Interview: Clifford Barnes
QUESTION: What was the spark that made you begin writing in prison? When did it occur?CLIFFORD BARNES:I didn’t begin writing in prison. I wrote as a youngster, not just… More
Interview: Zachary Redfearne
QUESTION: What was the spark that made you begin writing in prison? When did it occur?ZACHARY REDFEARNE: A writing workshop by Naropa University was a big motivational booster.Q: Can… More
The Messiness of Now: A Conversation
Amitava Kumar: There was a man in the nineteenth century who anticipated everything that Ilija was going to do and write, and lived his life accordingly: Richard Francis Burton.… More
Etgar Keret & George Saunders
I was amazed by your stories, by the quality and quantity of imagination, and the unbelievable overflow of ideas. So I wanted to ask a question that’s probably unfair.… More
Inventing the Past: A Conversation
Suddenly, one day, I felt a certain pleasure, and this pleasure was greater than the sorrow of the therapeutic writing that I was doing. Suddenly I recovered my sense… More
Sidney Offit: Memories of Norman Mailer
My memories of Norman Mailer drift back more than forty years to an evening we shared at one of the PEN cocktail parties. Held at the Pierre Hotel, these… More
Interview with Patricia Prewitt
QUESTION: What was the spark that made you begin writing in prison? When did it occur? PATRICIA PREWITT: When I was sent to prison in April of 1986, my five… More
Tribute to Norman Mailer
Unlike other literary figures, Mailer was not prone to elite sensibilities in his private or public life. He was not a pragmatist nor an opportunist, nor was he politically… More
Tribute to Norman Mailer
There was the true Norman and the public Norman. I really only knew the true Norman—thank God—because there was a huge difference between the two. More
Tribute to Norman Mailer
I scarcely knew him as a man, but I knew the work made by the man. Reading him when I was twelve—memorizing the obscene lyrics in The Naked and… More