1. FRONTMATTER
Author Joshua Knelman went from curious magazinejournalist
EXPERT WITNESSED
hen Toronto writer and
journalist Joshua Knelman
to art-theft authoritywhile researching his first non-fiction book
first looked into a robbery at
a smaliToronto art gallery in
zoo3, he had no idea it would form the seed
of his first non-fiction book, HotArt: Chas-
ing Thieves and Detectives Through the Secret
tYorld ofsnlenAn, to be published by Doug-
las &Mclntyre this fall.
At the time, Knelmanwas researching an
ar ticle for Th e'Walr u s, eventually published
in zoo5 as 'Artful Crimes," about the hush-
hush elite art world and its international
black market. The investigative story earned
him a National Magazine Award in the Arts
& Entertainment category.
"W'hen I started to do some investigat-
ing, it became apparent very quickly nobody
I could talk to in Toronto on the police force
knewverymuch about art theft, not even the
gallery owner," he says. "I suddenly had to
start makingphone calls to the FBI and Scot-
land Yard in order to get any real context."
After the article was published, Knelman
says he was left with more questions than an-
swers. Piqued by his story, Vancouver's Rain-
10 | QUTLLd/QUTRE I lULY/AUGUST20il
coast Books acquired rights to a manuscript
on spec, but a year later, in 2oo8, the com-
pany shut down its publishing program. A
U.S. deal with Simon & Schuster was also
cancelled after Knelman's editor left the
company. The setbacks didn?t deter the au-
thor, though: he was already so immersed
in the cloak-and-dagger world of inter-
national art theft that he continued with his
investigation.
As Knelman pursued his research, he
rcalized. one of the biggest challenges he
faced as afirst-time bookwriterwas knowing
whento stop interviewing, and when to shift
his focus to analysis and writing. "I didn't
figure out a goldenformula, butl did get to a
pointwhere I started to hear the same things
when I asked certain questions," he says.
"That was a small victory because you start
to feel like you know, or a piece of informa-
tion starts to feel familiar to you."
Time was also on Knelman's side during
the writing process. It afforded him the free-
dom to learn from previous interviews, for-
mulate new questions, analyze and explore
new theories. It also gave him an opportun-
ity to work out structural issues with the
manuscript, and sort through the volume of
information he had collected over the past
couple years.
"Trying to create a coherent narrative
that carries the reader through a story was
definitely abig challenge for me," he says.
Of course, not every magazine article
can be successfully turned into a full-length
book. TrenaY./hite, Knelman's editor onHot
Art, says that when scouting for source ma-
terial, publishers look for articles that con-
tain "characters or an argument that can be
developed in more than 5,ooo words."
Nancy Flight, associate publisher at
Greystone Books - which is publishing the
magazine-to-book treeplanti ng memoir E at-
ingDirtby Charlotte Gillthis fall - says fea-
ture writers and journalists like Knelman
generally dont enter the boot<-writing pro-
cess with the necessary expert knowledge of
their subject. "It's the author as neophyte or
observer who is going to learn about it from
[experts], whereas an author who wants to
write a book really has to become the expert,
has to develop the authority by doing a lot of
research, has to wear that mantle of author-
ity," she says.
In the end, it was serendipity that landed
Hot Art atD&M. In March zoro, news broke
about a stolen Henry Moore sculpture and
Paul Klee painting,later recoveredbya Can-
adian art gallery, and Knelman became a
popular media source.
"Publishers are very concerned with
platform," says Knelman's agent, Saman-
tha Haywood of the Transatlantic Literary
After news broke
about a stolen sculpture
and painting,Joshua
Knelman became a
popular media source
Agency, who is currently looking for a new
U.S deal for Hot Art. "The more an author
has established themselves in other forms,
and the more they've made a recognizable
name for themselves, the more publishers
are going to want to buythem."
But it was Knelman's eight-year commit-
ment to his story that solidified his reputa-
tion as ah expert on Canadian art theft in ;
the first place. "He became so passionate *
abouthis subjectthathewantedto keep re- i
searching and developing it," says White. e
"He's been able to approach it with some E
kindofauthority." -MichelleKay 3
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o