Read an interview about Dog (and, um, one with Pamela Anderson about her novels) conducted by Cindy at Conversations With Famous Writers.
Excerpt:
Where did that adorable dog on the cover of the book come from?
Alas, I have to disappoint you with the news that it’s a stock photo from some image bank. But it’s such a wonderful photo! I was thrilled when the book’s designer showed it to me. It’s just perfect for the (read more…)
Here’s an interview with Collected Miscellany’s Kevin Holtsberry. And here’s the second part of the interview.
Excerpt:
KH: The old saw goes something like: “everyone’s first novel is an autobiography.” Your first novel was about an elderly Jewish woman, but is it fair to say that all of your stories are part autobiography (touching on issues from your life and experiences)? Is that true of all writers?
Even that one … I think you (read more…)
Listen to me read my essay, “Performance,” at Wired for Books—or listen below.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Read a cranky letter I wrote to the New York Times Book Review about MFA program-bashing.
Excerpt:
Maybe I was just in a bad mood, but I slammed down my coffee cup in exasperation while reading Nell Freudenberger’s otherwise smart review of Stewart O’Nan’s new novel, “The Good Wife” (May 8). Or maybe it wasn’t me; maybe it was that Freudenberger’s passing remark about how O’Nan “does a lot of the things they teach you not (read more…)
An essay up at MOMbo.org. Here’s an excerpt:
Career Girl
My daughter has made four career changes and is now on her fifth vocation. She is eleven years old. But she is a serious-minded girl.
The first of her vocations was farming. She was eighteen months old when she declared that she had figured out what she was going to be when she grew up (actually, she insisted she already was a farmer—on an apprentice basis, (read more…)
