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 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 November 15, 2012
We’re back with New York City novelist (just to name one of his successful professions!) Morrow Wilson, whose latest novel David Sunshine is “delightful and full of truth,” according to Eliot Fremont-Smith (book critic of The Village Voice, The New York Times and, before that, Editor-in-Chief of Little-Brown). (For more information about Wilson, visit his Facebook page.)
In Part 2 of our One-on-One, Wilson talks about his latest work and the business side of the publishing business, along with his thoughts on writing. [click to continue…]
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by nancy on November 2, 2012
Morrow Wilson started his writing career comparatively early: he received his first rejection slip at age 14 and his first payment for his writing at 17. Since then, he’s held a variety of roles related to creative professions, from novelist and short story writer, playwright, columnist, and reviewer to award-winning New York actor, singer, producer, broadcasting, publishing and advertising executive. And, he adds (only slightly tongue-in-cheek), “the survival jobs associated with being a Renaissance Man centuries after the Renaissance.”
A graduate of New York’s Columbia College, where he studied English and American literature with, among others, Mark Van Doren and Lionel Trilling, he’s a Lifetime Member of The Actors’ Fund of America, this country’s oldest theatrical charity and a Board Member of The Players, this country’s oldest theatrical and literary social club.
Wilson currently makes his home in New York City, sharing space with two cats, both named after Shakespearean heroines: (Kate, the husky defiant one; Juliet, the slender loving one). David Sunshine is his second published novel. (For more information about Wilson, visit his Facebook page.)
In this two-part interview, he shares his thoughts, observations, experiences and philosophies on living the writing life. [click to continue…]
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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 June 1, 2012
Kathie Truitt may have been living in the Washington, D.C. area for the past 11 years, but she has never cut the ties that connect her to her hometown of El Dorado Springs, Missouri. And with her latest novel, The Hillbilly Debutante Café (Tate Publishing and Enterprises, LLC), she has strengthened that connection since she set the book in the same small Ozark town where she grew up and first put a pen to paper.
Her first book, False Victim, was inspired by a stalking experience she and her family suffered after they moved to Washington, and further illustrates the relationship between her life and her writing. (For more information, visit her website at Hillbilly Debutante.) [click to continue…]
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