Announcing...
Once again, Sarah Anne Johnson offers insightful interviews with some of today's most popular and accomplished writers. Steeped in a thorough knowledge of each writer's work, Johnson asks about a range of topics on the writing craft, nurturing fictional ideas, and the daily practice of writing. The authors offer insights and practical advice that will delight their fans and be cherished by aspiring writers. Michael Cunningham recalls how the structure of The Hours evolved as he wrote it. Edwidge Danticat honors the Haitian storytelling tradition she encountered in her childhood. And Jonathan Lethem reflects on working from inside and outside the literary establishment.
Other writers interviewed include Rick Moody; Donna Tartt; Myla Goldberg; Mary Gaitskill; Ha Jin; Bret Anthony Johnston; Edward P. Jones; Chang-rae Lee; Alice Mattison; Nancy Rawles; Marilynne Robinson; le thi diem thuy; and Mary Yukari Waters.
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Author Interviews More Popular Than Ever
Readers Enjoy Author Interviews
People are more interested than ever in hearing from the writers of the books they love. In the same way that it's not enough just to see a movie--we want to read about how it was made, and watch the DVD features, and read about the actors in People, or better yet, hear them interviewed on In the Actor's Studio--it's no longer enough to read the book. We want to talk about it. We want to hear the author talk about it, as if through asking and probing we might finally discover the secret source of the writer's magic, the elements of creation that bore a fictive world so authentically into our  imaginations. We want to understand the person who created the characters we've come to love or hate or, more importantly, understand. We know them, and we hope through conversation to be reintroduced to them in the living flesh. (From the introduction to The Art of the Author Interview)
History of the Author Interview - George Plimpton & The Paris Review
In 1953 George Plimpton and The Paris Review had the revolutionary idea that in lieu of publishing literary criticism, they would go to the authors themselves and ask about their working methods. Using the interview form, Plimpton hoped to elucidate the inner workings of the writer's mind. Rather than seeking to criticize, he sought to understand, and through his efforts, he broadened the international dialogue about writing and brought this conversation from the private studios of the world's most famous authors into the public domain.
The first author interviewed was E.M. Forster, the greatest living author at that time. Forster hadn't published a novel since 1924, and this interview raised an incredible stir because in it, Forster discussed the problems that made it so difficult for him to write fiction. This first interview conducted by P.N. Furbank and F.J.H. Haskel, furnished the format for the famous Paris Review interviews that would follow. These interviews are still carried out today, over half a century later. (See www.parisreview.com.)
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