The Today Show
Best Books to Buy for Everyone on Your Holiday List

“Not only is this a beautiful book for the reader or writer in your life – it’s a great gift – but it’s also a beautiful book if you want to discover new talent because he has this vast array of basically what the literary landscape looks like right now through author photos.”
- Isaac Fitzgerald, Founding Editor, Buzzfeed Books

Bill's Books, NBC New York

“I just love looking through this book and discovering authors and really seeing something about them that you don't get from just reading their work.” 
- Bill Goldstein

Journal of Beautiful Business

And how does [love] help you? Is it like Michelangelo chipping the stone away to reveal what’s really there, what you see?

Seeing and being seen are very related to the idea of romance, of taking that risk and saying “I love you. This is me. See me for who I am. I’m someone who cares about you.”

Notre Dame Magazine

“You know how you get those cauliflower ears, right?” said [John] Irving, who proceeded to throw an arm around the photographer’s waist. Then he clapped the side of Sheehan’s head with his other hand and tugged. That’s how.

“And then you see it, there’s such a presence in him,” Sheehan says. “So much strength, and so much. . . .” He grapples for the right words. “This wink-in-your-eye boy’s excitement at the chance to wrestle.”

The fire within. The essential light.

BOMB

Maria Dahvana Headley:  "The same is true of your art in taking these portraits. You curate what we see, but leave some shadows and portals for the viewer to walk into as well."

Beowulf Sheehan:  "Absolutely. You see one end of the story, and then I have a small contribution, an invitation for you to start working on the rest of the story. The reader will finish it from there. How beautiful."

Publishers Weekly

How does one go about the business of becoming a literary photographer?

I think one begins the business by not thinking of it as a business, but rather a labor of love, just as anyone who has a story to tell tells that story not for the sake of a regimen of work or financial gain, but rather an internal need to let that voice and that story be shared with the world. I can't think of a single writer I've ever met in my career who said, "I dove into this because I really have a tremendous financial opportunity in becoming a writer." And likewise I found myself in this community because it's been a part of my life's journey to be in and around books.

WLIW ALL ARTS

“Each and every one of us has a story to share,” Sheehan added. “And we should feel in ourselves a responsibility to listen to each other, to hear those stories because then we all move forward from them. They’re what make the world spin so beautifully.”

2018 Kirkus Gift Book Guide

"With partial proceeds benefitting the National Book Foundation’s BookUp program, which serves student readers in underserved communities, Author is perfect for book lovers, photography buffs, and philanthropists."

New York Newsday Best Holiday Gifts

"Photographer Beowulf Sheehan's subjects are a who's who of the contemporary literary world, including Donna Tartt, Salman Rushdie (who wrote the foreword), Margaret Atwood, J.K. Rowling, Colson Whitehead, Louise Erdrich and more. They may be in color or black & white, serious or playful, spontaneous or posed -- Sheehan's pictures capture the literary community in all its range and complexity. "

Los Angeles Times Fall 2018 Book Preview

"Sheehan has breathed new life into literary photography. His first book has an introduction by Salman Rushdie and portraits of Roxane Gay, Donna Tartt, Zadie Smith, Toni Morrison and 200 additional writers."

National Public Radio WNYC ALL OF IT with Alison Stewart

"What does it take to get a good image of an author?"

"Empathy."

Lit Hub

"Here is what I have learned about writers: Balancing private and public selves, they need solitude as much as they need community. They know they’re entrusted with recording and imparting history. Though a fearful few would have many of their voices silenced, they speak their hearts. Their vulnerability is their strength. They reflect and help shape societies and cultures, calling attention to their ills and dangers, celebrating their wonders and triumphs. They are you. Me. Us. And they are beautiful."

The Paris Review

"Tom Wolfe turned eighty-three on March 13, 2013. That same day, I was granted ten minutes to photograph him. Though I don’t remember his words, he joked about my name before I had the chance to wish him a happy birthday. He was slight, his trademark suit a bit big for him, his spine curved despite the tower of a figure he was to so many. The turn of his smile was unchanging. His spirit was easy, curious, and kind. Though his body left us this year, I’d like to think his spirit still hasn’t."

Cagibi

"A book makes concrete a journey to a point, but that journey continues. I’ll keep celebrating writers and other storytellers with my photography while working to grow stronger in what I love to do... There are countless stories in need of telling, and there is tremendous beauty in diversity. I’m excited to travel, camera in hand, to celebrate both."

LensCulture

"Perhaps the best way to explain Author is to say that I am thankful for this book - deeply and personally grateful. These are pictures of people and their faces, yes. These are also pictures of the men and women who bring us stories that challenge and change every one of us, and somehow Beowulf has caught that spark."

Using Format