Here at Powells.com, in addition to exclusive
interviews,
original essays, and
Q&As, we feature a wide selection of guest blogs from noteworthy authors. Each week, a new author contributes to our blog for five days straight, revealing everything from their thoughts on the writing process to details about their favorite neighborhood cat. We're constantly amazed at what comes out of these series, and we consider ourselves incredibly lucky to be able to host so many brilliant authors in one place.
As the year comes to a close, we thought we'd give a rundown of all our guest bloggers for 2012 in case you missed — or want to revisit — any of their posts.
Adam Johnson (January 9 - 13)
Books | Guest Blogs
Adam Johnson, a former Wallace Stegner Fellow, teaches creative writing at Stanford University. His previous work includes a short-story collection, Emporium, and the novel Parasites Like Us. His second novel, The Orphan Master's Son, is an epic tale that charts a young man's undercover journey in the world's most mysterious dictatorship: North Korea.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Johnson transports us to North Korea, describing what he considers to be one of the world's worst bookstores, an airline with a safety record of one out of five stars, and a showy hotel that proves to be a symbol of the nation as a whole. He also highlights the complexities of depicting Kim Jong-il, "the black hole that warped all the reality around him," in The Orphan Master's Son.
Alexis Smith (January 16 - 20)
Book | Guest Blogs
Alexis Smith grew up in Soldotna, Alaska, and Seattle, Washington. She received an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College and has written for Tarpaulin Sky and Powells.com. She has a son and two cats, and they all live together in a little apartment in Portland, Oregon. Glaciers, Smith's first novel, follows a single, 20-something woman through a day filled with damaged books, unrequited love, and dreams of the perfect vintage dress.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Smith explains why the decision to include a mason jar in Glaciers caused her so much anguish. She takes us on a stroll down the Wildwood Trail in Portland's Forest Park. She admits to having a penchant for elaborate domestic projects when a writing deadline is approaching. And she shares some noteworthy old children's books she discovered while working as a bookseller, along with a shortlist of Portland's literary offerings, from indie presses to writing groups.
Nathan Englander (February 6 - 10)
Books | Guest Blogs
Nathan Englander is the author of the novel The Ministry of Special Cases and the story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, which earned him a PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. In his latest book, the story collection What We Talk about When We Talk about Anne Frank, Englander grapples with the great questions of modern life. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Englander kicks things off with a post cataloging the books he has lying around his home at the time of writing, and continues his home tour by sharing a collection of hamsot (amulets meant to fend off the evil eye) he and his girlfriend have acquired. He prepares for a book event at the New York Public Library, where he'll be joined by Tony Award–winning actor-writer Sarah Jones, and then follows up with some photos of the event. In his final post, he reports on another reading he did at his local bookstore with Colum McCann.
Kris Saknussemm (February 20 - 24)
Books | Guest Blogs
Kris Saknussemm, who Kirkus Reviews called "exuberantly weird," is the author of three acclaimed novels, a short-story collection, and a collection of visual art. He is the son of a Congregational minister and the great-grandson of one of America's most famous evangelists. He is currently at the Black Mountain Institute of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas for a Gallagher Fellowship. His latest novel, Reverend America, follows an aging albino preacher known as Casper as he embarks on a spiritual journey through the Deep South with a pregnant teenage prostitute.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Saknussemm recalls a man he used to work with who made a strong impression on him, a man whose "spirit infuses many of the key characters" in Reverend America. He shares the music he had recorded to accompany his novel, and he explains why he has a unique perspective on matters of religion and faith. He talks about what it was like to work for the circus as a roustabout one summer. And he admits that he "came harrowingly close" to receiving a rather peculiar first name.
Cheryl Strayed (March 19 - 26)
Books | Guest Blogs
Cheryl Strayed is the author of three books: the memoir Wild, the novel Torch, and Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of the "Dear Sugar" columns she wrote for TheRumpus.net. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, the filmmaker Brian Lindstrom, and their two children. Wild — the story of Strayed's 1,100-mile solo hike on the Pacific Crest Trail and the events that led up to that journey — was making its debut when she wrote for us.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Strayed discusses the apprehensions that go along with publishing a memoir and her motives for writing one, along with the journal she kept that was essential in writing it. She shares how she spent the day of her book's release and all the photos from friends and family of her book out in the world. Finally, she details her launch reading at Powell's and considers a friend's impression of her book.
Jennifer duBois (March 26 - 30)
Book | Guest Blogs
Jennifer duBois is a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is currently completing a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. Originally from western Massachusetts, she lives in Northern California. In her debut novel, A Partial History of Lost Causes, a long-lost letter links two disparate characters — a world chess champion living in St. Petersburg, Russia, and an English lecturer in Cambridge, Massachusetts — each searching for meaning against seemingly insurmountable odds.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Jennifer duBois recalls an image of her father sitting across the table from a stuffed wolf that helps explain her approach to Partial History. She takes on the Kremlin and spotlights a fundamental shift taking place in Russian political culture. And she questions whether "realism" is a valid term in fiction, reveals how someone who doesn't play chess could write a book about a chess champion, and considers what it really means to write across gender.
Paul Virant, with Kate Leahy (April 2 - 6)
Book | Guest Blogs
Michelin-starred chef and restaurant owner Paul Virant has been featured in Food & Wine, the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times, and Time Out Chicago. In 2007 Virant was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef, and in 2011 he was nominated for a James Beard award. Kate Leahy is a freelance food writer and coauthor of the IACP 2009 Cookbook of the Year, A16: Food and Wine. Together they wrote The Preservation Kitchen, a collection of Paul Virant's canning techniques, preserving recipes, and seasonal menus inspired by the award-winning fare at his restaurant Vie.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Virante discusses what vegetable he's currently canning and lists some canning mistakes to avoid. He admits to being a coffee fanatic and provides insight on what characterizes the perfect espresso macchiato. And he shares his playlist for prepping food in the kitchen and a list of the cookbooks that most resonated with him while he was learning to cook.
Jon Raymond (April 23 - 30)
Books | Guest Blogs
Jon Raymond is the author of the novel The Half-Life and the short-story collection Livability. He is the writer of several films, including Wendy and Lucy and Meek's Cutoff, and cowriter of the Emmy-nominated HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce. Raymond lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family. Rain Dragon is his second novel, following a couple who decide to leave Los Angeles to go work on a community farm. They've scarcely arrived when their vague hopes start to come unraveled.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Raymond describes the moment he decided he wanted to make art, champions Don Carpenter as one of America's great writers, recounts his worst experiences doing author readings, shares how he spent his day while in Paris for the Keep Portland Weird festival, and concludes with some words on a legendary dragon associated with the town of Metz, France.
Julia Alvarez (April 30 - May 4)
Books | Guest Blogs
Bestselling author Julia Alvarez has written 19 books, including the novels How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies. She is a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College. In her personal memoir, A Wedding in Haiti, Alvarez reflects on the joys and burdens of love as she journeys to Haiti for a friend's wedding, and again a year later in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.
Exclusive to Powells.com: After confessing to being a "virgin blogger," Alvarez reveals what inspired her to write her memoir; what drew her to Piti, the Haitian boy who figures prominently in the book; what came of meeting two young girls when she stayed with Piti's family in Moustique; and who thought of the title for A Wedding in Haiti. She also discusses Alta Gracia, a coffee farm with a literacy program that she and her husband started in the Dominican Republic.
Lois Leveen (May 14 - 18)
Book | Guest Blogs
Lois Leveen is an award-winning author whose work has appeared in the New York Times, on NPR, and in literary journals and anthologies. A former faculty member at UCLA and Reed College, she lives in Portland, Oregon. The Secrets of Mary Bowser is her first novel. Based on the remarkable true story of a freed African American slave who returned to Virginia at the onset of the Civil War to spy on the Confederates, Leveen's masterful debut celebrates the courageous achievements of a little-known but truly inspirational American heroine.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Leveen shares how she came up with the idea to write her novel, the four elements that draw readers into books, her thoughts on trade paper originals and French flaps, the importance of getting tiny details right, and what she did on the day her book came out.
James Bernard Frost (May 21 - 25)
Books | Guest Blogs
James Bernard Frost is the author of the award-winning travel guide The Artichoke Trail and the novels World Leader Pretend and A Very Minor Prophet, his latest book. A Very Minor Prophet tells the story of how a barista in Portland becomes the faithful scribe of Joseph Patrick Booker, a dwarf preacher who serves Voodoo donuts, Stumptown coffee, and, while his congregation throws PBR cans at him, rants about George W. Bush. Frost lives in Oregon with the author Kerry Cohen, their four children, the rain, the freaks, and the trees. His bike is currently in disrepair.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Frost talks about the culmination of his book tour: a Literary Gong Show he put together at Dante's Inferno in Portland. He also discusses the point at which he began calling himself a writer (along with the small matter of getting paid to be a writer), and he offers his take on Dave Eggers, his thoughts on whether writers should use swear words, and a list of recommended reads.
Jon Steele (May 28 - June 1)
Books | Guest Blogs
Jon Steele worked as an award-winning cameraman for Independent Television News of London for 22 years. While based in Moscow and Jerusalem, Steele wrote War Junkie, a gut-wrenching memoir covering a year in the life of a news cameraman, now considered a cult classic of war reportage. In 2003, in Baghdad on the eve of the Iraq War, Steele became disillusioned with television news, put his camera on the ground, and quit. He now lives in Switzerland. Steele's first novel, The Watchers, is a suspenseful thriller about a series of murders that may be the handiwork of a gang of international killers — or fallen angels.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Steele writes from a bench overlooking Lake Geneva in Cully, Switzerland, and reflects on the first time he sat on that bench 13 years ago, on a break from a highly dangerous job working the Intifada. He also details what everyday life is like in Switzerland and his first memory. Additionally, he contemplates the concept of memory and our "inner lizards," and considers time travel and a dream he had about his time living in Moscow.
Dave Hill (June 4 - June 8)
Book | Guest Blogs
Dave Hill is a comedian, writer, retired pedicab driver, rock star, actor, and man-about-town. He has been on HBO, written for the New York Times, starred in his own TV show, contributed to This American Life, and been in at least five rock bands. His first book, Tasteful Nudes: And Other Misguided Attempts at Personal Growth and Validation, includes stories about "stolen meat, animal attacks, young love, death, naked people, clergymen, rock 'n' roll, irritable Canadians, and prison," among other things.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Hill takes us on a whirlwind tour of America, recounting experiences in Portland shopping at Powell's City of Books, in L.A. doing his first West Coast book reading, in San Francisco performing a comedy show, on a flight cross-country, and in New York City, where he lives. He devotes his final post to an acronym he finally understands: T.G.I.F.
Joshua Henkin (June 18 - 22)
Books | Guest Blogs
Joshua Henkin is the author of the novels Swimming across the Hudson (a Los Angeles Times Notable Book) and Matrimony (a New York Times Notable Book). His stories have been published widely, cited for distinction in Best American Short Stories and broadcast on NPR's Selected Shorts. His latest novel, The World without You, provides a portrait of a family gathering in the Berkshires to memorialize Leo, the youngest of four siblings, a journalist who was killed on assignment in Iraq the previous year.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Henkin confesses that he got into fiction, in part, because he hates to do research, considers the challenge of writing from a female point of view, discusses his teaching job as director of Brooklyn College's Fiction MFA Program, shares the many drafts of the cover art for The World without You, and addresses the oft-asked question: What were you thinking when you wrote your book?
Karen Thompson Walker (June 25 - 29)
Book | Guest Blogs
A former editor at Simon and Schuster, Karen Thompson Walker wrote The Age of Miracles in the mornings before work. Her haunting coming-of-age novel explores what life is like for an 11-year-old girl following a shocking discovery: the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. She is a graduate of UCLA and the Columbia MFA program and a recipient of the 2011 Sirenland Fellowship, as well as a Bomb magazine fiction prize.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Karen Thompson Walker discusses why apocalypse stories appeal to her so much, why every good book about childhood is also about being an adult, and how she and her family prepared for the "big one" when she was a child living in earthquake country. She also explains how she carved out time in a busy schedule to write and what writing tips have proven most useful for her.
Mark Baumgarten (July 9 - 13)
Book | Guest Blogs
Mark Baumgarten is a Seattle-based music writer. He serves as the editor at large for City Arts magazine, and his work has been featured in Willamette Week, the Village Voice, Seattle Weekly, and Lost Cause magazine. His book Love Rock Revolution tells the story of K Records, the Olympia, Washington, record label that was integral to the rise of the international independent music movement of the '80s and has fostered such artists as Beat Happening, Built to Spill, Beck, Modest Mouse, and the Gossip.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Find out what made Baumgarten start smoking a pack a day, what it feels like to be on the other side of the tape recorder, and what brought him to tears while writing and then sharing his book. He also covers his literary influences and his most cherished writing milestones.
Casper Babypants and Kate Endle (July 23 - 27)
Books | Guest Blogs
Casper Babypants is a popular children's performer and is also known as Chris Ballew, the lead singer and songwriter for the rock band the Presidents of the United States of America. Kate Endle is a collector of beautiful and unusual printed papers, which she uses to compose vibrant images for children's books and original artwork. Together they created Augie to Zebra, an alphabet book that gives each letter of the alphabet its own alliterative sentence involving a name, an activity, and an animal. The book features Endle's collage art and is accompanied by a free MP3 song of the text performed by Caspar Babypants.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Casper Babypants and Kate Endle engage in a Q&A session over a series of blogs. Endle answers questions about outsider/primitive art, the weirdest thing she's been asked to make, and where she sees her artwork going. Casper Babypants addresses topics including art school, his favorite rock bands, and the weirdest way he's ever come up with a song. On their final day of blogging, they answer reader questions.
Adam Brent Houghtaling (August 6 -10)
Book | Guest Blogs
Adam Brent Houghtaling is an editor, writer, musician, and digital consultant living in Brooklyn, New York. His book, This Will End in Tears: The Miserabilist Guide to Music, leads music fans through the history of sad music, featuring artists across genres and through time — from Robert Johnson to Radiohead, from Edith Piaf to Joy Division, from Patsy Cline to the Cure.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Houghtaling takes us through the books that helped him build This Will End in Tears, explores the rich history behind the color blue, discusses the digital revolution and his distaste for ebooks, draws parallels between listening to sad music and the reading experience, and shares his list of 18 favorite behind-the-scenes books about music.
Amanda Coplin (August 20 - 24)
Book | Guest Blogs
Amanda Coplin was born in Wenatchee, Washington. She received her BA from the University of Oregon and MFA from the University of Minnesota. A recipient of residencies from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and the Omi International Arts Center at Ledig House in Ghent, New York, she lives in Portland, Oregon. In her haunting debut novel The Orchardist, Coplin spins an engrossing tale of a solitary orchardist who provides shelter to two runaway teenage girls in the untamed American West.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Coplin takes us deep into the world of The Orchardist, revealing "the spark that set off the novel writing," the authors and books that influenced her, the images that helped guide her, how her personal experiences relate to the book, and her thoughts on the label "historical fiction."
Dan Wilbur (August 27 - 31)
Book | Guest Blogs
Dan Wilbur is a comedian, a writer, and an avid video-game player living in Brooklyn, NY. The creator and editor of BetterBookTitles.com, Wilbur has also been featured on CollegeHumor.com, McSweeney's, and the Onion News Network. His first humor book, How Not to Read, helps readers (make that former readers) master literature without ever having to struggle through another book again.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Wilbur compares famous books to their correlating video game. He shares Yelp reviews (which will likely replace books in the future) of important life experiences. He gets into the mind of the typical bookstore customer. And, in the spirit of How Not to Read, he offers ways to enjoy his book without actually reading it — along with a page from the book that got cut.
The Stranger (September 3 - 7)
Book | Bethany Jean Clement, Lindy West, Christopher Frizzelle
With How to Be a Person: The Stranger's Guide to College, Sex, Intoxicants, Tacos, and Life Itself, the writers from Seattle's alternative weekly newspaper the Stranger got together to enlighten college students on topics including: which majors to avoid, how to do laundry, how to not get an STD, and how to turn a crush into something more.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Bethany Jean Clement, the restaurant reviewer (and managing editor) of the Stranger, shares an excerpt from How to Be a Person about an encounter with Jesus at a party, and she offers up teasers on the food and drink section of the book. Lindy West, former film reviewer and editor for the Stranger and current Jezebel.com writer, provides the top five pieces of advice she wishes she'd had in college and gives a rundown of what albums in your dorm room say about you. Christopher Frizzelle, editor of the Stranger, shares tips on how to write an internship cover letter that doesn't invite ridicule.
Andrew Porter (September 10 - 14)
Books | Guest Blogs
Andrew Porter is the author of the story collection The Theory of Light and Matter, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award, and the new novel In Between Days, which follows a family teetering on the brink. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Porter has received a Pushcart Prize and a Michener-Copernicus Fellowship. Currently, he teaches fiction writing and directs the creative writing program at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Porter answers the questions: Was it harder to write a novel than a short-story collection, and why do dysfunctional families keep reappearing in his work? He shares why reading tours are as enlightening for him as they are for his fans. And he examines why he feels a strong connection to Houston as a writer but is somewhat uncomfortable being labeled a "Texas writer."
Richard Kadrey (September 17 - 21)
Books | Guest Blogs
Richard Kadrey has published seven novels, including Sandman Slim, Kill the Dead, Aloha from Hell, and Butcher Bird. In his newest novel and the fourth installment of the Sandman Slim series, the high-octane Devil Said Bang, James Stark has to figure out how to run Hell while also trying to get back out of it. Kadrey has been immortalized as an action figure, and his short story "Goodbye Houston Street, Goodbye" was nominated for a British Science Fiction Association Award. He lives in San Francisco.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Kadrey gives insight on what goes into writing a series, who should consider a writing career, and how to develop as a writer. He also shares some of the books that influenced his Sandman Slim series and attempts to rein in his habit of hoarding books.
Will Schwalbe (October 1 - 5)
Books | Guest Blogs
Will Schwalbe has worked in publishing (most recently as senior vice president and editor in chief of Hyperion Books), in digital media (as the founder and CEO of Cookstr.com), and as a journalist, writing for various publications including the New York Times and the South China Morning Post. His true-life book, The End of Your Life Book Club, tells the story of Schwalbe and his mother, who start a two-person book club after discovering she is terminally ill. The result is a profoundly moving testament to the power of love — and the power of reading — in our lives. Schwalbe is also the coauthor of Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Schwalbe ruminates on the best places to read, books that pair well together, procrastination and the writing process, the features of a good book cover, and the habit of peeking at book endings.
Michael Hearst (October 15 - 19)
Book | Guest Blogs
Michael Hearst is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and writer. His book, Unusual Creatures, offers a whimsical look at some of earth's strangest animals. Hearst is a founding member of the band One Ring Zero, whose albums include Planets and As Smart as We Are, and his solo works include Songs for Ice Cream Trucks and Songs for Unusual Creatures. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Hearst develops a recipe for fudge that resembles Wombat poop, pays homage to the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, introduces the world to the lovable cat Manny, and gives a detailed look at the books on his bookshelf. He also acknowledges that some creatures profiled in his book are so peculiar that words don't quite do them justice — you have to see them to believe them.
Terry Hope Romero (October 29 - November 2)
Books | Guest Blogs
Terry Hope Romero is a vegan chef and author of several bestselling and award-winning cookbooks. Her latest book, Vegan Eats World: 250 International Recipes for Savoring the Planet, gives a culinary world tour of bold, delicious vegan recipes based on international favorites. In 2011 Terry Hope Romero was named Favorite Cookbook Author by VegNews. She contributes to VegNews's Hot Urban Eats column and has hosted the public access/podcast vegan cooking show the Post Punk Kitchen. She lives in Queens, New York.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Terry Hope Romero battens down for Hurricane Sandy and then grapples with the aftermath of the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, shares recipes for Lazybones Pumpkin Bean Soup and Maple Pumpkin Flan, and discusses the state of vegan cuisine internationally.
Francesco Marciuliano (November 5 - 9)
Book | Guest Blogs
Francesco Marciuliano, the author of the internationally syndicated comic strip Sally Forth, helps cats unlock their creative potential in the tongue-in-cheek poetry book I Could Pee on This. Marciuliano was also the head writer for the highly praised PBS children's series SeeMore's Playhouse. He lives in New York City.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Experience a day in the life of Francesco Marciuliano, discover why cats are really masculine pets, read Marciuliano's insightful reviews of some lesser-known business books, ponder a revealing account of the very first Thanksgiving dinner (as told from a disgruntled teenager's standpoint), and gain insight on why artists dedicate so much time to "pursuits that more often than not result in frustration, pessimism, self-doubt, and poor credit ratings."
Hanna Neuschwander (November 12 - 16)
Book | Guest Blogs
Hanna Neuschwander has written extensively about the coffee-roasting movement in the Pacific Northwest for publications including Portland Monthly, Willamette Week, and Edible Portland. She began her career in coffee working as a barista and has since judged regional barista competitions and written for Barista magazine. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, where they possess an entire kitchen cabinet full of devices for making coffee. Left Coast Roast is her first book — a caffeine-fueled guide to 55 key companies in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.
Exclusive to Powells.com: Neuschwander explains why the coffee world's limited lexicon makes it a particularly difficult topic to write about. She discusses a photo essay from the photographer Richard Avedon called "Democracy." She shares the introduction she wrote for the fall anthology of Write Around Portland. She dedicates a post to Ricard, an anise-based liqueur that's a cousin to ouzo and sambuca. Lastly, she celebrates the Thanksgiving tradition of going around the table and giving thanks.
Jacob Tomsky (November 26 - 30)
Book | Guest Blogs
Jacob Tomsky is a dedicated veteran of the hospitality business. Well-spoken, uncannily quick on his feet, and no more honest than he needs to be, he has mastered every facet of the business. Born in Oakland, California, to a military family, Tomsky now lives in Brooklyn, New York. His first book, Heads in Beds, is a humorous, eye-opening, fantastically indiscreet memoir of a life spent (and misspent) in the hotel industry.
Exclusive to Powells.com: In a five-part series, Tomsky follows the Diggs, a typical American family that has traveled to Detroit for a three-night hotel stay. In Part One, Mr. Diggs hastily reserves a hotel room, and the family arrives at the hotel. In Part Two, the Diggs check into the hotel and learn the difference between a reservation "request" and a "guarantee." In Part Three, Tomsky takes a break from the Diggs' adventures and gives some background on his writing career and what led him to write Heads in Beds. In Part Four, the front-desk agent surprises Mr. Diggs with a room upgrade. And in Part Five, Mr. Diggs stops by the front desk to check out and reconcile the bill.