American Mother’s journey to readers’ hands tells a tale all its own. When James Foley was killed, news reached McCann’s email, not with the gruesome video seen by much of the world on social media, but with a picture of the young man, seated in a military encampment, engrossed in McCann’s novel Let the Great World Spin. McCann, himself a former journalist, tacked the photo to his office door, astounded by the literary connection.

Several months later, McCann emailed Diane Foley with an offer to help pen her son’s story. He didn’t receive a response but heard that she secured a book contract. Still, Diane Foley struggled to find the right words. “I wanted the book, but I couldn’t write it. I’m not a writer, I’m just a mom,” she said. Certainly, that’s an understatement. On stage at the library in Philadelphia, McCann said, “She’s the most courageous person I know on this planet.”

A few years after his initial email, McCann was on Zoom, discussing his novel Apeirogon with an audience from Marquette University, James Foley’s alma mater. The author mentioned his emotional reaction to the young man’s photo and his outreach to Diane Foley. Tom Durkin, a dear friend of James Foley, was in the virtual crowd. An hour later, Diane Foley emailed McCann, apologizing for not seeing his original message. The two talked, and she shared her story frustrations. McCann offered to travel to the Foley home in New Hampshire to lend a hand.

Diane Foley had another idea. “I thought, ‘I really like this guy. He reminds me of Jimmy.’” She asked McCann to join her at the Virginia courthouse where she’d face Alexanda Kotey, one of the men responsible for killing her son. The first chapter of American Mother begins on that day, seven years after James Foley’s death.

McCann and Diane Foley collaborated to craft the narrative. As the book opens, McCann focuses on the details of the meeting that may otherwise have been lost in the emotion of the moment — the jangle of her bracelets, the clang of Kotey’s shackles, her choice to call the killer by the name his mother gave him. Through phone calls, emails and meetings, Diane Foley illustrated her son’s moral courage and his need to create light in darkness by helping others tell their stories. “I’d put her voice into words and then show it to her and she’d tell me if it was authentic,” said McCann. “I’d write and she’d read and we’d come to a mutual consensus.”

The Path to Publishing Passed Through Wilkes

McCann’s fiction publisher, Penguin Random House, had passed on the project while remaining focused on his novels. Still, he knew Diane Foley’s story needed to be told, and the nonfiction narrative aligned with much of his previous work. “I’ve been experimenting on the borders of fiction and nonfiction for quite a while,” says McCann. “That’s a really interesting place to be now, hovering between fiction and nonfiction. What is fact? Who gets to decide?”

Etruscan was far from alone when it came to dedication, talent and support for the project at Wilkes. Lisa Reynolds, associate professor of integrative media, designed the book’s cover and interior layout, while the campus radio station, WCLH, provided recording and editing services for the audiobook. “The resources we have from Wilkes University brought us Colum McCann and allowed us to accommodate this much larger project,” said Brady, Etruscan’s executive director. “It’s a long-term relationship that Wilkes has fostered. All of the people who work for Etruscan come from Wilkes. This is a whole Wilkes crowd.”

Reynolds is proud to be part of that Wilkes crowd and the American Mother team. “This book fought to be created,” she said. “The story of all of the people who’ve been brought together is part of its narrative.” She started the design process with a blurb about the book, a brief conversation with McCann and a list of key words and emotions. With these few details, she created 12 cover options over two rounds of design. She shared the work with her students to get their feedback and give them insight into her creative process and commitment. “There’s a reverence for every cover I create. It has to be important every single time,” said Reynolds. “The cover can be the difference between why people read a book or why they don’t.”

WCLH Gave Voice to the Words

Curtis was on board immediately. “I said YES without even thinking about it, and then I read it,” Curtis said. “You don’t say NO to Colum McCann and you don’t say NO to Diane Foley.” Despite a jam-packed schedule, she committed to the project. “The timing was inconvenient and yet there was nothing more important to me. I’m completely immersed in the work,” said Curtis. “I couldn’t feel more responsibility in these last days. It’s such an incredible story of a family and I’m quite undone by the whole thing and honored to be asked.”

American Mother impacted Rock both professionally and personally. “It was an absolute honor to work on this book,” she said. “Professionally, it was an incredible opportunity to work with an award-winning author and well-known actress. Personally, it filled my heart with a new appreciation for what some mothers have to endure in their lifetimes.” Though it was a high-profile project, Rock made sure to include students on the production team. Jason Eberhart ’24, Jessica Fellerman ’24, Trent Fisher ’24 and Amanda Montgomery ’24 got hands-on experience recording, editing, mixing and mastering the audio to make sure American Mother was ready for listeners.

Fisher participated to fulfill internship credit and served as the audio production director. He was moved by the intensity of the story and was well aware of the vital roles he and the other students played. “Given that the project involved a National Book Award winner and a well-known actress, I definitely felt a higher level of responsibility,” Fisher said. “It was clear that, as students, we were entrusted with a key role in ensuring the success of this important work.”

For Fellerman, the daughter of a mother who emigrated from Lebanon, the trials and tribulations Diane Foley experienced in the course of the book hit close to home. “I saw a mother at her core. She was so respectful of his [Kotey’s] culture and him as a person — a true example of her strength as a mother,” Fellerman said. With her lifelong interest in literature and performing arts, the audiobook was also a passion project. “Since I was young, I’ve had an immense affinity for anything creative. I hope to work in the entertainment industry, and I think this was a good first step.”

Montgomery had been involved with WCLH since her first year on campus and she’d previously contributed to the audiobook for Mailer’s Last Days: New and Selected Remembrances of a Life in Literature by J. Michael Lennon, co-founder of the graduate creative writing program. She enjoyed the editing process and wanted to do it again. Working on American Mother, she was affected by the writing’s depth of emotion. “The combination of reading the words on the pages and hearing them read out loud was truly an indescribable feeling,” Montgomery said. “I would sit there for hours just listening to the story and I would go through a combination of sorrow, reflection and even hope.”

Though it may be difficult to associate hope with a story born from darkness, those who worked on American Mother see its light clearly and long for readers to do the same. “We’ve kept Jim very much alive in the world through this book,” said Mooney. “It was emotional as well as boosting our literary spirits and our spirits in general.”

Etruscan Press Spread the Tale

Etruscan and the team also launched a book tour with stops in New York City, Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, San Francisco and San Diego. Some of these appearances included a panel presentation with Diane Foley, Colum McCann and music superstar Sting, who helped McCann launch Narrative 4, a storytelling collective that helps young people build empathy. Sting also wrote the Academy Award-nominated song, “The Empty Chair,” featured in the documentary Jim: The James Foley Story, produced by Brian Oakes in 2016.

Though performers typically revel in audience adoration, Sting asked the crowd at the Free Library of Philadelphia to hold their applause and sit in silence to be with Diane Foley at the song’s end. For the songwriter, the music provides another way to fill the space left by James Foley’s death. “Keep telling the story. When we lose the best people, that vacuum cannot be allowed to stay,” said Sting. “Storytelling through song is good therapy for all of us when that light at the end of the tunnel is something that can change and make life better.”

American Mother will reach an even wider audience, spreading its messages of hope, redemption, radical empathy and moral courage, when publisher Bloomsbury releases the paperback version in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States in February 2025.

The team at Etruscan Press has no doubt James Foley’s story will live on, as will the role that members of the Wilkes University community played in bringing the pages and voices of American Mother to life. “It has been a privilege to work on this project. It has ramifications that go beyond the literature. It was amazing what Diane did not just for her son, but for journalists around the world,” said Brady. His Etruscan partner agrees. “It’s still going to be news 10 years from now,” said Mooney. “It deals with current events, but it’s about the human heart.”