Author Interviews by Sarah Anne Johnson
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Conversations with American Women Writers

Interviews on the craft of writing and the writing life with some of the foremost contemporary American women fiction writers.

Sena Jeter Naslund describes the origins of Ahab’s Wife in "a vision and a voice." Ann Patchett mourns the ways in which the reality of a novel may fail to live up to her conception of it. Andrea Barrett, a winner of the National Book Award and the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, nevertheless characterizes herself as "a very clumsy writer" in her early drafts.

The seventeen women interviewed by Sarah Anne Johnson are some of the most popular and accomplished writers at work today—award winners, critically acclaimed, popular with book clubs. Steeped in a thorough knowledge of each writer’s work, Johnson’s questions range from technical issues of craft to the nurturing of fictional ideas to the daily practice of writing. The authors offer insights into their own works that will delight their fans and also provide practical advice that will be cherished by aspiring writers. From Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s reflections on her experience of immigration to Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s insights on the question of a character’s voice, these interviews combine the personal with the professional experience of the writing life.

Andrea Barrett
Aimee Bender
Amy Bloom
Elizabeth Cox
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Maria Flook
Lynn Freed
Gish Jen
Nora Okja Keller
Elizabeth McCracken
Jill McCorkle
Sue Miller
Sena Jeter Naslund
Ann Patchett
Jayne Anne Phillips
A.J. Verdelle
Lois-Ann Yamanaka

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About the Author
Sarah Anne Johnson is a fiction writer who learned that the best way to improve her own work and deepen her craft was to learn from established authors. By intereviewing some of today's most critically-acclaimed and award-winning authors, Sarah has been able to present these two collections of interviews and a step-by-step guide to conducting in-dpeth literary interviews with authors. Read more...

Book Group Resources

Many book groups have found that reading a book alongside an interview with the author of that book offers increased insight and a deeper converesation about the selected book.

Additionally, the interview collections provide book groups with new ideas for books to read and also introduce them to new authors in a way that is meaningful.

For more information on how to incorporate author interviews into your book discussion group, visit the Resources page.