The room at St. Louis County Library’s Clark Family Branch filled with a quiet buzz last Tuesday evening. A hint of it was still in the air as St. Louis County Library CEO and Director Kristen Sorth welcomed one of the most decorated writers of his generation.
She introduced Walter Mosley — National Book Award medalist, PEN USA Lifetime Achievement honoree, and author of more than sixty critically acclaimed books. He returned to St. Louis to share from his latest novel, Ghalen: A Romance in Black.
Sorth noted that although Mosley has written across genres for decades, this is his first time stepping fully into romance.
“We’re excited,” she said. “This is a beautiful novel that explores love in all forms — romantic, familial and platonic.”
In her introduction, she listed several of the honors that have marked his career. The Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award and multiple NAACP Image Awards were among them. She also pointed to his work in television — from adapting The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey for Apple TV+ to serving as a writer and executive producer on FX’s Snowfall.
Mosley approached the podium with an easy familiarity. “It’s nice to be back here in St. Louis,” he said. “It’s nice to be back at this library.” He spoke briefly about the realities of writing — the joy of it, the difficulty of it, and the fact that “if you want to make money, you go into real estate,” not books. But he made it clear that writing still brings him genuine pleasure. “I really do like writing,” he said. “And I loved writing this book.”
He described Ghalen as “a romance in Black,” though he acknowledged the challenge of labeling it. “People have territory,” he said. “There are people that call themselves romance writers, and they might say, ‘Well, there’s a murder in this book,’ or ‘There was a cuss word in this book.’” But for Mosley, romance gives agency to the tradition of writers who turned their attention to everyday people — “not always billionaires and pirates.” He pointed to characters like Madame Defarge, Ishmael, and the ordinary lives that shaped classic literature.
Before reading, Mosley explained that the novel’s title character doesn’t appear until deep into the book. He began writing about Ghalen’s parents intending to give them “four or five pages,” but ended up with sixty-five. “I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of that,” he said. “So I left it, because I liked it.”
He then read from the opening chapter — a vivid, tender account of Jamila and Robert meeting at a Santa Monica farmers market in 1999. The audience listened as he traced their first conversation, their shared umbrella in a sudden downpour, and the quiet, careful unfolding of two people learning each other’s rhythms. The passage was filled with small, human details — the lightness of the lion’s mane mushrooms, monkey-spit coffee, and the heaviness of family histories — along with the early sparks of connection.
“I don’t want to get all entwined or anything. Robert, I just want to see your house and talk a little,” Jamila told him in one passage. “They made it out on the living room couch of Robert’s immaculately cleaned and ordered apartment.”
After the reading, Mosley opened the floor for questions.
One audience member asked why he shifted from mystery and science fiction to romance. Mosley pushed back on the idea of strict categories. “I like writing science fiction. I like writing crime fiction. I like writing erotica,” he said. “I like writing short stories. I’m all over the place. I’ve always done that.”
Another asked which characters were hardest to write. Mosley pointed to Robert. “Robert’s on the spectrum,” he said. “He’s intelligent, observant — probably more than most people — but he has limitations, emotional specifically.” He admitted that he rewrote the early chapters many times to get Robert right.
Questions ranged from symbolism to process. Mosley said he doesn’t read within the genre he’s writing because he once accidentally absorbed another writer’s plot and had to rewrite an entire book. He also spoke about the unpredictability of novels. “A novel is bigger than your head,” he said. “If you could hold a whole novel in your head, it’s not yet a novel.”
He shared that John Woman took him seventeen years to finish, while other books come quickly. “Gone Fishing, the first novel that I finished that’s published, I wrote in six weeks,” Mosley said.
He emphasized that writing, for him, comes from a place of joy. “The best thing about being a writer is writing,” he said. “Writing makes me happy.”
As the evening closed, Mosley reflected on what he hopes readers take from Ghalen. Not a message, he said, but a world — one in motion, one that celebrates the complexity of human connection. “It’s a celebration,” he said. “Not necessarily a happy celebration. But a world.”
Living It content is produced with funding by the ARPA for the Arts grants program in partnership with the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and the Community Development Administration.
