Knopf to Publish Collection by Debut Author Tom Hanks

Although they say short story collections are impossible for emerging writers to sell, debut author Thomas Jeffrey “Tom” Hanks is bucking the trend. A few weeks after the previously unpublished author had his first short story appear in the New Yorker, Knopf has announced it will publish his debut story collection. Each story in the collection will be loosely based on photographs of old typewriters. “The stories are not about the typewriters themselves, but rather, the stories are something that might have been written on one of them,” Mr. Hanks, a sometimes actor, explained. The collection does not have a title or release date yet. However, you can read Mr. Hanks’s short story “Alan Bean Plus Four” in last month’s New Yorker.