When I interviewed Sean Penn for Powell’s, I did not expect him to have read my book. But not long after I met the actor-turned-author, I discovered he had. He told me it had reminded him of Ed Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang. My hand flew to my heart, like somebody’s old Southern auntie. “Oh my goodness!” I said. “I feel … Read More
Hot Season: The Soundtrack
What a pleasure it was to create a soundtrack for my debut novel, Hot Season, for Large Hearted Boy, a website dedicated to the connections between literature and music. As I sat down to write this piece, it occurred to me that every chapter of my book had a signature song. So imagine my delight when I discovered that David … Read More
The Story Behind the Story: Dead Man’s Revival
Like many of the chapters of my novel, Hot Season, the epilogue started off as a short story. “Dead Man’s Revival” was a story within a story, built around the sort of thing I think of as a traveler’s tale. A traveler’s tale is an anecdote of a certain strangeness, a certain staying power, told by a person either currently … Read More
The Women’s March and the Arts: Benediction for the Artist in a Time of War
Yesterday, *rump had his inauguration parade–though not, apparently, the North Korean-style extravaganza he would have preferred, and apparently not the number of attendees he would have preferred either. Today, over 500,000 women are expected to descend upon D.C., and upon cities around the country as well, to protest his policies. Needless to say, it’s strange to be watching all of … Read More
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