Best-selling author to speak at Lincoln Park where students collaborated on his latest book

MIDLAND − As the author of "Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions," a best-seller-turned-film-turned Broadway musical, Daniel Wallace could have chosen from any number of publishing houses to put out his next book.

But Wallace has picked BatCat Press, believed to be the only high school student-run press in the country, operated by the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School.

On Thursday, Jan. 12, Wallace makes a return visit to the Midland charter school ― part of Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center ― to promote the release of his fiction book, "How to Build a Coffin and Other Love Stories." The public is invited to the official release event that starts at 7 p.m. in Lincoln Park's Black Box Theater.

"He'll be reading, signing books, answering questions," Dan Leroy, director of writing and publishing at the Lincoln Park charter school, said.

"The book is being published by BatCat Press ― still the only high school student-run press in the country," Leroy said. "Our kids have been working on this book for three years: It got interrupted by the pandemic, but Wallace has stayed with us. So, this release is kind of special, even beyond working with an author of his stature."

Speaking by phone last Thursday from his North Carolina home, Wallace said he had worried the collaboration with students would fall through once the COVID pandemic hit and Lincoln Park, like other schools, reverted to home-school video instruction.

"But (the students) kept it going, which made me very happy," he said.

Wallace began forging his relationship with Lincoln Park in 2018, when he accepted an invitation to attend the performing arts center's production of "Big Fish," the stage show adapted from the Tim Burton movie starring Ewan McGregor that had originated from Wallace's 1998 debut novel.

"I watched the show at Lincoln Park and thought it was incredible and loved it there," Wallace said. "I was so impressed by the talent I saw there and what they've done in the past with chapbooks."

Chapbooks are smaller-than-normal sized books, usually 20 to 40 pages long, bound by saddle stitch with just a couple of staples along the spine. Commonly shorter and less wide than a standard size of paper, chapbooks date to the 16th century, though have experienced a renewed popularity, often for poetry books or themed collections.

At Lincoln Park's BatPress, "they've made them so beautifully, I really wanted to share some of my work in that way," Wallace said.

And so began a three-year project between professional author and Beaver County students.

"It was a real collaboration," Wallace said, explaining how students chose the thematic order of the short-form love stories the author submitted.

Some of the "How to Build a Coffin and Other Love Stories" tales are a single page long.

"The longest is 1,500 words," Wallace said.

It's a challenge to write so economically, where every word must bear importance.

"Sometimes that's more interesting and has more emotional resonance," said Wallace, a self-described "professional doodler," who also created the book's illustrations.

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"I do feel there is a place for extremely short stories in our literary world and our culture," he said.

Praised by USA Today as someone who "writes with a heartbreaking kind of razzle-dazzle,” Wallace's storytelling melds comedy, magical realism, and Southern-tinged tall tales influenced by classic myth.

Such broad-stroked stories "can highlight for a reader the day-to-day world and help them see that it's not necessarily as plain as we make it out to be," he said.

Whether you use words like "magic" or "coincidence" to explain events that aren't easily explainable, "It's hugely a fact of our existence," Wallace said. "Interesting things happen to us."

One of the most interesting things that happened to Wallace is when he got the phone call saying Hollywood wanted to make a movie out of his 1998 book "Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions"

Originally, Steven Spielberg signed on to direct the story about a frustrated son hoping to sort out the fact from the fiction in his dying father's life. But facing a backlog of work, Spielberg eventually turned over the reins to Burton of "Edward Scissorhands" fame.

"It ended up in the right hands," Wallace said about the fanciful, quirky Burton.

Wallace has authored five other novels; "Big Fish" (1998), "Ray in Reverse" (2000), "The Watermelon King" (2003), "Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician" (2007), "The Kings and Queens of Roam" (2013), and "Extraordinary Adventures" (2017), plus two children's books; "O Great Rosenfeld!" and "The Cat’s Pajamas."

An April release is set for his next full-length book, "This Isn't Going to End Well." It's the 63-year-old Alabama native's memoirs.

"It's my first nonfiction, relating my life to my brother-in-law, William Nealy, an artist and writer, who was the reason I became a writer," Wallace said.

Nealy died in a 2001 suicide.

"The book is about that and friendship and what happens when that is lost," Wallace said.

Next week finds him in Midland, meeting face-to-face with the students who helped with his new book.

"They were very, very much a part of the project," Wallace said. "This wasn't a situation where they were told what to do. When I'd send them something I wrote, they'd come back with their own ideas. They helped create it."

Lydia Young, a junior from Monaca and one of the Lincoln Park students who collaborated on the book, said, “'How To Build a Coffin' has not only taught me many important skills, but it's also inspired me. It has been so exciting to see everything come together. Putting the book together is like a finishing seal on the story. I’m so happy to have had the chance to work on this project.”

How did Lincoln Park come to use chapbooks?

"We could do conventional paperbacks; we've occasionally done them before, in fact," Leroy said. "But Deanna Baringer, who founded the press in 2010, always had another vision: not just to publish, but to create beautiful objects. She wanted to teach our students a valuable skill − bookbinding − that fewer and fewer people possess today. When we go to events and people see the one-of-a-kind books we make − and when they further see that high school students are making these books − they're doubly amazed."

Get yourself a signed copy Jan. 12, when Wallace visits Lincoln Park's Black Box Theater.

"I'm so much looking forward to coming there," Wallace said. "I hope people come out and celebrate this awesome project. This is remarkable what these students have done to bring this book into the world. It truly is unique."

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times and easy to reach at stady@timesonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: 'Big Fish' author to speak at Lincoln Park which produced his new book