PW Talks with Norberto Fuentes by Adam Rathe - 10/12/2009
Norberto Fuentes, a 66-year-old former Castro associate now living in exile in Florida, gets into the head of the commandant in his startling and surprisingly funny novel, The Autobiography of Fidel Castro. More
PW Talks with Leila Meacham by Melissa Mia Hall - 11/02/2009
Leila Meacham makes a grand return after a 20-year absence with Roses, a compelling East Texas saga with echoes of Gone with the Wind.
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Q & A with Amy Astley By Sophia Bennett Holmes - 10/29/2009
Q: What were you hearing from your readers that gave you the idea for this book?
A: I'm always around high school and college-age girls, and they all ask me the same questions: How do I get an internship? What should I study in college? Should I go to design school? What kind of education do I need for different jobs? I thought, We need a book that encapsulates advice about how to break in, how to stand out...
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Cooking the Books with Ann Mah By Lynn Andriani - 10/26/2009
Former Viking assistant editor Ann Mah left New York for Beijing, took a job as the dining editor for the English-language magazine That’s Beijing, and wrote a novel about a young Chinese-American woman who moves to Beijing in the midst of an identity crisis. Mah spoke to PW from Paris, where she now lives, about Kitchen Chinese: A Novel about Food, Family, and Finding Yourself, which Avon will publish as a paperback original in February.
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Q & A with Sharon Robinson By Sally Lodge - 10/22/2009
Q: What was the actual event that inspired this book?
A: In 1955, my parents moved our family from New York City to Stamford, Connecticut, and on our property was a lake that was a source of all kinds of pleasure for us throughout the seasons. The first winter we lived there, my siblings and I wanted to go ice-skating and my mother said we could - as long as my father tested the ice first to make sure it was safe. He agreed to do that - with reluctance. You see, he couldn't swim.
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Q & A with Elizabeth Partridge By Kathy Weeks - 10/15/2009
Q: Had you been contemplating a book on the Civil Rights Movement before you saw photographer Matt Herron’s photos? You credit him with jumpstarting the book.
A: No, I had not had the least inkling to do a book on the Civil Rights Movement. And then I ran into Matt’s Web site. I fell in love with his photos, 100 percent in love with what he had done on the march, and I just wanted to get those photos out there.
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Cooking the Books with Thomas Keller By Lynn Andriani - 10/12/2009
Chef Thomas Keller may be known for his high-end cooking (miniature salmon tartare ice cream cone, anyone?), but his newest book, Ad Hoc at Home, is his most accessible yet. Keller took a few minutes on a recent afternoon to sit in the yard outside The French Laundry in Napa Valley, California, to talk about why he loves comfort food.
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Q & A with Patrick Ness By Michael Levy - 10/08/2009
Q: Your first two books were written for adults. What made you decide to write YA fiction, and how is it different from writing adult fiction?
A: I was playing around with an idea for a long time. It didn’t originally start as a young adult novel. The voice was an adolescent voice, though, and I thought, "Well, that's interesting." I tried to let the material tell me what it was, rather than forcing it to be something. I found it really liberating, actually.
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