Chatting with Lev Grossman, and becoming a HONY

Earlier this year, I covered BookExpo America, which was the usual blur of activity -- quick chats with authors such as Eula Biss, Jesse Burton and Tom Robbins, plus a particularly enjoyable interview with Lev Grossman, which I turned into this story. As a bonus feature, I shared his advice on how to murder your darlings while self-editing, particularly if it involves Fraggle Rock.

Of course, all anybody wants to talk about was that encounter with the Humans of New York guy. Which I blogged about here. (It's a good tale. Not so good that it should eclipse every other piece of writing I have done in my life. But 150,000 or so Facebook users can't be wrong, can they?)

Let me introduce you to Khaled Hosseini, Timothy Egan and Rick Atkinson – and an amazing young artist

It was a busy season for author events in Dallas. I was a part of three of them: I interviewed Khaled Hosseini as part of the Tate Lecture Series (the SMU student paper did  a nice writeup here.) I also introduced Timothy Egan at the Dallas Museum of Art (and mused about it in this blog post.) And last week, I introduced Rick Atkinson in the same venue. (I interviewed Atkinson about The Guns at Last Light here.)

Away from the books page, I was the conduit for the remarkable work of local artist Sara Stahl, a high school senior who told the story of her adoption through a series of remarkable images. I had worked with her mother, Lori, and conducted a series of interviews and coordinated the efforts of a bunch of really talented designers (Lisa Veigel in print, Paul O'Donnell and John Hancock online) to bring the tale to readers. You can see the finished product here.

Elizabeth L. Silver, Bill Bryson, Terry Teachout and Jennifer duBois

In recent months, I got to chat with a couple of exceptional young writers, meet some masters of history and biography, and get paid to think long and hard about Muppets.

I am reminded that my job could be a lot worse.

Anyhow, here's my interview with Elizabeth L. Silver, author of "The Execution of Noa P. Singleton."

And this is my interview with Jennifer duBois, author of "Cartwheel" and "A Partial History of Lost Causes."

I spoke with Bill Bryson about "One Summer: America, 1927."

Terry Teachout and I discussed his newest, "Duke." 

And here's a review of "Jim Henson: The Biography," by Brian Jay Jones.