William Walsh and Michael Fitzgerald are the authors of Questionstruck and Radiant Days, respectively. They both have a couple of books out, but author Ben Tanzer starts it off right by asking about Johnny Cash. The interview was part of Orange Alert Writer on Writer Series.
The best, from William Walsh:
“Johnny Cash wasn’t the only celeb at the San Q when I was doing my time. Also in residence was John Cheever, researching and writing what would be his second-to-last novel, Falconer. He was a very pleasant man with a fine purple nose. Johnny the Cheeve, we called him. Loved his cats and shared his smokes. I declined two offers for parole, at Cheever’s request, so I could stay on to help copyedit his rangy manuscript.”
Oh man, what a productive prison.
What kind of a blog would this be without any posturing towards the Pulitzer? Elizabeth Strout won for Olive Kitteridge, a novel I know nothing about and not many other people do either apparently with very few scant interviews (or maybe that’s more of a reflection on media’s coverage of books…). But Litagogo posted some audio links and Millions saw the book climbing their ranks back in Feb. Ah, here’s an interview Strout did back in December with Failbetter.com.
Update: Should novels be more like The Wire? From the New York Observer.
The best: Is the point of writing fiction in 2009 to represent, as accurately as possible, the way the world really works?
DeckFight 