latest interviews
Interview with Surfwise Director Doug Pray
"When I got out of film school, there was sort of this realization like, 'Oh my God, I have to make this happen.' You don't get jobs out of film school. Nobody ever says, 'Oh, did you go to UCLA? I have a fine position for you.'"
Killing Ground, Healing Ground: An Interview with Photographer John Huddleston
Armed with a camera, Middlebury College professor John Huddleston makes pilgrimages into the American landscape to capture touchstones for shared cultural memory.
"Our True Love Finds Us When it is Time": An Interview with Mark Kozelek
"Sometimes I write in the voice of someone who I believe is trying to get through to me, sometimes. But I never really understood that Nick Cave style of 'I am a murderer on this album' kind of thing. It's just not me. I'd rather just cover someone else's song."
Shared Islands: An Interview with High Places
"The whole idea of playing in a band as a way of paying the bills is a new concept to Rob and me. We come from a basement show pass-the-hat-to-pay-for-gas mentality."
What Kind of Animal Are We: An Interview with Sara Lov
"It's strange to me that so many hands can have a part in someone's self-expression. It puzzles me that what I think is so bad can be considered to be so good by so many, and something that is so good can go undiscovered."
Colliding with Nature: An Interview with Jason Middlebrook
The relationship between humans and nature--and "humans' endless fear and misunderstanding" of nature--is at the center of artist Jason Middlebrook’s work.
Interview with Wetlands Preserved Director Dean Budnick
"Wetlands was unlike any music venue or any nightclub I had ever entered, let alone one in New York City. I remember being blown away by the use of space, in particular the downstairs lounge, which was something of the ultimate chill zone."
Do Not Despair: 11 Questions with El Perro del Mar
"I have this physical need for being around and making music, and I think I've had that inside of me from the very start."
Homespun: An Interview with Gregory and the Hawk
"When you look back in history there are great musicians and great artists who've been screwed over, who stole others' material and passed it off as their own, who went unnoticed 'til they were dead..."
New Miserable Interview: Gin Blossoms Frontman Robin Wilson
"In the past, it always took so much effort and [money] to get a band into record stores across the country. That was one of the main things you needed a record company for—so that you could be in every Tower Records. But, obviously, Tower Records is gone."
Contours: An Interview with Sian Alice Group
"Sometimes it all stretches out in front of you in an instant, and other times you really have to put the hours in. Each song has its own rules."
Channelling Sophie: Patricia J. DeLois on Bufflehead Sisters
Author of the YouWriteOn.com Book of the Year talks about the publish-on-demand industry, the online peer-reviewing process, and the role libraries play in selling books.
Pop Noir: 13 Questions with Martina Topley-Bird
"I was exposed to lots of different kinds of music and culture living in London, and my parents traveled a lot and loved bringing stuff back from their travels. I suppose it's made me open to non-mainstream music."
The New Street Renegades: An Interview with Francesca Gavin
The London-based author of Street Renegades: New Underground Art talks about how today's underground artists are taking Guy Debord's ideas to city streets and forcing everyone to take a look.
What You're Talking About is Pure: An Interview with Idaho
"Many of my favorite trees in Los Angeles came from somewhere else. Also something about that city makes you feel like people aren't supposed to live there."
G-rock, Arkansas: An Interview with Novelist John Brandon
The newest McSweeney's wunderkind ruminates on his literary debut, Arkansas--a darkly comic novel about Ozark-based drug runners.
12 Questions with John Grant of The Czars
"I have a troubled relationship with lyrics. You can think too much about them..."
Video Volunteers for Social Change: A Conversation with Jessica Mayberry
"If the media is made by just one elite percent of the global population, how much of the world's reality must we be missing? We need to change this."
Shifting Scales & the City: An Interview with Jane South
Artist Jane South discusses how her large-scale, wall-mounted constructions explore the "phenomenological experience of architecture."
Fictional Worlds: An Interview with Susanna
Perhaps the most lasting impression of Susanna's music is its unyielding tastefulness. Where one would expect a drum loop, a soaring harmony, or a bed of violins or keyboards, one is left most often with Susanna's bare voice, a few notes on a piano, and a lingering melody.
An Off-Kilter Liveliness: 12 Questions with David Leavitt
Floridian novelist and editor of Subtropics talks about being "chosen" to write his new novel about Ramanujan (The Indian Clerk) and discusses the philosophy behind the University of Florida's first literary magazine.
A Boy's Prayer, a Filmmaker's Passion: An Interview with Director Ilana Trachtman
When people say to me, "You took such a risk," "You were so brave (to make the film)," or "What a leap of faith," I almost cannot relate to those comments--I just felt like I didn't have a choice. I knew someone should make a movie about Lior.
"The Desert is Full of Silence": An Interview with Rio en Medio
Danielle Stech-Homsy's primary instruments are a ukulele and a sweet, fairy-tale voice, though she balances these with spooky samples and arrhythmic loops.
Staring Down the Blind Spots: An Interview with Laura Moriarty
The author of The Rest of Her Life and The Center of Everything talks about the significance of mother-daughter relationships, religious communities, and breast implants in her latest novel.
interviews by robert birnbaum
Complete list: Dorothy Allison, Steve Almond, Julia Alvarez, Jonathan Ames, Martin Amis, Roger Angell, Blake Bailey, Nicholson Baker, Todd Balf, Russell Banks, Julian Barnes, Andrea Barrett, Alex Beam, Louis Begley, Thomas Beller, Nathaniel Bellows, Elizabeth Benedict, Jill Bialosky, Sven Birkerts, Amy Bloom (2002), Amy Bloom (2000), Alain de Botton, TC Boyle, Arthur Bradford, Courtney Angela Brkic, Frederick Busch (2005), Frederick Busch (2003), Ethan Canin, Stephen Carter, Benjamin Cavell, David Champagne, Iris Chang, Alston Chase, Sandra Cisneros, Marcelle Clements, Andrei Codrescu, Paul Collins, Michael Connelly, Richard Conniff, Frank Conroy, Mark Costello, Betsy Cox, Jim Crace, Barry Crimmins, Nicholas Dawidoff, Andre Dubus III, John Dufresne, Kristin Waterfield Duisberg, Geoff Dyer, Tony Earley , Barbara Ehrenreich, Gretel Ehrlich, Stephen Elliott, James Ellroy, Joseph Epstein, Natatcha Estebanez, Marc Estrin, Percival Everett, Tibor Fischer, Alice Flaherty, Maria Flook, Nick Flynn, Jonathan Safran Foer, Richard Ford, Richard Ford (2007), Tom Franklin, Alan Furst, Alan Furst, Joshua Furst, Eduardo Galeano, Tim Gautreaux, Anthony Giardina, Barry Gifford, Dagoberto Gilb, John Gimlette, James Gleick, Francisco Goldman, Adam Gopnik, Alma Guillermoprieto, Allan Gurganus, Barbara Haber, David Hajdu, Brian Hall, Donald Hall, Jake Halpern, Kent Haruf, Ethan Hawke , Patricia Henley, Amanda Hesser, Christopher Hitchens Pt. 2, Christopher Hitchens, Eva Hoffman, Janette Turner Hospital, Gabe Hudson, Siri Hustvedt, Karl Iagnemma, Elizabeth Inness-Brown, Edward Jones, Ben Katchor, Nora Okja Keller, Arthur Kempton, Jason Kersten, Chip Kidd (2006), Chip Kidd (2003), Chip Kidd (2001), Anthony Lane, Erik Larson, James Lasdun, Don Lee, Don Lee, Annette Lemieux, Michael Lesy, Michael Lewis (2006), Michael Lewis (2003), Alan Lightman (2003), Alan Lightman (2000), David Liss, Vyvyane Loh, Paul Lussier, Richard Marinick , Ruben Martinez, Daniel Mason, Colum McCann, Thomas McGuane, Jenny & Martha McPhee, Abelardo Morell, Azar Nafisi, Adam Nicolson, Thisbe Nissen, Sherwin Nuland, Tim O'Brien, Joseph O'Connor, Susan Orlean (2006), Susan Orlean (2001), Ann Packer, ZZ Packer, Tom Paine, George Pelecanos, Thomas Perry, Arthur Phillips, Neal Pollack, Samantha Power, Richard Price, Alice Randall, Christopher Rice, David Rieff, Hazel Rowley, Richard Russo, Richard Russo , George Saunders, John Sedgwick, Will Self, Saira Shah, Jim Shepard, David Shields, Lionel Shriver, Peter Singer, Jane Smiley, April Smith, Ilan Stavans, Robert Stone, Darin Strauss, Graham Swift, Manil Suri, Donna Tartt, David Thomson, Nick Tosches, Brady Udall, Vendela Vida, Sarah Vowell (2005), Sarah Vowell, Barbara Wallraff, Brad Watson, W.D. Wetherell, Mark Winegardner, William Wright, Howard Zinn (2003), Howard Zinn
author interviews
- Most Recent: Patricia J. DeLois (Bufflehead Sisters), John Brandon (Arkansas), David Leavitt (The Indian Clerk), Laura Moriarty (The Rest of Her Life)
- Also Popular: Jonathan Safran Foer, Sandra Cisneros, Chip Kidd, Lionel Shriver, Mia Fontaine
- Latest from Robert Birnbaum: Richard Ford, Donald Hall, Michael Lewis, Elizabeth Benedict, John Gimlette, Eduardo Galeano
- More books coverage
music interviews
- Most Recent: Sara Lov, El Perro del Mar, Gregory and the Hawk, Gin Blossoms, Sian Alice Group, Martina Topley-Bird, Idaho, John Grant of The Czars
- Also Popular: Animal Collective, Ariel Pink, Sleater-Kinney, Phon°noir, Eric Whitacre
- More music coverage
film and art interviews
more interviews
- Tara McKelvey (Monstering) with Mara Naselli
- Mark Monmonier (From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow) with Colette Labouff Atkinson
- Alix Ohlin (Babylon) with former student Jesslyn Roebuck
- Fernanda Eberstadt (Little Money Street) with Summer Block
- Janet Desaulniers with Alex Shapiro
- Lee Klein (Incidents of Egotourism in the Temporary World) w/ James Stegall
- Sherman Alexie talks to Robert Capriccioso
- Sarah Vowell (The Partly Cloudy Patriot) with Robert Capriccioso
- Retort Magazine publisher Brentley Frazer with Star Jewel Smith
- Poet Virginia Hamilton Adair with Anna Van Lenten
- Noah Kerner (Chasing Cool)
- Hillary Carlip (Queen of the Oddballs)
- Paul Neilan (Apathy)
- Interview with a Winner: Erin Bealmear
- Scott Snyder (Voodoo Heart)
- Toni Schlesinger (Five Flights Up)
- Mia Fontaine (Come Back)
- Craig Davidson (Rust and Bone)
- Katy Lederer (Poker Face)
- Andy Behrman (Electroboy)
- Jennifer Niven (Ada Blackjack)
- David Levien (Rounders, Swagbelly)
- Sheri Fink (War Hospital)
- Susannah Breslin (You're a Bad Man, Aren't You?)
- Mary Roach (Stiff)
- Kimberley Snow (In Buddha's Kitchen)
- Carolyn Parkhurst (The Dogs of Babel)
- Elise Blackwell (Hunger)
- Matthew Derby (Super Flat Times)
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Identity Theory is an online magazine that publishes author interviews, music interviews, original fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, book reviews, film reviews, a social justice blog, and whatever else seems like a good idea at the time. Learn more, contact us, get our 
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