Interviews

10 Questions with Thuglit's Todd Robinson

December 12th, 2012

There are a number of polarizing figures in the crime fiction community: Jon and Ruth Jordan of Crimespree magazine, Steve Weddle of Needle: The Magazine of Noir, and, of course, the one and only Big Daddy Thug, Todd Robinson, founder and editor of Thuglit. During its first five year run, Thuglit produced three print anthologies and helped spark the careers of such writers as Stuart Nevillle, Hilary Davidson, Jordan Harper, and Frank Bill.

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10 Questions with Rhonda Hughes

December 11th, 2012

It’s no secret that Portland, Oregon is having a cultural moment. Whether we’re talking home brew or Portlandia or the thriving literary community in this overgrown Pacific Northwest town, you can’t scan a Twitter feed without stumbling across a reference to the Rose City. Since 2002, one of the brightest spots in Portland’s literary horizon has been Hawthorne Books, helmed by the talent magnet, Rhonda Hughes.

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10 Questions With Matthew McBride

December 4th, 2012

Sometimes a book sells you solely on the title. Frank Sinatra in a Blender is one of those books. I mean, c'mon.  Turns out, the prose hits just as hard as the title. The debut novel from Matthew McBride is about St. Louis-based PI Nick Valentine, a wrecking ball with an inhuman tolerance for alcohol and pills. He's investigating a robbery, and like with any badass pulp story, all kinds of stuff goes wrong. Especially for his Yorkshire terrier, Frank Sinatra. 

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10 Questions With Chris F. Holm

November 8th, 2012

By Chris F. Holm's definition, his novels Dead Harvest and The Wrong Goodbye "recast the battle between heaven and hell as Golden Era crime pulp." That's a pretty good way to put it. The books are as hard to define as they are impossible to put down. 

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10 Questions with Sean Beaudoin

November 5th, 2012

Author Sean Beaudoin has thrown a brick through virtually every window in the hallowed and stuffy House of Writing. Although best-known for his string of popular YA novels, Beaudoin has contributed features to scores of magazines, danced the "Lit Journal Shuffle," crop-dusted acres of writing and culture sites, and way, way back in the day, launched his own fanzine, penning defiant late night manifestos to a readership so far out on the fringe that zip-locked baggies full of toenail clippings routinely landed in his mailbox. From more than one person.

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The Fifty Year Sword: An Interview With Mark Z. Danielewski

October 16th, 2012

Midnight approaches on Halloween. Five orphans and an East Texas seamstress at a birthday party sit, captivated by a Story Teller’s tale, and the long, mysterious black box he's set before them. But they're also being held captive by the malicious fate the Story Teller foretells: The Fifty Year Sword.

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10 Questions With Channel SK1N Author Jeff Noon

October 11th, 2012

Just a few weeks ago, we brought you the belated news that science fiction author Jeff Noon had written his first new novel in a decade. This was almost a year after I had asked the question, What The Hell Ever Happened To... Jeff Noon?, and got the then hoped-for answer: Working on a new book.

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10 Questions With Michael Lowenthal

October 3rd, 2012

Michael Lowenthal’s fourth novel, The Paternity Test, has just been published by Terrace Books/University of Wisconsin Press. It's the story of two men trying to hold their fraying relationship together by moving to Cape Cod and having a baby with a surrogate mother, and their odd friendship with her, her husband, and the married couple's young daughter.

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Politics of the Past: Irvine Welsh Revisits the 80's with Skagboys

September 18th, 2012

In 1993 Irvine Welsh introduced us to a group of young Scots in media addictus with his debut novel, Trainspotting. Three years later, their story was adapted into a film that boosted international awareness of the actors, director, and author alike. There were complaints about the lack of subtitles and the thickness of the accents, but that didn't stop everyone and their mother from trying one on for size, sounding like so many poorly imitated Sean Connerys and Scrooge McDucks.

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Resurfacing: An Interview with Lidia Yuknavitch on Writing, Teaching, and Bringing Dark Secrets to Light

July 25th, 2012

Reading The Chronology of Water, I was struck by the human depth of it and how brave you seemed on the page. The narrative voice takes on traumatic personal experiences without flinching, but equally without narcissism or wallowing, and is counterbalanced with wicked moments of humor. Could you tell me what it took to bring the most difficult moments to the page and whether you'd do it all again?

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