Historian and publisher of the renascent Baffler magazine, John H. Summers has not exactly taken a direct route to heading a publication whose significance he compares to Dwight Macdonald’s mid-century journal, Politics.
Author Archives: Robert Birnbaum
Robert Birnbaum
Pete Hamill
Self-described “aging Celtic scribe” Pete Hamill is, in the argot of our time, an old-school journalist and writer. Born in Brooklyn during the 20th century’s Great Depression, he was a high school dropout whose first interests were in the visual arts.
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Daniel Okrent
Paul Krassner
Had he only published his gadfly magazine, The Realist, he would be worthy of high praise and attention, but Krassner continues to ply his subversion in books and other places.
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Robert Stone on Damascus Gate
It’s highly unlikely that if you are reading this you are unaware (or unappreciative) of American novelist Robert Stone. For what it’s worth, I rank Stone among a handful of living great American writers and have hungrily seized opportunities to chat with him.
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Howard Zinn on A People’s History of American Empire
Dagoberto Gilb on The Flowers
The Perfect Man
by Naeem Murr (Random House) – Reviewed by Robert Birnbaum Legendary American xenophobia (or possibly indifference) to the world that exists beyond American shores is, with all deliberate speed, being eroded by the rise of a kind of hyphenate American literature. This has long been the case for writers with bonds below the Rio Grande [...]
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Later, at the Bar
by Rebecca Barry (Simon & Schuster, 240 pages) – Review by Robert BirnbaumThe American tavern, the English pub, and the Parisian bistro all appeal as fertile settings for fiction, having, not surprisingly, the potential for varying degrees of havoc and pathos and an array of socially acceptable psychoses. Rebecca Barry, an Ohio State University MFA [...]
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I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon
by Crystal Zevon (Ecco, 452 pages) — Reviewed by Robert Birnbaum As with sports biographies (see my comments on a recent Jackie Robinson book), most music biographies are useful to fans and devotees but frequently are barely more than hagiographic efforts. The few exceptions that come to mind are David Hajdu‘s two books, one on [...]
Richard Ford on The Lay of the Land
Over the past two decades I have (for reasons, some clear and some mysterious) spent a fair amount of time immersed in recent American literature—diligently reading the books and happily speaking with their creators. In that time, I am pleased to recount, I have spoken to Richard Ford on various occasions—the publication of his Pulitzer [...]
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Donald Hall
Even before he was named Poet Laureate of the United States in June 2006, Donald Hall was a familiar figure in contemporary poetry.
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Michael Lewis on The Blind Side
If I were still aspiring to an expertise in certain areas of contemporary journalism I might be tempted to offer up Michael Lewis, who among other things is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, as an occupant of the upper tiers of magazine feature writing. As I have all but put aside [...]
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Elizabeth Benedict
Elizabeth Benedict is fully leading the writer’s life—educated at Barnard, under the sway of Elizabeth Hardwick, she has written five novels: Almost (shortlisted for a National Book Award), Slow Dancing, Safe Conduct, The Beginner’s Book of Dreams and most recently, The Practice of Deceit. She also authored the classic, widely-used-in-writing programs, The Joy of Writing [...]
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John Gimlette
Real research may not bear this out, but it would seem that the claustrophobic British Isles produce more than their fair share of inveterate travelers and adventurous writers. These days, Rory Stewart, Adam Nicolson and not least John Gimlette are the standard bearers. Gimlette’s pregrinations began as a teenager when he crossed the Soviet Union [...]
August 16, 2006: “The worst violators of nature…”
The worst violators of nature and human rights never go to jail. They hold the keys. In the world as it is, the looking-glass world, the countries that guard the peace also make and sell the most weapons. The most prestigious banks launder the most drug money and harbor the most stolen cash. The most [...]
Eduardo Galeano
Of the people with whom I am acquainted that appreciate the literary world, I am frequently reminded how lucky I am to have regular and serious (and, I might add, also intense) intercourse with the wonderful and wholly original creatures who inhabit that small but mighty Universe. I have never been more fortunate in my [...]
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June 27, 2006: “Once again the New York Times…”
Once again the New York Times seems to have roiled the literary pond, provoking, depending on your disposition, screeches of indignation or snarls of ridicule. The occasion for the rising noise level being the lame-assed (I guess I am tipping my hand here) attempt to name the best American novel of the past 25 years. [...]
Susan Orlean on Rin Tin Tin
Living in the Boston area I had the opportunity and pleasure of reading Susan Orlean on a regular basis when she wrote for the Boston Globe and Boston Phoenix. From here she went on to her now highly regarded work at The New Yorker and publication of The Orchid Thief (and its subsequent adaptation as [...]
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George Saunders
On the basis of three story collections, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Pastoralia and the latest, In Persuasion Nation; a novella, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil; and an all-ages kid’s book, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, George Saunders has, uh, rocketed, uh George has, uh, been acclaimed, uh, has uh, taken some time [...]
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Julia Alvarez
Writer Julia Alvarez is the author of a book of essays; five collections of poetry; five books for children; and five books of fiction, including How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, and her latest novel, Saving the World. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude [...]
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William Wright
In 2002, The Harvard Crimson came across a restricted archive labeled "Secret Court Files, 1920." They had uncovered a tragic scandal in which Harvard University secretly put a dozen students on trial for homosexuality and then systematically and persistently and, according to author of Harvard’s Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals William [...]
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Thomas Beller
Thomas Beller (http://www.thomasbeller.com) is the author of a novel, The Sleep-Over Artist, a story collection, Seduction Theory, and recently, How to Be a Man: Scenes From a Protracted Boyhood. He is a contributing editor at The Cambodia Daily, a co-founding editor of Open City, and co-editor of With Love and Squalor, a book of essays [...]
Posted in Author Interviews Tagged Editors, Essayists, How to Be a Man, Novelists, Robert Birnbaum, Thomas Beller 1 Comment
James Lasdun
London-born author and screenwriter James Lasdun has written two novels, The Horned Man and more recently, Seven Lies, and three story collections, including Besieged, the title story of which was the basis of a Bernard Bertolucci film. He has also published a number of books of poetry, including Woman Police Officer in Elevator and Landscape [...]
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Chip Kidd on Chip Kidd: Book One, Work: 1986-2006
The occasion for my third conversation with famed graphic designer and New York personage Chip Kidd (talk #1 / talk #2) was his recent charm initiative in support of his career retrospective monograph, Chip Kidd: Book One, Work: 1986-2006. Kidd, who is variously and arguably credited with revolutionizing book cover design (a claim which, if [...]
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Marc Estrin
Marc Estrin is a writer, cellist, puppeteer and activist living in Burlington, Vermont who, as he describes, has had a “squiggly career path”—finally coming to writing at the age of 57. He is currently working on, among other things, his next novel. His first published novel, Insect Dreams, picks up where Franz Kafka leaves off. [...]
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Adam Nicolson
Adam Nicolson grew up in Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, the family home of his grandparents, Vita Sackville-West and journalist-turned-statesman Harold Nicolson. His father, Nigel , was also a writer (Portrait of a Marriage) and a Virginia Woolf scholar. Adam was educated at Eton and at Magdalene College at Cambridge, and he became a travel writer [...]
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Paul Collins
Paul Collins is founder and editor of the Collins Library imprint at McSweeney’s, a project dedicated to the reprinting of unusual, out-of-print literary works, which has published English as She is Spoke by Jose da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino, To Lady into Fox by David Garnett and Ruhleben and Back by Geoffrey Pyke. He is [...]
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Frederick Busch on North: A Novel
Frederick Busch was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. He received an M.A. from Colgate, where he later taught literature until his recent retirement. Among his twenty-seven books are the novels I Wanted a Year Without Fall (1971), Breathing Trouble (1974), Manual Labor (1974), The Mutual Friend (1978), Rounds [...]
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Sarah Vowell on Assassination Vacation
Sarah Vowell is the author of The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Take the Cannoli, Radio On, and recently, Assassination Vacation. She was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and raised in Montana. She received an MA from the Art Institute in Chicago. Sarah Vowell is best known for her bits on National Public Radio’s This American Life. She [...]
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