Novel by Sewanee professor Kevin Wilson quickly gaining national praise

Kevin Wilson envisioned the weeks leading up to the fall semester as a period of planning for his first year as a full-time English professor at the University of The South in Sewanee, Tenn.

Instead, Wilson is about to embark on the second leg of a tour supporting his first novel, "The Family Fang." After being released this week by Ecco, a division of HarperCollins, Wilson's book has generated national attention and been sent back for a third printing. 

"It's crazy, because you spend years writing this book in solitude all by yourself, not knowing if anyone is going to ever read it," Wilson said. "When you hear that people are reacting to it, it's a wonderful thing."

"The Family Fang" centers around a family of four, surname Fang. The parents, infamous performance artists, relish in finding ways to incorporate their children into their public stunts. After growing up and attempting to distance themselves from their avant-garde childhood, the children are suddenly forced to move back into their mother and father's home.

"I wanted to focus on what it means to be a family," Wilson said. "When I was writing it, my wife and I had just had our son, who is now three. I wanted to write about the decisions parents make, and how they would affect their children later on in life. In a lot of ways, I was thinking about my own family when I was writing the book."

A recent New York Times review of the "The Family Fang" described Wilson's book as "packing a wallop," and led to a follow-up profile of Wilson published on Aug. 10. NPR has called the novel "a minty fresh delight," and Barnes and Noble has chosen it as one of its "Discover Great New Writers" selections, granting it prominent display at stores nationwide.

Wilson has yet to hear how well the book is selling, but takes 23,000 copies in print thus far as a good sign. When he returns from his trip supporting "The Family Fang" the day before classes begin at Sewanee, he said he has no plans to incorporate the book into his courses. 

"I don't even think my students know that I write, I try to keep that under wraps," Wilson said, with a laugh. "The more they know about your writing, the more ammunition they have against you."

"The Family Fang" is available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com, where it was included in August's "Best Books of the Month" list. To read an excerpt of the book, click here.