I am excited by... the new novel by Samantha Hunt. She's a writer I really admire a lot.

I am excited by... the new novel by Samantha Hunt. She's a writer I really admire a lot.

I'm trying to make sure that there's comedy as well as sadness. It makes the sadness more memorable.

I have worked really hard to defy categorization, to break down a taxonomy whenever it comes my way.

I judged about a zillion awards this year so Ive been reading a lot of books that just came out.

I suppose that the sympathetic/unsympathetic debate about characters sometimes feels to me like a misstatement of purpose. I always think of truly complex characters are falling between the cracks in that debate.

Updike worked this way, and I just kinda borrowed it from him. So the memoir will be relief from novel writing for a moment.