be anywhere, and so I decided I was going to have to put more focus on being a writer.”

When Galland sold her first book (The Fool’s Tale) her publisher also bought the option for her second book (Revenge of the Rose). When they bought her third book (Crossed: A Tale of the Fourth Crusade), the first thought to cross her mind was, “Wow, now I can live on the Vineyard.”

As a writer, Galland has found that the effect of growing up on the Island comes through in her novels.

“Growing up on Martha’s Vineyard gave me an appreciation for a magnified sense of interpersonal relationships. We really are sort of in a fish bowl here and I tend to write stories where people are in fish bowls with each other.”

Her success as a novelist has not meant that Galland has left the theater behind altogether. In fact, I, Iago has turned out to be a wonderful meeting place for the highly detailed, historical writer as it is so seeped in theater.

In the book Galland takes on an almost impossible task of humanizing Iago, one of Shakespeare’s most perfectly inhumane characters. By the end of the work, we not only long to immerse ourselves once again in the richly expressed scenery of Venice, we are left with a better understanding of how the deeply flawed character of Iago emerged from the “Honest Iago” boy he once was.

Galland hopes to continue working theater into her novels – perhaps building on other Shakespearian characters in the way she has with Iago. However, she is unsure where the ever-changing world of the publishing industry will take her these days.

One of the things that this veteran novelist has found recently is that the massive changes in the industry due to e-readers and the internet, has also changed the way in which authors are expected to promote their books.

“My first book came out in 2005 and the second in 2008 and there is a really big difference now in terms of what I am asked to do to promote the book. Back then, all that was asked of me was to show up where the publishing company had booked me and speak. Now, there are all sorts of on-line literary blogs where I am supposed to virtually ‘show up’ for a Q&A. This is great because it means that regular readers are putting the word out about my book, but it also means that I don’t get to meet the actual readers face to face and I really enjoy that.”

After speaking this evening at the West Tisbury Library, she travels to Boston for a reading. She’s got a few more scheduled in California in May, but for the most part, she’ll be home, doing virtual readings from her computer in her living room. While she acknowledges that she’ll miss the actual meeting of her readers, it also means more time at home on the Island that is so important to her.

Author's Talk with Nicole Galland, 5 pm, Tuesday, April 24, . Refreshments. Free. 508-693-3366.