No lack of Desire

Clarence Nero drew on his childhood in New Orleans’ 9th Ward for his first novel, Cheekie: A Child Out of the Desire, even giving the title character his own boyhood nickname. Inspired by Terry McMillan, he wrote it while working as a toxicological chemist and teacher in Washington, D.C.

Six years after its publication, in 2004, Nero was in the unique position of entering LSU’s graduate writing program with a contract for a book he’d sold just on the strength of three chapters and a synopsis.

That book, Three Sides to Every Story, in addition to being Nero’s 2007 Master of Fine Arts thesis, was published in 2006 by Harlem Moon, an imprint of Doubleday.

He’s already achieved amazing things—Dr. Maya Angelou called him “one of our most promising young authors,” and both Omar Tyree and Ernest Gaines have written blurbs for his novels—yet Nero charges ahead. This year already looks to be a busy and successful one for him on multiple fronts.

Taking a cue from Louisiana’s surging film industry, Nero turned Cheekie into a screenplay, and Academy Award-winning producer Jonathan Demme recommended it for the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab. Creative Artist Agency and Spike Lee’s office have asked to see the script, and other Hollywood power players have shown interest.

Too Much of a Good Thing Ain’t Bad, the sequel to Three Sides to Every Story, is due out in June. Nero says it contemplates discrimination in fraternities and sororities and hazing on college campuses.

Together with friend Kamal Dorsey, Nero established NuWorle Publishing, an independent press. The first project for the press is an April reissue of Nero’s Cheekie, which will be renamed Desire. “Now that I have [more] experience, I would like to put the novel back out there in the public and see what happens,” he says. “Besides, the novel is generating a lot of film interest. It just feels like the right thing to do.”

For the moment, Nero remains in Baton Rouge, teaching while he establishes NuWorle and works to see Cheekie brought to the big screen. nuworlepublishing.com