Interview Roundup

• My longstanding hostility to Paulo Coelho is a matter of public record, so it’s not going to surprise any of you that I think his latest interview, with the AP’s Angela Doland, strikes me as being just as insipid as the previous ones–and as his books. At least this time around, the story buries the usual sobbing about how the Coelho isn’t as big in America as he is in Europe, focusing instead on how the guy whose latest novel had a combined international print run of 8 million copies tries to live a simple life–while spending four months of the year in France, another four in Brazil, and the rest making publicity appearances around the world as four assistants answer his fan mail.

• Bruce Sterling has a long conversation with a writer from a fan site for J.G. Ballard, “the first science-fiction writer I ever read who really blew my mind.”

• Speaking of long conversations, here’s Robert Birnbaum and Stuart Dybek.

• And the 92nd St. Y continues to post interesting material to its blog—recent items include short interviews with former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who’s going to appear on Oct. 16th with Barbara Ehrenreich, and Ken Follett, who just seems to enjoy talking about thrillers.

• Oh, one more, because it’s sui generis: Alan Moore asks Brian Eno questions.

6 October 2005 | interviews |

Interview Roundup: Now Mark’s Heart Is Full

With the publication of Mark Sarvas’s interview with John Banville, The Elegant Variation has pretty much fulfilled its reason for being, and Mark can now retire from blogging. But I’m glad he won’t.

• Before she got famous on Room 222, Denise Nicholas was a theatrical activist in the civil rights movement, an experience that drives her debut novel, Freshwater Road. She talks about how her long-held dream to write about those years came to fruition after she joined a workshop led by Janet Fitch, and took the bold step of burning her diaries so as to avoid relying on them instead of her imagination.

• A bunch of first-time writers, including yours truly, got together with Dan Wickett of Emerging Writers Network to talk about how we got our deals and what we’ll be doing to convince you to buy our books. Richard Nash of Soft Skull drops by to tell us “it’s all about expectations management.” And you know what? He’s right.
  

13 September 2005 | interviews |