Comments on: Writers in conversation

By: Fiona

Fiona — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:58:08 +0000

Although getting to know an author beyond what they reveal of themselves in their ‘professional’ writing, can sometimes ruin a reading experience. After reading extracts from Leonard Woolf’s correspondence about Virginia’s abuse of him, I struggle to read her work now. On the other hand, reading that Henri Nouwen’s friends and relatives found him an extremely difficult person to be with allowed me to read his work in a new light. I now saw the tortured soul in all its colour.

By: Malcolm Campbell

Malcolm Campbell — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:35:29 +0000

You’ll also find many flavors of author conversations in author sites that come with forums as well as in the comments left on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Diana Gabaldon, for example, has been a long-time regular on CompuServe’s books and writer forum. Very generous with her time when new writers are looking for advice, the tone of her posts also brings to life the author behind the books in the Outlander series.

Malcolm

By: Fiona

Fiona — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:07:29 +0000

Thanks for the link Jim, I’ll check it out.

By: Jim Murdoch

Jim Murdoch — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:04:01 +0000

I think that’s where blogs can be very informative and I’m sure I’ve revealed more about myself on my blog that I ever intended especially in the comments where people draw me out a bit. I try to be quite reserved normally.

As you like interviews you might want to check out ‘The Paris Review’ interviews. There’s a rare one with Philip Larkin that I’ve referred to often. Here’s the link:

http://www.theparisreview.com/literature.php

By: writinggb

writinggb — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:11:29 +0000

Author interviews are great — I especially love having my writing students read them. Makes writers more real to them and helps them to think that perhaps they, too, could be a published writer one day!