Leslie Knope, upbeat deputy director of the Parks and Recreation department in Pawnee, Ind., is penning a bold new book about her favorite place on earth. “Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America” will hit shelves this October.
While neither Leslie Knope or Pawnee actually exist is far from a problem. After-All NBC has mastered the art of building extensive fantasy worlds around its hit shows.
Ms. Knope is played by Amy Poehler, of the NBC comedy “Parks and Recreation,” set in the fictional Midwestern town of Pawnee, Ind. Knope’s voice in the book is not her own, but that of authors Michael Schur, co-creator and executive producer of “Parks and Recreation,” and Nate DiMeo, a former public radio producer and founder of the podcast “The Memory Palace.”
The book, from NBC Universal and Hyperion Books, will explore fictional events in the fictional town’s fictional history, such as the time all of Pawnee was on fire, or the brief period in the 1970s when the town was taken over by a cult leader named Zorp, or its ongoing raccoon infestation.
