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China at BEA 2015: Decoding the Modern Chinese Spy Novel: Mai Jia
After meeting Mai Jia for the first time in 2002, I wrote this description of him in my diary: “Buzzed hair, glasses. A young writer of few words. He’s not self-aggrandizing, but his unmatched confidence leaves a very strong impression.”
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China at BEA 2015: Making Friends: Liu Zhenyun
Most of the time, Liu Zhenyun plays things cool.
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China at BEA 2015: Coming to America: Liu Cixin
Liu Cixin is the leading writer in China’s small but vibrant science fiction scene.
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An Irish Family Imagined: Anne Enright
In her novel "The Green Road," published this month by Norton, Irish author Anne Enright tells the story of the Madigans, a family from County Clare in western Ireland who scatter to cities and countries far from home.
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A Publishing Story: Jonathan Galassi
Farrar, Straus and Giroux’s comfortably appointed offices on West 18th Street in New York City, into which Jonathan Galassi welcomes me, are much sprucer than the famously seedy quarters where he went to work as executive editor at the house in 1985.
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Presidential History: H.W. Brands
H.W. Brands’s book "Reagan: The Life," to be published in May by Doubleday, is the capstone of a series that took a dramatic turn from the author’s original intention (indeed, "capstone' seems to be the only word for a book weighing in at 800-plus pages).
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In My Own Words: Mexican Drug Wars: Don Winslow
DEA agent Art Keller, introduced in 2005's The Power of the Dog, resumes his personal campaign against illegal drugs in The Cartel.
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Stairway to Heaven: Roland Merullo
“The problem for me,” says Roland Merullo, “is that I’m interested in everything and everybody.”
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Show and Tell: Sally Mann
If you know who Sally Mann is, it’s most likely because you know her stunning, sensual photography.
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Women Rule: Kate Walbert
The first thing I asked Kate Walbert was how she titled her fourth novel, "The Sunken Cathedral".
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East Side, West Side: Vivian Gornick
In "The Odd Woman and the City," to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in May, Vivian Gornick writes of the “shock of pleasure” she gets each evening as she gazes from her 16th-floor apartment in Greenwich Village at “the banks of lighted windows rising to the sky, crowding round me... [I] feel myself embraced.”
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Extraordinary Light: Tracy K. Smith
Tracy K. Smith has had a successful career as a poet: her first two collections, "The Body’s Question" and "Duende" (Graywolf, 2003 and 2007), won major awards, and she began teaching at Princeton following her first book.
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A Life Examined: Kate Mulgrew
After four successful decades as an actress, including a costarring role in the current hit TV series "Orange Is the New Black," Kate Mulgrew is about to release her first book,"Born with Teeth: A Memoir" (Little, Brown, April), with uncharacteristic fear.
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In My Own Words: Up in the Rose Hotel: Rahimeh Andalibian
Andalibian is a psychologist/therapist who helps trauma victims and families. Her memoir, "The Rose Hotel," recounts her childhood in a wealthy Iranian family, and the suffering that they endured as a result of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
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The Serious Stuff: Thomas McGuane
Thomas McGuane is the greatest writer of American loneliness we have.
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An American in Venice: Donna Leon
Donna Leon’s novels featuring the thoughtful and erudite Det. Guido Brunetti, of the Venetian police, have topped international bestseller lists and won international awards (including the CWA Silver Dagger).
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A Northern Light in the Literary World: Per Petterson
Interviewing the Norwegian author Per Petterson is like stepping inside one of his books: the conversation swings between the present and the past, his own experiences and those of loved ones.
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Non Stop Adventure: Clive Cussler
At 83, novelist Clive Cussler still scuba dives, in the spirit of his younger and best-known fictional character, marine adventurer Dirk Pitt. So asking Cussler about retiring from writing makes him laugh.
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Intrigue in Postwar Berlin: Joseph Kanon
After seven postwar European thrillers, Edgar Award–winning author Joseph Kanon, whose latest novel is "Leaving Berlin" (Atria, Mar. 3), has firmly established himself as an heir to Graham Greene.
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Writing for Risk Takers: Andrew Smith
For most of his first five decades, Andrew Smith resisted being a published author.
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