by nancy on May 15, 2013
We are back with novelist/essayist/short fiction and nonfiction writer Antoine Wilson. (If you missed part one, read it here.) In part two, Antoine talks about the inspiration for his novels and the writing process. (For more information about Antoine Wilson, visit his website at http://antoinewilson.com or follow him on Twitter at @antoinewilson.)
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by nancy on May 1, 2013
Writer Antoine Leonide Thomas Wilson certainly gets around. Born in Montreal, he grew up in southern California, with, as he puts it, “spells in Central California and Saudi Arabia.” From UCLA, he went to the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and has since taught creative writing at Iowa, Wisconsin, CSU Long Beach, UC San Diego, and UCLA Extension.
But it’s his writing that perhaps spans the broadest range. Antoine is the author of The Interloper (Handsel Books / Other Press) and Panorama City (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), short fiction, essays and nonfiction pieces, and some very visual “side projects” including The Slow Paparazzo and Shopping Carts of Panorama City, among others. (For more information about Antoine Wilson, visit his website at http://antoinewilson.com or follow him on Twitter at @antoinewilson.)
In part one of this interview, Antoine shares some information about his work, his process and his thoughts on writing. Stop back on May 15 for part two! [click to continue…]
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by nancy on February 15, 2013
We are back with Caitlin Kelly, whose credits include essays, articles and two books: Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail and Blown Away: American Women and Guns. (For more about Caitlin, visit her websites at Caitlin Kelly.com, Blown Away by the Book, and Malled, and her Broadside blog.
In part two, Caitlin talks about her experiences writing and marketing her books, and how she lives her writing life!
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by nancy on February 2, 2013
I “met” Caitlin Kelly through the organization we both belong to, the American Society of Journalists and Authors. And I was struck by her commitment to writing — both as a profession and an art form — and impressed by her extensive and diverse background. From investigative pieces, personal essays and informational articles, to her recent book, Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail (2011), Caitlin has traveled far and wide (metaphorically speaking) in her goal to bring information and insights to her readers.
So of course I wanted to know how she does it — and how she handles all the challenges that come with this career choice. And here, in this two-part interview, Caitlin shares her experience and knowledge. (For more about Caitlin, visit her websites at Caitlin Kelly.com, Blown Away by the Book, and Malled, and her Broadside blog. [click to continue…]
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by nancy on January 15, 2013
Novelist, short story writer, memoirist — and editor. One could be forgiven for wondering if Dawn Raffel ever eats, sleeps or even has a life! But she does, and that life has given this New Yorker much inspiration for her writing, and resulted in reviews such as “The stories in Dawn Raffel’s astonishing Further Adventures in the Restless Universe (Dzanc) as as sharp and bright as stars” (Elissa Schappell, VANITY FAIR), “[Raffell's] prose is intense enough to make even everyday topics seem fire-hot.” (TIME OUT NEW YORK) and “Her gift for capturing the nugget of a relationship in a single backward glance works beautifully in this illustrated memoir.” (The Chicago Tribune). (For more information, visit her website and Facebook page and follow her on Twitter at @Dawnraffell.)
In part 2 of this two-part interview, she shares insights into her writing process, the writing biz and how she defines success. [click to continue…]
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by nancy on January 1, 2013
“I was an editor before I was a writer,” wrote Dawn Raffell, adding “I had some idea that writers were magical people with special gifts.”
And while she said that she later realized it took both labor and talent to be a writer, there is no denying that Raffell does indeed have a special gift for not only bringing out the best in those she edits but also in herself as a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. Her illustrated memoir, The Secret Life of Objects, was on Oprah’s Summer Reading List for 2012, and she is also the author for two story collections— Further Adventures in the Restless Universe and In the Year of Long Division (soon to be reissued)—and a novel, Carrying the Body.
As for her short stories, they have appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, BOMB, Conjunctions, Black Book, Fence, Open City, The Mississippi Review Prize Anthology, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, Arts & Letters, The Quarterly, NOON, and numerous other periodicals and anthologies.
On the editorial side of the desk, Raffell served as a fiction editor for many years, followed by a seven-year stint as Executive Articles Editor at O, The Oprah Magazine and three years as Editor-at-Large at More magazine. She has also taught in the MFA program at Columbia University and at the Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia; Montreal; and Vilnius, Lithuania. Raffell is now Editor at Large, Books at Readers Digest, and the editor of The Literarian, the magazine for the Center for Fiction in New York.
Raffell lives outside New York City with her husband and sons. (For more information, visit her website and Facebook page and follow her on Twitter at @Dawnraffell.) The following is part one of a two-part interview. (Stop back on January 15th for the second half!)
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by nancy on September 1, 2012
Fiction, non-fiction, magazine articles and essays — like most writers, Ohioan Sandra Gurvis does a lot of a lot of things. And she does them quite well, considering that her resume lists fourteen books and hundreds of magazine articles to her credit. Her books have been featured on “Good Morning America,” “CBS Up to the Minute,” “ABC World News Tonight,” in USA Today and in other newspapers, and on television and radio stations across the country; and have been excerpted in magazines. Her newest titles are Ohio Curiosities 2nd ed. ; Paris Hilton: A Biography; and Day Trips from Columbus,3rd ed. and a second novel Country Club Wives.
A major aspect of her work has been on the Vietnam protests and their aftereffects and particularly relevant to today’s political situation is her recent nonfiction title, Where Have All The Flower Children Gone? , a five-year-long project that covers all facets of the Vietnam era, from tracking the student protest and conservative movements to comparing the controversy surrounding Vietnam to the Middle East. Her novel, The Pipe Dreamers is a fictional exploration of the late ’60s/early 70s, mostly set in the small college town of Hampton, Ohio.
Gurvis, a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), has done a lot and knows a lot and in this interview, she shares her knowledge and experience with the rest of us! (For more information about her, visit her website.)
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by nancy on May 1, 2012
Nature, art and writing — Julie Zickefoose has successfully found a way to combine her three passions into one, and, in the process, provided the rest of us with a birds-eye view of the natural world.
Zickefoose started illustrating and then writing for Bird Watcher’s Digest in 1986, building an audience of bird enthusiasts via this worldwide magazine. She contributed natural history and mild social commentary to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered from 2006-2010, a pretty good run as commentator runs go.
Her first illustrated book of essays, Letters from Eden, was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2006, and was followed by a book twice its size and span, The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), featuring 320 color paintings and life sketches. The Bluebird Effect was chosen by Oprah’s Book Club as its Book of the Week in April 2012. (For more information about Zickefoose, visit her website )
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