Lee K. Abbott: What We Are in the Dark (February 12, 1998)
A conversation with Lee K. Abbott
Chinua Achebe: An African Voice (August 2, 2000)
His 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart, marked a turning point for modern African literature. In his new book, Home and Exile, Chinua Achebe sees postcolonial cultures taking shape story by story.
Sherman Alexie: American Literature (June 1, 2000)
Sherman Alexie—poet, novelist, short-story writer, Native American—talks about his new book, The Toughest Indian in the World, and strikes out at the "eagle-feathers school of Native literature."
Julia Alvarez: In the Name of the Homeland (July 19, 2000)
Julia Alvarez, the Dominican-born novelist and poet, talks about her new historical novel, In the Name of Salomé, and about her need to write the stories that are hardest to tell.
Louis Auchincloss: The More the Merrier (October 15, 1997)
Louis Auchincloss has written fifty-four books in his eighty years. Now the author of The Atonement talks about Henry James, Edith Wharton, and a life of lawyering.
Trezza Azzopardi: Out of Hiding (February 1, 2001)
A conversation with the author of The Hiding Place, a dark debut novel that casts new light on a province and a people.
Andrea Barrett: The Science of Stories (January 30, 2002)
Andrea Barrett, the author of Servants of the Map, on how she combines her love of storytelling and her fascination with scientific inquiry.
Richard Bausch: Truth and Trouble (August 20, 1998)
A conversation with Richard Bausch
Charles Baxter: Desire Rules (August 7, 1997)
Charles Baxter, author of Believers and Burning Down the House, talks about violence, epiphany, and the mystery of the Midwest.
David Bezmozgis: From Toronto With Love (June 3, 2004)
David Bezmozgis talks about his sudden literary success and his first collection of stories, a wry and intimate portrait of a Russian-Jewish immigrant family.
Christopher Buckley: Veiled Optimism (August 3, 2004)
Christopher Buckley, the author of Florence of Arabia, talks about women's lib, exploding camels, and the making of the modern Middle East.
Robert Olen Butler: Faraway Voices (June 14, 2004)
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler talks about tapping into different points of view and writing "from the place where you dream."
Ethan Canin: How Did Your Life Turn Out? (November 25, 1998)
An interview with Ethan Canin, the author of the new novel For Kings and Planets, who believes the only story worth writing is the history of a human being.
Peter Carey: A Living, Breathing Hoax (October 22, 2003)
Peter Carey, the author of My Life as a Fake, talks about adding a dramatic new twist to an Australian literary legend.
James Carroll: Living Under War's Shadow (October 1, 2003)
A conversation with James Carroll, whose new novel, Secret Father, explores the political and emotional divisions of post-war Germany.
Jonathan Coe: Fast Times at King William's High (March 27, 2002)
A talk with the author of The Rotters' Club, a darkly humorous story of coming-of-age in 1970s England.
Edwidge Danticat: Grappling With Haiti's Beasts (June 22, 2004)
Edwidge Danticat talks about reconnecting with her homeland—and coming to terms with its legacy of violence—through fiction.
Peter Ho Davies: On the Sly (December 16, 1998 )
For Peter Ho Davies, the challenge is to slip fiction into history, and vice versa
Chitra B. Divakaruni: Imagined Homelands (October 4, 2004)
Chitra B. Divakaruni, author of Queen of Dreams, talks about the immigrant experience, magic realism, and incorporating 9/11 into her fiction.
Chitra B. Divakaruni: A Woman's Places (April 9, 1998)
A conversation with Chitra B. Divakaruni
Bret Easton Ellis: Portrait of the Artist as a Social Satirist (February 10, 1999)
Bret Easton Ellis—whose latest book, Glamorama, has predictably stirred up critics—talks about the line between life and art.
Nathan Englander: Worlds Apart (March 3, 1999)
A conversation with Nathan Englander.
Leslie Epstein: A Cold, Comic Heart (October 20, 1999)
Leslie Epstein, the author of the new novel Ice Fire Water, talks about Hollywood, the Holocaust, and why his critics are nuts.
Louise Erdrich: An Emissary of the Between-World (January 17, 2001)
A conversation with Louise Erdrich, whose stories occur in the "margin where cultures mix and collide"
Jonathan Franzen: Mainstream and Meaningful (October 3, 2001)
Jonathan Franzen, the author of The Corrections, discovers that, when it comes to fiction, "serious" doesn't have to mean "marginal" or "boring."
Tess Gallagher (July 10, 1997)
A conversation with the author
Cristina Garcia: The Nature of Inheritance (April 11, 2003)
A conversation with Cristina Garcia, whose new novel, Monkey Hunting, explores Cuban identity, immigrant life, and the way family history evolves.
Nadine Gordimer: After Apartheid (February 9, 2000)
Nobel Prize-winning author Nadine Gordimer talks about integrity, illumination, illiteracy, and the dubious relationship between art and social conflict.
Mary Gordon: Catholic. Woman. Writer (May 6, 1999)
Enough with the good-girl shtick, says the novelist Mary Gordon.
Larry Heinemann (June 25, 1997)
A conversation with the author
Zoë Heller: Learning in Public (June 12, 2003)
Zoë Heller, the author of What Was She Thinking?, talks about testing out a new point of view, and how journalism prepared her for fiction.
John Irving: The "What If?" Business (June 17, 1998)
John Irving, the author of A Widow for One Year, is a novelist for whom storytelling has always been a "necessity."
Kazuo Ishiguro: "Myths and Metaphors" (April 7, 2005)
Kazuo Ishiguro on Jane Austen, adapting his work for film, and his latest novel, Never Let Me Go.
Kazuo Ishiguro: A Fugitive Past (October 5, 2000)
Kazuo Ishiguro—the author of novels such as The Remains of the Day, The Unconsoled, and now When We Were Orphans—talks about memory, desire, and a loss of innocence.
Diane Johnson: An American in Paris (September 10, 2003)
Diane Johnson, whose novels limn the cultural differences between France and America, talks about our "abiding fascination" with the French and their country.
Bret Anthony Johnston: Stories to Break Our Hearts (July 15, 2004)
Bret Anthony Johnston talks about the fiction of grief and loss, skateboarding, and choosing a hometown setting for his first collection of stories.
Michael Joyce: The End of the Story (November 20, 1996)
Michael Joyce is one of the premier authors of hyperfiction in America. His new work, Twilight, A Symphony, transcends the limits of narrative and reveals the burden of infinite possibility.
Garrison Keillor: It's Just Work (October 8, 1997)
Garrison Keillor on radio, writing, and his perpetual revolt against piety
Dennis Lehane: Hookers, Guns, and Money (May 5, 2004)
Dennis Lehane talks about Mystic River, Hollywood, and "fiction of mortal event"
Margot Livesey: Character Is Action (December 3, 2004)
Margot Livesey talks about her new novel, Banishing Verona, and her commitment to writing literary page-turners.
Beth Lordan: An Odd Thing About Small Towns (February 11, 1999)
A conversation with Beth Lordan
Thomas Mallon: Jazz, Flappers, and Magazines (January 9, 2004)
Thomas Mallon talks about his new novel, Bandbox—a madcap caper through the zany publishing world of 1920s New York.
Bobbie Ann Mason: Poised for Possibility (September 19, 2001)
Bobbie Ann Mason, the author of Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail, talks about Bruce Springsteen, James Joyce, and discovering her own writing voice.
Colum McCann: Some Strange Vessel (July 16, 1998)
A conversation with Colum McCann, an Irish writer who, in his travels throughout America, has become "an inheritor of stories"
Thomas H. McNeely: Sympathy for a Killer (June 17, 1999)
A conversation with Thomas H. McNeely
Alice Munro: Bringing Life to Life (December 14, 2001)
A conversation with Alice Munro, whose stories are fueled by her fascination with the way people portray their own lives.
John Murray: Caught Between Places (April 2, 2003)
A conversation with John Murray, a doctor-turned-writer whose characters are often searching to reconcile their new lives with the ones they've left behind.
Antonya Nelson: Angles of Prose (April 11, 2002)
Antonya Nelson, the author of Female Trouble, talks about her unsentimental take on the untidy worlds her characters inhabit.
Edna O'Brien: Passion's Progress (April 20, 2000)
Edna O'Brien talks about how her new book, Wild Decembers—in which heartache is prefigured by a tractor—fits in with her own "inner gnaw."
Tim O'Brien: The "What If?" Game (October 30, 2002)
Tim O'Brien talks about his new novel, July, July, and the urge to wonder how life might have turned out differently.
Cynthia Ozick: The Many Faces of Cynthia Ozick (May 15, 1997)
A conversation with the author
Richard Price: Shades of Gray (February 26, 2003)
In his new novel, Samaritan, Richard Price returns to Dempsy, New Jersey—a world where "lines aren't so strictly drawn."
Francine Prose: As the World Thrums (March 11, 1998)
A conversation with Francine Prose
E. Annie Proulx: Imagination Is Everything (November 12, 1997)
A conversation with E. Annie Proulx
Marilynne Robinson: Gilead's Balm (November 17, 2004)
Marilynne Robinson talks about her long-awaited second novel and the holiness of the everyday.
George Saunders: A Satirist in Full Stride (May 17, 2000)
George Saunders, whose new collection of short stories has just been published, may be the most talented goof-off writing fiction today.
Christina Schwarz: "To Have and to Shine" (October 18, 2002)
Christina Schwarz talks about her new book, All Is Vanity—a dark comedy about the search for society's approval.
Vikram Seth: The Seth Variations (June 23, 1999)
Vikram Seth, the author of An Equal Music, discusses Indian writing, declares allegiance to poetry, and disagrees with Salman Rushdie.
Carol Shields: A Likely Story (January 14, 1999)
A conversation with Carol Shields.
Curtis Sittenfeld: Write What You Like (April 13, 2005)
Curtis Sittenfeld, the author of Prep, on literary page-turners and the problem with too much cleverness.
Jane Smiley: The Adventures of Jane Smiley (May 28, 1998)
An interview with the acclaimed author of A Thousand Acres (1991) and the new novel, The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton.
Susan Sontag: The Foreigner (April 13, 2000)
Susan Sontag—whose new novel, In America, has just been published—doesn't feel at home in New York, or anywhere else. And that's the way she likes it.
Elizabeth Stuckey-French: Wise Kids, Childish Adults (June 11, 1998 )
A conversation with Elizabeth Stuckey-French
Paul Theroux: The Perpetual Stranger (March 31, 2004)
Paul Theroux talks about writing and traveling—and the liberation that both provide.
Paul Theroux: All Change Is Fascinating (July 3, 1997)
Paul Theroux discusses his novel, Kowloon Tong, and the implications of the Hong Kong handover.
John Edgar Wideman: Body Language (October 7, 1998)
What's behind the work of John Edgar Wideman, the author of the new novel Two Cities, is simple: if you're going to talk the talk, walk the walk.
Tobias Wolff: The Writing Obsession (November 12, 2003)
Tobias Wolff on his new novel, Old School, an examination of literary ambition gone awry.
Tobias Wolff: An Eye for What Is Human (November, 1996)
Tobias Wolff talks about—and reads from—The Night in Question, his first collection of short stories in more than a decade.
Transcripts of a Troubled Mind (April 29, 2004)
The short, sad life of Breece D'J Pancake, whose writings in The Atlantic brought to life the dissipated Appalachian world in which he was raised.
Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Atlantic Monthly (December 3, 2003)
Writings by and about Nathaniel Hawthorne offer insight into his life and work.
The Cruel Wit of Evelyn Waugh (April 11, 2003)
Articles over fifty years trace the evolution of the bitter and controversial master of British farce, Evelyn Waugh.
Who Was Kipling? (May 24, 2002)
A sampling of writing from The Atlantic's past offers a range of views on the many contradictions of Rudyard Kipling.
The Public and Private Worlds of Charles Dickens (April 26, 2002)
Personal recollections, essays, and reviews by Edmund Wilson, David Lodge, and others, shed light on the life and career of Charles Dickens.
The House of Wharton (July 25, 2001)
The story of Wharton's association with The Atlantic, and a sampling of her poems, short stories, and critical reviews of her work.
Mark Twain in The Atlantic Monthly (June 25, 2001)
The story of Twain's association with The Atlantic, and a sampling of his writings.
Tracking Hemingway (July 21, 1999)
Atlantic articles from 1939 to 1983—by Edmund Wilson, Malcolm Cowley, Alfred Kazin, and others—track the strengths and weaknessnes of this American literary lion.
Henry James and The Atlantic Monthly (April 15, 1997)
A retrospective collection.
The Stories of Louisa May Alcott (July 1995)
Four short stories from The Atlantic Monthly demonstrate Alcott's little-known penchant for romantic fantasy.