Books in the Literary Conversations Series series

Across two decades of intense creativity, David Foster Wallace (1962-2008) crafted a remarkable body of work that ranged from unclassifiable essays, to a book about transfinite mathematics, to vertiginous fictions. Conversations with David Foster Wallace gathers twenty-two interviews and profiles that trace the arc of Wallace's career, shedding light on his omnivorous talent.

Across fiction, journalism, ethnography, and history, William T. Vollmann's oeuvre is ambitious as it is dazzling. Conversations with William T. Vollmann collects twenty-nine interviews, from early press coverage in Britain where his career first took flight, to in-depth visits to his writing and art studio in Sacramento, California.

Often called a ""writer-rock star"" and a ""cult icon"", Dorothy Allison is a true performer of the written word. In the absence of a biography of Allison's life, Conversations with Dorothy Allison presents Allison's perspectives on her life, literature, and her conflicted role as a public figure.

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was one of the most famous American poets of the twentieth century. Yet, his career is distinguished by not only his strong contributions to literature but also social justice. Conversations with Allen Ginsberg collects interviews from 1962 to 1997 that chart Ginsberg's intellectual, spiritual, and political evolution.

Features seventeen interviews with Joan Didion, spanning decades, continents, and genres. Didion reflects on her childhood in Sacramento; her time at Berkeley, in New York, and in Hollywood; her marriage to John Gregory Dunne; and of course her writing.

Collects interviews from 1961 to 2015 and charts Gary Snyder's developing environmental philosophy and his wide-ranging interests in ecology, Buddhism, Native American studies, history, and mythology. Containing interviews spanning more than fifty years, the reader witnesses how Snyder has evolved and grown as both poet and philosopher.

Ranging from 2001 to 2016, the twenty-three interviews collected in Conversations with Colson Whitehead reveal the workings of one of America's most idiosyncratic and most successful literary minds.

Ranging from 2001 to 2016, the twenty-three interviews collected in Conversations with Colson Whitehead reveal the workings of one of America's most idiosyncratic and most successful literary minds.

Presents the first collection of interviews with the renowned contemporary American author Gish Jen. Spanning more than two decades, beginning in 1991 and ending with a new, unpublished interview from 2017, these interviews provide readers a sense of Jen's development as a novelist and cultural critic.

Presents interviews that span the length of Neil Gaimain's career, from his first formal interview by the BBC at the age of seven to a new, unpublished interview held in 2017. They cover topics as wide and varied as a young Gaiman's thoughts on managing anger, learning the comics trade from Alan Moore, and being on the clock virtually 24/7.

Sheds light on Edwidge Danticat and her ability to depict issues in sparkling prose that delves deep into the borderlands, an uncharted in-between space located outside fixed geographic, cultural, and ideological bounds. Prevalent throughout many interviews here is Danticat's expressed determination to reveal Haitian immigrant experience, and make that nuanced culture accessible to a wide audience.

Reveals an artist and activist whose work deftly negotiates boundaries of feminism, nationalism, and film. The intimacy of these collaborations or conversations between Bambara (1939-1995) and her interviewers provides an excellent and necessary resource for those interested in scholarly approaches to her fiction.

Presents the first collection of interviews with the renowned poet of Home/Bass and other much-admired works. Spanning thirty years and drawn from literary and scholarly journals and other media, these interviews offer insights into his poetic innovation of blues and jazz and his mastery of black vernacular in poetry.

"He again tops the crowd - he surpasses himself, the old iron brought to the white heat of simplicity." So said Robert Lowell of the poetry of Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006). The interviews contained in this volume touch on aesthetic motifs in his poetry, the roots of his work, his friendships, his interactions with Lowell and Theodore Roethke, and his comments on a host of poets.

Since the publication of Serena in 2008 earned him a nomination for the PEN/Faulkner fiction prize, Ron Rash (b. 1953) has gained attention as one of the South's finest writers. Conversations with Ron Rash collects twenty-two interviews with the award-winning author and provides a look into Rash's writing career from 1994 to 2015.

Since the publication of his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, launched him to fame, Michael Chabon (b. 1963) has become one of contemporary literature's most acclaimed novelists. Conversations with Michael Chabon collects eighteen revealing interviews with the renowned author that shed new light on the central concerns of Chabon's fiction.

James Salter has been known throughout his career as a "writer's writer", acclaimed by such literary greats as Susan Sontag, Richard Ford, John Banville, and Peter Matthiessen for his lyrical prose, his insightful and daring explorations of sex, and his examinations of the inner lives of women and men. Conversations with James Salter collects interviews published from 1972 to 2014.

Between 1972 and 2001, Barry Hannah (1942-2010) published eight novels and four collections of short stories. A master of short fiction, Hannah is considered by many to be one of the most important writers of modern American literature. Conversations with Barry Hannah collects interviews published between 1980 and 2010.

Offers the first collection of interviews with former United States Poet Laureate W. S. Merwin (b. 1927). Spanning almost six decades of conversations, the collection touches on such topics as Merwin's early influences, his location within the twin poles of Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, his extraordinary work as a translator, and his decades-long interest in environmental conservation.

Brings together more than twenty interviews with the acclaimed author, from the mid-1970s to the present. Throughout the volume, Robbins discusses his working methods, his fusion of Eastern and Western philosophical traditions, the need for wit and humour in serious fiction, and the ways living in the Pacific Northwest has fuelled his work.

Brings together twenty-one interviews with an author known for chronicling gay culture. Ranging from a 1982 discussion of his early works to a new and unpublished interview conducted in 2016, these interviews highlight White's predilections, his major achievements, and the pivotal moments of his long, varied career.

Brings together twenty-one interviews with an author known for chronicling gay culture. Ranging from a 1982 discussion of his early works to a new and unpublished interview conducted in 2016, these interviews highlight White's predilections, his major achievements, and the pivotal moments of his long, varied career.

This collection of interviews traces Andre Dubus' career beginning in 1967 with the publication of his novel The Lieutenant, to his final interview given right before his death. In between are conversations that focus on his shift to essay writing during his long recovery period as well as those that celebrate his return to fiction with the publication of "The Colonel's Wife" in 1993.

Audre Lorde (1934-1992), the author of eleven books of poetry, described herself as a "Black feminist lesbian poet warrior mother," but she added that this phrase was inadequate in capturing her full identity. The interviews in this collection portray the many additional sides of the Harlem-born author and activist.

For the first eighteen years of his career, Percival Everett (b. 1956) managed to fly under the radar of the literary establishment. He followed his artistic vision down a variety of unconventional paths, including his preference for releasing his books through independent publishers. But with the publication of his novel erasure in 2001, his literary talent could no longer be kept under wraps. The author of more than twenty-five books, Everett has established himself as one of America's--and arguably the world's--premier twenty-first-century fiction writers. Among his many honors since 2000 are Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards for erasure and I Am Not Sidney Poitier (2009) and three prominent awards for his 2005 novel Wounded--the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Fiction, France's Prix Lucioles des Libraires, and Italy's Premio Vallombrosa Gregor von Rezzori Prize.Interviews collected in this volume--several of which appear in print or in English translation for the first time--display Everett's abundant wit as well as the independence of thought that has led to his work being described as "characteristically uncharacteristic." At one moment he speaks with great sophistication about the fact that African American authors are forced to overcome constraining expectations about their subject matter that white writers are not. And in the next he talks about training mules or quips about "Jim Crow," a pet bird Everett had on his ranch outside Los Angeles. Everett discusses race and gender, his ecological interests, the real and mythic American West, the eclectic nature of his work, the craft of writing, language and linguistic theory, and much more.

Michael Chabon (b. 1963) has become one of contemporary literature's most acclaimed novelists by pursuing his singular vision across all boundaries of genre and medium. Conversations with Michael Chabon collects eighteen revealing interviews with the renowned author. Spanning nearly twenty years, these interviews shed new light on the central concerns of Chabon's fiction.

A collection of interviews with one of America's most influential authors, music journalists, and cultural critics. In this book, the author has explored the connections among figures, sounds, and events in culture, relating unrelated points of departure, mapping alternate histories and surprising correspondences.