Classical Musician’s turn as an author yields success

Edward Kelsey Moore is a classically trained cellist and the author of “The Supreme’s at Earl’s All You Can Eat.” Photo provided by Edward Kelsey Moore.
Edward Kelsey Moore is a classically trained cellist and the author of “The Supreme’s at Earl’s All You Can Eat.” Photo provided by Edward Kelsey Moore.

Classical Musician’s turn as an author yields success


By Tia Carol Jones


Edward Kelsey Moore has had quite the career as a musician, primarily in the classical music genre. He’s also had great success as a writer. His book, The Supreme’s at Earl’s All You Can Eat, was turned into a motion picture in 2024.


Moore was always interested in music. He sang in the choir at church. It was when he had the opportunity to learn how to play the cello that he became interested in classical music.


He heard the cello being played and loved it. He heard an orchestra play and found classical music fascinating. He recalled a program where the symphony orchestra visited his school and played pieces they listened to in music class. He said he could still remember the pieces they played.


“I remember hearing Brahms for the first time when I was little kid. I just remember thinking, this is the coolest thing, because there was all this stuff, layers and layers of things happening and it really fascinated me from the very beginning,” Moore said.


Moore, who has a Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University and a Master of Music degree from State University of New York at Stony Brook, has performed with the Chicago Philharmonic, Joffrey Ballet Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta. He also spent his time as a music professor, training younger cellists.


Moore always wanted to write, as far back as five years old. He recalled getting his first library card and thinking about how amazing it would be to have a book on the library’s shelves with his name on it. He loved telling stories, writing them down and entertaining his friends with his tales. He said as a young Black man, he found more opportunities to go into classical music and ways to become a classical musician than he did writing.


For decades Moore wrote, but didn’t his finish writing projects. He would start projects, get excited about it, then get distracted by something else. It wasn’t until he was 40-years old that he knew he wouldn’t be happy until he finished a writing project. So, he set a goal to finish a short story he had started multiple times. Finishing that story was the beginning of his writing career. It won a WBEZ writing contest and was published. An agent saw the story and encouraged him to continue writing.


“I wasn’t thinking I was going to make a transition to something else, I was just thinking it was this thing I wanted to do and I should actually do it,” he said.


Moore said his inspiration for The Supremes at Earl’s All You Can Eat came from a short story he wrote about three friends at a diner talking to each other as one of them is sharing the story of attending a disastrous wedding. He said it was one of the funniest things he’d ever written. He said while editors agreed it was funny, it didn’t fit into what they wanted to publish.


He ended up rewriting it and turning it into a novel. Moore also had a conversation with a friend, and it sparked a conversation about how people respond differently to the notion about courageous women and courageous men. That ultimately became the basis of the novel, along with the short story.


The novel, which follows friends Barbara Jean, Odette and Clarice over the course of a year, was published in 2014. Mooresaid he was pleasantly surprised with the success of the noveland he didn’t expect it to become a bestseller, or for someone to option it for a film. He said he was thrilled that the movie was made by the people who made it, Tina Mabry and Cee Marcellus.


“What authors always want is to have really beautiful people read every single word they wrote,” he said.


Moore said that he is really happy with the adaptation of the novel. Moore recalled being on the movie’s set, talking with the costume director and she pointed out how most of the cast and crew were Black and for a lot of them, it was their first job and she told him that he made it happen. He said if he can help other people get opportunities, he is OK with that. He said he is very proud of that.


For more information about Edward Kelsey Moore, visit www.edwardkelseymoore.com.

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