Donald Westlake (a.k.a. Richard Stark) has been writing fiction for close to half a century now, and his achievements have garnered many accolades. Significantly, his admirers include many writers among their ranks. John Banville has called him “one of the great writers of the twentieth century” while for James Sallis he is simply “a great American writer”. The Mystery Writers of America honoured Donald Westlake with a Grand Master Award in 1993.
Tag: Interview
Interview with Tracy Repchuk
The author of The Poetry of Business talks about her book, the power of poetry, the corporate crisis of meaning, her intended audience, Poetry Canada, and lots more.
Interview with Markus Zusak
The author of The Book Thief talks about some major themes in his book, genre distinctions, the importance of darkness, on being a literary superstar in America, Death the character, his mise en abyme, The Standover Man, his next project and lots more.
Interview with Emily Raboteau
The author of The Professor’s Daughter talks about her first novel and its main character, the value of her MFA, the musical and literary sources of her inspiration, her uses of layers of direct and indirect storytelling, what she learned from writing The Professor’s Daughter, her next book, and lots more.
Interview with Anthea Paul, author of Girlosophy
The creator of Girlosophy talks about how the concept came about, why she didn’t self-publish, why the understanding of food is critical to all of the Girlsophy books, why the media has gone so astray in their messages, how she comes up with her topics, future projects, and lots more.
Interview with Chris Stella of Void Magazine
Void Magazine’s Executive Editor talks about his involvement in Void, his exciting ambitions for the Magazine (“I want to see our writers with contracts”), why poetry doesn’t sell as well as it should, the ongoing role of magazines like Void, his own literary project, why he wishes everyone would put down Foer for a month and read Don Quixote, what he loves best about Void Magazine, and much more.
Interview with Martha Southgate
Martha Southgate is a very aware and gifted writer with a background in writing that includes journalism as well as novels. With an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College she has herself been a teacher. Her novel The Fall of Rome won the American Library Association’s Alex Award.
Interview with Delia Falconer
In this pithy and candid interview, the author of The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers talks about the pressures that go along with a dramatically successful debut, the gestation time involved in writing literary fiction, the despair within the publishing industry, her main character, Captain Frederick Benteen, about using real history as the subject of fiction, her writing style, the way in which The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers is also an Australian story, the importance of being ribald, and lots more.
Interview with Andrea Mayes
The author of The Rose Notestalks about the genesis of her first novel, the character she struggled most with, her unusual narrative voice, on being labelled “rural gothic,” the “luck factor” in fiction publishing, the future of fiction, the way in which a published novel has changed her, her key themes, and lots more.
Interview with Kirby Gann
The author of Our Napoleon in Rags talks about Montreux, his imaginary city, his well adjusted past, his own publishing company Sarabande Books, the reason why he didn’t publish his own book, the positives and negatives of teaching, his influences and favorites, why he complains a lot, and lots more.