Interviews

Choosing The Best Senses With Kris Saknussemm

March 30th, 2012

He's been called a mashing of James Ellroy and David Lynch. As a personality, some are not quite sure who he is. His Wikipedia page posits a theory that he could be a pseudonym of the late David Foster Wallace, or even a composite entity made up of other authors bent on a weird collaboration. He's Kris Saknussemm, and fresh on the heels of touring to promote his latest novel, Reverend America, Kris wants to share his unique perspective on the power of place in bringing fiction to life.

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Dames Don't Get Tougher Than LitReactor's Latest Instructor, Christa Faust

March 9th, 2012

Christa Faust is one of my favorite hardboiled writers working today. Not just because she writes prose that's funny, dark, tough and moves like lightning, but because she really gets the genre. That's why I'm excited we were able to recruit her to teach a class at LitReactor. 

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You Don't Know Michael Hastings

March 7th, 2012

You probably think you know who Michael Hastings is by now.

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Ed Sikov On All You Need To Know About Writing Nonfiction That Sells

February 24th, 2012

On February 27th, biographer, film critic, professor, and memoirist, Ed Sikov, leads a 5 week beginner-friendly non-fiction class, Charming with the Truth: Harness the Tools of Fiction to Craft Compelling Autobiographical Essays. To help you understand what you'll get out of this class, Mark Vanderpool, our Director of Education here at LitReactor, fired off some questions to Ed.

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A Couple of Questions with Joshua Mohr

February 9th, 2012

On February 20th, critically acclaimed author Joshua Mohr leads a 4 week beginner-friendly class, Plotlines: Crafting Powerful Story Progressions That Stay True To Character. To get to know the man behind the desk a little better, Mark Vanderpool, our Director of Education here at LitReactor, fired off a few questions to Joshua.

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An Interview with Josh Bazell

February 7th, 2012

In 2009, Josh Bazell burst onto the literary scene with his debut novel, Beat the Reaper. The story of orphan-turned-hitman-turned-mob informant-turned emergency room physician Dr. Peter “Pietro Brnwa” Brown was universally praised for its muscular prose style, dark humor, and its irreverent treatment of several crime fiction tropes. The novel became a bestseller, and Dr. Bazell has spent the last three years writing his follow up, the equally original and compulsively readable, Wild Thing.

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Every Moment I'm Awake The Further I'm Away: Dream Analysis With Steve Erickson

January 31st, 2012

This marks an anniversary of sorts for me. It was a little over four years ago that I hatched a scheme to score myself an ARC of the latest novel from one of my favorite authors. Said scheme involved pretensions to journalism and pretty much launched my dubious career as an internet writer. The author was American surrealist, Steve Erickson, and the book was a love letter to cinema entitled Zeroville.

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Jim Zubkavich on Skullkickers and Creator-Owned Comics

January 19th, 2012

Looking back on all the comics I've read, the ones that stick with me the longest are always the less mainstream books. I'm still a fan of Batman, The Avengers, X-Men and more, but it's the little guys and creator-owned titles where creativity seems to truly flourish. Writers who don't have to adhere to the history that came before them.

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An Interview with William Gay

December 20th, 2011

Five years ago when I first started sending out my writing, I began to correspond with a small group of writers from the Midwest and Southern regions of the United States who were just starting to dip their toes into publishing as well. Among these novice authors were shared quite a few common influences, such as Cormac McCarthy and Daniel Woodrell, both of whom walked a thin line between genre and contemporary fiction. There were also two novelists who I was completely unfamiliar with that were constantly mentioned as must read authors.

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Growing Up in the Company of Books - The Life of Mark Richard

November 16th, 2011

Anyone who has read The Ice At The Bottom of the World knows what they are getting into when they pick up House of Prayer No. 2 – the latest book by Mark Richard, which happens to be a challenging and engaging memoir written in the second person. That's right, a memoir in the second person. But what else would you expect from the man who has given us such gems as: Long-legged stretches of bone-white light come kicking through the treetops of the tallest shortleaf pines, ripping limbs and splitting crowns. Or: From out of the hangar comes a coo and flutter of pigeon reposition but nothing ever feathered flies. The man can craft a sentence. And anyone who is hailed by both Chuck Palahniuk and Amy Hempel as one of the greatest short story writers ever deserves, at the very least, a read. In my case, a featherless flight. I flew to Los Angeles, where he now resides with his wife and three boys, to talk about the memoir, his past, and why he writes what he writes. I was surprised by what I found. Pleasantly so.

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