Interviews

An Interview with Richard North Patterson.

William H. Coles

Richard North PattersonRichard North Patterson graduated college from Ohio Wesleyan University and law school from Case Western Reserve. He studied fiction with Jesse Hill Ford at the University of Alabama Birmingham. He’s been awarded the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. Sixteen of his novels have been New York Times bestsellers. He was Assistant Attorney General for the State of Ohio, a trial attorney for the Securities & Exchange Commission and was the SEC’s liaison to the Watergate Special Prosecutor. He retired from the law profession in 1993 and turned to writing fiction fulltime. Degree of Guilt, Eyes of a Child, Exile, The Spire are among the twenty plus novels he’s written.

 


An Interview with Peter Ho Davies.

William H. Coles

Peter Ho DaviesPeter Ho Davies is a contemporary British writer of Welsh and Chinese descent, born and raised in Coventry, who was a physicist before studying English at Cambridge University. He moved to the US in 1992. He is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. He has taught at the University of Oregon, and at Emory University, and has been director of the MFA Program at the University of Michigan where he now teaches creative writing. He is the author of The Welsh Girl (2007), The Ugliest House in The World (1997), and Equal Love (2000).

 


 

An Interview with Tom Jenks.

William H. Coles

Tom JenksTom Jenks is the coeditor and founder of Narrative Magazine, the first and foremost digital publisher of quality literature online. He is the editor, with Raymond Carver, of American Short Story Masterpieces, as well as a former fiction editor of Esquire, literary editor of Gentleman’s Quarterly, an advisory editor of The Paris Review, and a senior editor at Scribner’s, where he edited Hemingway’s posthumously published novel The Garden of Eden. Jenks’s stories and articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, the Los Angeles Times, Ploughshares, Story, and elsewhere.

 


An Interview with Lan Samantha Chang.

William H. Coles

Lan Samantha ChangLan Samantha Chang is an American novelist and short story writer who has studied and taught creative writing at Stanford, Harvard, Warren Wilson, and Iowa, where she is now the Director of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the PEN Open Book Award for Inheritance in 2005. Her most recent acclaimed novel is All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost.

 


An Interview with Kirby Wilkins.

William H. Coles

Kirby WilkinsKirby Wilkins was Division Chair at Cabrillo College for thirty-one years where he taught creative writing. He studied with Wallace Stegner in the Stanford Creative Writing Program. He taught at the Foothill Writers’ Conference (1991-2001) and at the Surprise Valley Writers’ Conference. His novels are King Season, set in Alaska, and Quantum Web. His book of short stories Vanishing was published by Blackwells Press.

 


An Interview with Josh Neufeld / Sari Wilson.

William H. Coles

Sari Wilson

Sari Wilson is an author and editor. She attended Oberlin College and was a Patricia Rowe Willrich fellow in Stanford’s Wallace Stegner Creative Writing Program. Her fiction has appeared in Slice, Agni, Third Coast, Shankpainter, and others.Her book State of Emergency chronicles an artist’s and a writer’s experiences in the wake of hurricane Katrina. She is married to cartoonist Josh Neufeld. Together they are editing an anthology of flash fiction in prose and comics to be published by Pressgang in 2013.

 

John NeufeldJosh Neufeld is an alternative cartoonist and author of the widely acclaimed AD: New Orleans after the Deluge and illustrator of The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media. He was a longtime artist for Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and recipient of the Knight-Wallace Fellowship 2012-2013 at the University of Michigan. He is married to Sari Wilson.

 

 


An Interview with Jonathan Dee.

William H. Coles

Jonathan DeeJonathan Dee is a professor and novelist and teaches at Columbia University, the New School, and Queens College, in Charlotte, NC. He was associate editor of The Paris Review and personal assistant to George Plimpton. His most recent novel, The Privileges (2010), won the 2011 Prix Fitzgerald prize and was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

 


An Interview with Fred Leebron.

William H. Coles

Fred Leebron Fred Leebron is a professor at Gettysburg College where he teaches fiction. He is the director of the Pan-European MFA program at Cedar Crest College (PA), the director of the MFA program a Queens College in Charlotte, NC, and the director of the summer program at Hollins College at Tinker Mountain, Virginia. His novel, Six Figures was optioned and directed by filmmaker, Chris Christensen, and proposed for an Oscar for best adaptation.


An Interview with Steve Almond.

William H. Coles

Steve AlmondSteve Almond was adjunct Professor at Boston College and teaches at Grubb Street, Sanibel Island, Writers@ Work, and Tin House. His most recent collection of short stories is God Bless America (2011)and his latest novel is Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life (2010). He reviews books for The Boston Globe and The Los Angeles Times.

 


An Interview with Lee K. Abbott.

William H. Coles

Lee Abbott Lee Abbott is Humanities Distinguished Professor in English and teaches Creative Writing at The Ohio State University. His work has appeared in Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, The Georgia Review, The New York Times Book Review, The Southern Review, Epoch, Boulevard, Crawdaddy, and The North American Review. His fiction has been reprinted in The Best American Short Stories and >The Prize Stories: The O’Henry Awards. He is the author of Dreams of Distant Lives, Strangers in Paradise, Love is the Crooked Thing, The Heart Never Fits Its Wanting, Living After Midnight, and Wet Places at Noon. His latest collection of stories, All Things, All at Once: New & Selected Stories, was published by Norton in June 2006.


An Interview with Robert Olen Butler.

William H. Coles

Robert Olen ButlerRobert Olen Butler won the Pulitzer Prize for his collection of short stories, Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, and his most recent novel is Hell in Hardcover and Paperback. His new novel, A Small Hotel, will be available in August, 2011.

 


An Interview with Ron Carlson.

William H. Coles

Ron CarlsonRon Carlson is Director of Creative Writing at the University of California, Irvine. He received a Masters degree in English from the University of Utah. He has published widely both novels, his most recent The Signal (2009), and short stories. He wrote Ron Carlson Writes A Story, a nonfiction book for writers. His stories have appeared in many anthologies, including The O’Henry Prize Series and The Pushcart Prize Anthology. He is a popular lecturer and teaches in workshops throughout the country.


An Interview with John Biguenet.

William H. Coles

John BiguenetAn O. Henry Award winner, John is the Robert Hunter Distinguished University Professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, where he teaches creative writing. Among his six books are an acclaimed volume of short stories, The Torturer’s Apprentice, and a novel set in Louisiana, Oyster. He also is an award-winning playwright and served as a guest columnist for the New York Times after the collapse of levees in New Orleans in 2005.

 


An Interview with Jim Shepard.

William H. Coles

Jim ShepardJim Shepard is the J. Leland Miller Professor of English at Williams College, in Williamstown, MA. He previously taught at the University of Michigan. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Award, 2004. He attended Trinty College and did postgraduate at Brown University. He is the author of six novels, the most recent, Project X. He has published three collections of short stories including Love and Hydrogen and young-adult novels, including Flights and Lights Out in the Reptile House. He teaches creative writing at many workshops each year.


An Interview with Lee Martin.

William H. Coles

Lee Martin

LEE MARTIN is the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Bright Forever. He was born in Illinois, and received his MFA from the University of Arkansas. He has published widely acclaimed stories, novels, and memoirs (From Our House is recommended). He has won numerous awards including the Mary McCarthy Prize, the Nancy Dasher Award, the Glenna Luschei Prize for Literary Distinction, the Lawrence Foundation Award, and fellowships from the NEA and the Ohio Arts Council. Currently he is Professor at Ohio State University where he is Director of Creative Writing. He lives in Columbus, Ohio.


An Interview with David Lynn.

William H. Coles

David Lynn

David Lynn is editor of The Kenyon Review, a distinguished journal of literature, culture, and the arts. He received his B. A. from Kenyon College where he now teaches, and his MA and PhD at the University of Virginia where he studied with Peter Taylor. In addition to numerous scholarly articles, he wrote the novel, [Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2002], and a book of fourteen stories, Fortune Telling [1998]. He is on the Board of Directors of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. In 1995-96 he was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in India. He lives with his wife and two children in Gambier, Ohio.


An Interview with Michael Malone.

William H. Coles

Michael Malone

Michael Malone is a Native of North Carolina and lives in Hillsborough, NC.
He is a highly successful author of mystery and comedic novels, many set in North Carolina
(First Lady, Uncivil Seasons, Time’s Witness). His novel
The Killing Club rose to #11 on the New York Times bestseller list.
His mystery story “Red Clay” received the Edgar Award for Best Short Story in 1997.
He is the acclaimed, award-winning head writer of television drama,
One Life to Live (1991-96, 2006-07) and Another World (2003-04).
He is Visiting Professor at Duke University where he teaches American film studies.


An Interview with Michael Ray.

William H. Coles

Michael Ray

Michael Ray was born in Washington, D.C. He enjoys sports and played lacrosse from the
third grade through college–for the Mater Dei School, Georgetown Preparatory
School, and Vanderbilt–where he graduated in 1996. He is an avid fan of SEC
football. Before Zoetrope, he wrote for many other magazines on music, film,
and books. He started at Zoetrope: All-Story in 2002 where he is now
Editor in Chief. In addition to his editorial duties, he writes scripts for
films. He is married and he and his wife, Anne, have a son.


An Interview with Susan Yeagley / Kevin Nealon.

William H. Coles

Susan Yeagley

Susan Yeagley was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She graduated Cum Laude from USC’s famed film school. She trained at theGroundlings in comedy where she performed stand up. She has worked in film and television in various distinguished roles and has hosted World’s Funniest Commercials in 2006 and 2007. She lives in Los Angeles. She is married to Kevin Nealon.

 

Kevin NealonKevin Nealon was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but grew up inConnecticut. He excels at stand up comedy. He was on Saturday Night Live for nine seasons creating memorable characters—Mr. Subliminal, “Franz” of Hans and
Franz (with Dana Carvey), and Mr. No Depth Perception, the anchor of Weekend
Update, and others. He has starred in films and he has had many appearances on
network television as a guest and in recurrent roles. Recently, he has had a
lead role in the cast of “Weeds,” a Golden Globe nominee in 2009. He is
married to Susan Yeagley.


 

An Interview with Rebecca McClanahan.

William H. Coles

Rebecca McClanahanRebecca McClanahan lives in New York on the upper West side on Manhattan. She is a successful author in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. She won the Glasgow Prize in nonfiction for The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings. Recently her book Deep Light: New and Selected Poems has received wide acclaim. Among numerous other publications, she has written two books on writing: Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively and Write Your Heart Out. She teaches frequently in workshops (Kenyon Review, Gettysburg Review, Hudson Valley Writers Center, to name only a few) and two MFA programs (Queens University, Charlotte, NC and MFA@Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA). She has been honored extensively with national prizes and awards.


An Interview with Charles D’Ambrosio.

William H. Coles

Charles D’Ambrosio grew up in Seattle, Washington, and now lives in Portland, Oregon. He attended Oberlin College and the Iowa Writers Workshop. He has published two collections of short stories, The Point (1995), The Dead Fish Museum (2006), and a collection of essays Orphans (2005). His writings have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Zoetrope All-Story, and A Public Space. He received the Whiting Writers’ Award and is a Rasmuson Fellow.


An Interview with Rob Spillman.

William H. Coles

Rob SpillmanRob Spillman is Editor of Tin House Magazine—a literary magazine that has been honored in Best American Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, O. Henry Prize Stories, the Pushcart Prize Anthology and numerous other anthologies–and he is also the Executive Editor of Tin House Books. His writing has appeared in BookForum, the Boston Review, Connoisseur, Details, GQ, Nerve, the New York Times Book Review, Real Simple, Rolling Stone, Salon, Spin, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Worth, among other magazines, newspapers, essay collections, and online journals. He has worked for Random House, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker.

 



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