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Leni Zumas: The Powells.com Interview
By Jill Owens April 16, 2012
Leni Zumas's writing crackles. Her books are sharp, bleak, funny, and possibly dangerous. When her collection of short stories, Farewell Navigator, came out, Karen Russell marveled, "Her language is a kind of sorcery," and Joy Williams added, "Leni Zumas's writing is fearless and swift, sassy and...
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Rachel Maddow: The Powells.com Interview
By C. P. Farley April 6, 2012
Rachel Maddow's first book, Drift, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. This isn't terribly surprising. Not only is Maddow the host of the top-rated liberal television show in the country, MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, but also in our current, highly polarized political climate,...
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Esi Edugyan: The Powells.com Interview
By Jill Owens March 23, 2012
Esi Edugyan's debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was widely praised, if a little under the radar. Now with her new book, this bright young author is garnering more attention and lauds from the critics. Half-Blood Blues won the Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the 2011 Booker Prize...
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Gabrielle Hamilton: The Powells.com Interview
By Megan February 18, 2012
Gabrielle Hamilton's restaurant Prune, a little 30-seat spot in New York's East Village, quickly made waves when its doors opened in 1999. Hamilton had originally set out to cook for her neighbors but soon found herself hosting visitors from everywhere — all made the trek to experience,...
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Stephen Dau: The Powells.com Interview
By Jill Owens February 14, 2012
Stephen Dau's The Book of Jonas is a marvelous, lyrical debut that examines the effects of war on everyone involved. Dau weaves together the stories of Jonas, a teenage refugee from an unnamed Muslim country who comes to live in Pittsburgh after American soldiers destroy his village, Christopher,...
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Ben Marcus: The Powells.com Interview
By Jill Owens January 24, 2012
Ben Marcus's books The Age of Wire and String and Notable American Women were considered "experimental" fiction because of his unconventional use of narrative, character, and language. His newest novel, The Flame Alphabet, begins with an unconventional idea: Language becomes toxic to adults —...
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Naomi Benaron: The Powells.com Interview
By Jill Owens January 3, 2012
Running the Rift is the most recent winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, as awarded by Barbara Kingsolver. It's also an extraordinarily beautiful and heartfelt book. Naomi Benaron tells the story of Jean Patrick Nkuba, a gifted Tutsi boy growing up in Rwanda in the...
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Tony Horwitz: The Powells.com Interview
By C. P. Farley December 5, 2011
Tony Horwitz got his start as a journalist at the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel in Indiana and later at the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia (where he met his wife, celebrated author Geraldine Brooks). He cut his teeth at the Wall Street Journal, first as an overseas war correspondent and later as a...
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Gregory Maguire: The Powells.com Interview
By Jill Owens November 15, 2011
Gregory Maguire has written many books for children and other novels for adults (here is our 2004 interview with Maguire for Mirror, Mirror), but without question, he's best known for his Wicked Years series and its first book, Wicked, in particular. If you are one of the few who hasn't yet heard...
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Jeffrey Eugenides: The Powells.com Interview
By Jill Owens October 17, 2011
Jeffrey Eugenides has written one of the most anticipated books of the year. The Marriage Plot, his third novel, after his beloved debut The Virgin Suicides (1993) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex (2002), is an in-depth psychological, intellectual, and spiritual exploration, as well as a...
