“You read a book, and everything is activated. You watch a movie, and it’s a very passive experience. In a book, the author describes the smell. Through synesthesia, you intellectually smell this thing in your head.” – Barry Jenkins, Director of If Beale Street Could Talk

If Beale Street Could Talk, the first feature film adaptation in English of a James Baldwin novel, is nominated for three Academy Awards, including best supporting actress and best adapted screenplay. As its director, Barry Jenkins, said in a PBS NewsHour interview about the process: “Baldwin’s stock and trade was the interior voice, the interior life.” Penguin Random House is the proud publisher of James Baldwin’s oevre which we invite you to discover (or rediscover): Continue reading →