- Cara Seitchek Interviews Gwendolen Gross, author of The Other Mother “The depth of Gross' portraits, and the nobility she imbues both moms with, renders a thoughtful account of how, for modern mothers, there is no easy choice.” — Boston Now Cara Seitchek: What audience did you have in mind...
- Jennifer Uhlich Interviews Brock Clarke, author of An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England After spending ten years in prison for accidentally burning down Emily Dickinson’s house—killing two people in the process—Sam Pulsifer is determined to start a new life. But when the houses of Mark Twain, Robert Frost, Edith Wharton, Ralph Waldo...
- Lisa Kunik Interviews Samantha Hunt, author of The Invention of Everything Else Deemed by biographer Robert Lomas as “the man who invented the 20th century,” Nikola Tesla was one of the world’s most revolutionary and famed electrical engineers. He is a captivating if not puzzling figure, whose interests ranged from electromagnetism...
- Adam Goldwyn Interviews Joshua Furst, author of The Sabotage Café The Sabotage Café tells the story of Cheryl, a bored suburbanite playing with anarchy for the first time. After running away from home in the novel’s opening scene, Cheryl finds herself down and out in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown, at home– for...
- Cara Seitchek Interviews Matthew Eck, author of The Farthest Shore Matthew Eck is a natural novelist and a war novelist by accident. His book is ghostly, lyrical and strange in the style of the young Tim O’Brien, but with a difference: Eck’s . . . wandering soldiers are even...
- Small Spiral Notebook Interviews Nicole Krauss, author of The History of Love Small Spiral Notebook: You’ve written two novels, and are in the midst of a third. These are still early days, but have any enduring concerns emerged—problems, ideas, arguments, or frames of mind you see yourself continually returning to in your...
- Adam Goldwyn interviews Sabina Murray, author of Forgery Sabina Murray’s new novel Forgery tells the story of Rupert Briggs, an American traveler to Greece in the 1960’s. Ostensibly on a search for ancient artifacts, Rupert is in fact as much running from his own past as searching...
- Adam Goldwyn inteviews Kim Addonizio, author of My Dreams out in the Street Kim Addonizio’s new novel, My Dreams out in the Street, tells the story of Rita, a drug addict and prostitute, and her boyfriend, Jimmy, a petty crook. As we follow their story, we also get a chance to see...
- Lisa Kunik Interviews Antoine Wilson, Author of The Interloper Antoine Wilson’s debut novel The Interloper follows Owen Patterson’s quest to avenge the senseless murder of his wife’s brother, CJ. He poses as Lily Hazelton—a woman seeking an incarcerated penpal—in the hopes of developing a relationship over letters with...
- A Conversation with Felicia Luna Lemus, author of Like Son by Jennifer Bassett When Felicia Luna Lemus enters the East Village coffee shop where I will conduct our interview, I suddenly realize why the decision was made to have her author photo take up the whole back cover of her novel Like...
- Jess deCourcy Hinds Interviews Dani Shapiro, Author of Black & White Dani Shapiro's new novel Black & White (Knopf, 2007) uses Sally Mann’s controversial photography as a springboard for a story that explores the question of how a grown daughter can forgive a mother who exploited her in the name...
- Scott Esposito Interviews Matthew Sharpe, author of Jamestown Matthew Sharpe came to national prominence when his novel The Sleeping Father was selected for the Today Show Book Club. Jamestown, his most recent novel, is set in the near future and tells the story of a group of...
- Mary Phillips Sandy interviews Alison McGhee, author of Falling Boy In Alison McGhee’s latest novel, Falling Boy (Picador, 2007), a teenager named Joseph is paralyzed after a mysterious accident. Uprooted from his mother and his home in New York, Joseph is sent to live with his father in Minneapolis,...
- Cara Seitchek interviews Rishi Reddi, author of Karma and Other Stories Born in Hyderabad, India, Rishi Reddi writes about the Indian-American experience in the short stories of her first collection. Set primarily in the Boston area, the stories explore issues of culture clash within and beyond the Indian communities of...
- Felicia C. Sullivan Interviews Vendela Vida, author of Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name I first encountered Vendela Vida's work in 2003, with the publication of her debut novel And Now You Can Go, a mesmerizing fast-paced novel about a woman who is held at gunpoint by a man who contemplates suicide and...
- Laura McCullough Interviews Bob Hicok, author of This Clumsy Living Those who have been paying attention to Bob Hicok’s writing career will find in his fourth collection of poetry, This Clumsy Living, the signature muscularity and flexibility of language that shot Hicok to the forefront of the contemporary American...
- Jennifer Uhlich Interviews Tom Bissell, author of The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam Tom Bissell's new book, The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam, recounts his journey through Vietnam with his veteran father. A hybrid of memoir and history, the book interrogates the war in...
- Jess deCourcy Hinds Interviews Gayle Brandeis, author of Self Storage Gayle Brandeis is a novelist you should have heard of. I confess—her name was unfamiliar to me and my fiction-addicted friends, despite the fact that Brandeis won the prestigious Bellwether Prize judged by Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston and...
- Michael Signorelli Interviews Ellis Avery, author of The Teahouse Fire Ellis Avery’s debut novel, The Teahouse Fire (Riverhead, 2006) was inspired by five years of weekly tea ceremony study in New York and five nonstop weeks at the international headquarters of the Urasenke tradition of tea ceremony in Kyoto,...
- Cara Seitchek interviews Sarah Thyre, author of Dark at the Roots: A Memoir Given the nickname "Family Liar" by her father around the time she started talking, Sarah Thyre was the second of five children to be born into a southern family of Roman Catholics. Confused by this endearment, but eager to live...
- Jane Carr Interviews Maggie Nelson, author of The Red Parts In 2005, I interviewed Maggie Nelson in New York City about her book Jane: A Murder, a verse narrative of exploration and detection. In Jane, Nelson scrutinizes the 1969 murder of her aunt, Jane Mixer, and its relevance to her...
- Krista McGruder Interviews Mary Gaitskill, author of Veronica Mary Gaitskill agreed to speak with me in October, 2006, in Philadelphia at the Rittenhouse Hotel. She is a charming, witty and impressive lady. Ms. Gaitskill was also impressive in her ability to do the heavy lifting when it came...
- Cara Seitchek interviews Annie Choi, author of Happy Birthday or Whatever: Track Suits, Kim Chee, and Other Family Disasters Meet Annie Choi. She fears cable cars and refuses to eat anything that casts a shadow. Her brother thinks chicken is a vegetable. Her father occasionally starts fires at work. Her mother collects Jesus trading cards and wears plaid like...
- Joshua Citrak Interviews Kemble Scott author of SoMa Kemble Scott is the pen name of a San Francisco journalist and writer. His first novel, SoMa, about the culture of sex, kink and drugs in the San Francisco neighborhood South of Market, is published by Kensington Press. Kemble is...
- Aaron Hamburger interviews Victoria Redel, author of The Border of Truth Victoria Redel is the author of The Border of Truth (Counterpoint, 2007). She's also the author of two books of poems: Swoon (University of Chicago Press, 2003) and Already the World (Kent State University Press, 1995) and two books of...
- Angela Veronica Wong interviews Kim Garcia, author of Madonna Magdalene Kim Garcia’s first book of poetry, Madonna Magdalene, was called “a startling book of origins, a mature and passionate first book of poems” by Edward Hirsch. In Madonna Magdalene, Kim expands known Biblical and mythological narratives by using her personal...
- Jess deCourcy Hinds Interviews Sigrid Nunez, Author of The Last of Her Kind and Mitz I took a walk with Nunez through her West Village Manhattan neighborhood on a sunny, sparkling afternoon in January. Over the next few days, we continued our conversation about two of Nunez’s books just out in paperback this winter. The...
- Inside Hart’s Mind: Laura McCullough interviews Matt Hart, author of Who's Who Vivid Right on the heals of his debut publication Revelated published in the Hollyridge Press Chapbook Series, Matt Hart’s full length collection of poetry, Who’s Who Vivid, was published by Slope Editions, the funky, provocative, and sometimes punishing small press started...
- On Writing Biographies: Kevin Fitzpatrick interviews Marion Meade about Buster, Woody, Zelda, and Mrs. Parker New York author Marion Meade has written a dozen books, but it is her biographies that she is proudest of. Meade is perhaps best known for delving into the lives of 20th Century icons. Her most recent book, Bobbed Hair...
- Authors Aaron Hamburger (Faith for Beginners) and Maxine Swann (Flower Children) chat Aaron Hamburger is the author of the story collection The View from Stalin’s Head, winner of the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the novel Faith for Beginners. Maxine Swann is the author of the...
- Robert Birnbaum interviews Edward P. Jones, author of All Aunt Hagar's Children Edward P. Jones, the New York Times bestselling author, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for The Known World; he...
- Aaron Hamburger interviews Emily Barton, author of Brookland Emily Barton is the author of two novels: Brookland, recently published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, and The Testament of Yves Gundron, which was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a San Francisco Chronicle Book...
- Douglas Light interviews Joe Meno, author of The Boy Detective Fails Joe Meno is a fiction writer and playwright that lives in Chicago. A winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award and the Society of Midland Author's Fiction Prize, he is the author of four novels, The Boy Detective Fails (Akashic...
- Rachel Kramer Bussel interviews Wendy Spero, author of Microthrills “I wish you could come over and see this,” Wendy Spero tells me while staying at her mother’s Upper East Side apartment in New York City during her recent book tour stint. “It’s so cluttered and claustrophobic; I feel validated,”...
- Scott Snyder interviews Kelly Braffet, author of Last Seen Leaving Kelly Braffet's first novel, Josie and Jack, was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2005. She was born in Long Beach, California, in 1976, and has lived in Arizona, rural Pennsylvania and Oxford, England. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence...
- Farrah Field interviews Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants Sara Gruen is the author of the bestseller Riding Lessons and Flying Changes. She lives with her husband, her three children, four cats, two dogs, and a horse in an environmental community north of Chicago. Farrah Field: At the end...
- Bridget Cross interviews Ryan Murphy, author of the poetry collection, Down With the Ship Otis Books/Seismicity Editions, 2006 Ryan Murphy is the author of Down with the Ship from Otis Books / Seismicity Editions as well as the chapbooks The Gales, Ocean Park, and On Violet Street. He has received awards from Chelsea Magazine...
- Roundtable Discussion with the Contributors of This is Not Chick Lit Hosted by Felicia C. Sullivan Participants: Roxana Robinson, Samantha Hunt, Holiday Reinhorn and Editor, Elizabeth Merrick Felicia C. Sullivan: Is there a distinct divide between women who write chick lit and those who write literary fiction? In all fairness, have...
- Felicia C. Sullivan interviews Jancee Dunn, author of But Enough About Me Jancee Dunn grew up in Chatham, New Jersey. She has been a writer for Rolling Stone since 1989. She has written twenty cover stories for the magazine, including profiles of Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Ben Affleck and Madonna. She has...
- Janice Erlbaum, author of Girlbomb - A Halfway Homeless Memoir, on Janice Erlbaum Janice Erlbaum is the author of GIRLBOMB (Villard, 2006), and a longtime columnist for BUST magazine (http://www.bust.com)). She lives in her native New York with her domestic partner, Bill Scurry, and their three cats. She is currently working on her...
- Felicia C. Sullivan interviews Scott Snyder, author of Voodoo Heart Scott Snyder's first book, a collection of stories called Voodoo Heart, is out now from the Dial Press. He teaches creative writing at Columbia and Sarah Lawrence and he lives in Stonybrook, NY, with his wife, Jeanie. Felicia C. Sullivan:...
- Small Spiral Notebook's Contributing Editor, Alison Weaver, interviews David Goodwillie, author of Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time David Goodwillie's debut memoir is a witty and moving evocation of New York in the nineties. It follows a wide-eyed narrator with big dreams of literary stardom through one implausible job after another, including stints in minor league baseball, as...