David Small interview

David Small is an incredibly successful illustrator and picture book writer. The man has won the Caldecott, the Christopher Medal and just about every other award. This year his new book was nominated for the National Book Award. “Stitches” is an amazing memoir and one of the year’s best books. Setting up a time to talk took forever but we had a great conversation with Small, who’s a true artist and has crafted what years from now will be called one of the great graphic memoirs right up there with Maus, Persepolis and Fun Home.

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Jules Feiffer, Stan Lee and Robert Crumb who thought the book was brilliant.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23932

Walter Kirn interview

A while back I talked with Walter Kirn. The ostensible topic was his new book “Lost in the Meritocracy” and its translation from a short essay in the Atlantic magazine to a book, but we went off on different tangents touching on his novels, education, the upcoming film version of his book “Up in the Air” and other topics. Kirn is in some ways the kind of writer I aspire to be, a successful novelist and journalist who lives in Montana. It was a great conversation.

http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a10680.asp