Integrated with humor, Jason Mott’s book reading of his novel “Hell of a Book” at the Broad Art Museum on April 7 had the audience laughing along.

In order to prevent people from “falling asleep” Mott read a short passage from his book, but spent most of the time recounting his experience of seeing the novel come to fruition. 

 Mott said his book is about an author on a book tour. A 10-year old boy called ‘the kid’ keeps appearing, which becomes very haunting.

As this plays out, Mott said, the book opens up into a discussion about policing, being black in America, police violence and police shootings.

“In the midst of a very chaotic, silly book tour story, we have very serious and painful crimes,” Mott said. 

Mott recalled working at Verizon Wireless before he sold his first book “The Returned,” as well as winning the National Book Award for “Hell of a Book,” going through the editing process with his agent and more. 

Following the discussion Mott opened the floor up for questions.

English sophomore Grace MacLaren attended Mott’s literary reading because her creative writing community class professor told them about the event. 

Although she had not read the book yet, MacLaren was going to check if she could grab a copy after the reading since she enjoyed the event. 

 “It was a lot different than I expected it was going to be,” MacLaren said. “I expected that there were going to be a lot more readings, but it was very concise … I didn't expect to be so engaged with it. I just really enjoyed it, 10 out of 10.” 

English sophomore Kate Zalapi-Bull also came to the event since she is trying to be more active in the literary community and attend more events and readings.

She also plans to read Mott’s book following the event, because it “sounds amazing.”

“I took away some more knowledge about the publishing industry,”  Zalapi-Bull said. “It's something that I’ve always had questions about and I'm glad some of those questions were answered.”

Creative writing program director Divya Victor thought the event was wonderful.

“I think students learned a lot about the publishing industry and like, the emotional aspects of being a writer, which is not just about the project, but it's about what comes before and after,” Victor said. 

Her favorite part of the event was when Mott recounted winning the National Book Award during a Zoom call, which she called a “dystopian situation” that was “hilarious and very poignant.”  

Mott himself thought the event was great.

“I think it was great,” he said. “It's all been pretty awesome. Like speaking to the students yesterday was terrific. And yeah, it's been good. The crowd had good questions. I had a blast.” 

Mott said he decided to come to Michigan State for his masterclass and book reading because he enjoys talking to students and creative writing departments as someone who recognizes the value in them. 

He hopes his book starts a critical conversation about race and policing in America.

“(This book starts) many conversations that need to be had about race and policing and America as a whole,” Mott said. “So I hope it just starts the conversation.”