The Biblio File Hosted by Nigel Beale

Nigel Beale Interviews Author Meir Shalev

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:07:00 GMT

Meir Shalev, (pictured above with his sister) one of Israelâs most celebrated novelists,was born in 1948 in Nahalal, Israelâs first moshav. He is a bestselling author in Israel, Holland, and Germany; and he has been translated into more than twenty languages. His novels include A Pigeon and a Boy, Fontanelle, Alone In the Desert, But A Few Days, and Esau. Russian Romance (The Blue Mountain) is one of the top five bestsellers in Israeli publishing history. Shalev is often compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Prizes he has won include the Juliet Club Prize (Italy); The Chiavari (Italy); and The Brenner Prize of 2006âthe highest Israeli literary recognition awarded for his novel, A Pigeon and a Boy, published in the US by Random House in 2007.

I met Meir at The Blue Met Writers Festival in Montreal recently. We talk here about, among other things, television, satire, The Daily Show, great sentences, labels, Gogol, gardening and farming.

Please listen here:

Nigel Beale Interviews Bookseller Henrietta Dax, Clarke's Bookshop, Cape Town

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:49:00 GMT

Clarkeâs Bookshop, the most famous in Cape Town, specializes in selling southern African books to universities and libraries that teach and have an interest in same. Established in 1956 by Anthony Clarke, the Long Street shop today remains much the same as it was 50 plus years ago: filled with book-lined, wooden-floored rooms spread over two levels containing an eclectic mix of new and used, rare, out-of-print, academic and popular books sold to customers local and institutions foreign. Catalogues filled with books from among other countries Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana and South Africa itself, go out to the likes of Yale University, the Smithsonian Institute and the African Studies Centre in Holland, twice a year.

I spoke recently with owner Henrietta Dax who for more than thirty years has ventured forth annually to Mozambique, the US, the UK, and other more exotic locales buying, selling, bartering and stockpiling books she thinks will appeal to her customers. Please listen here:

Nigel Beale Interviews Author Margie Orford: On Bibliotherapy

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:15:00 GMT

Crime novelist, film director, childrenâs author and award winning journalist, Margie Orford was born in London and grew up in Namibia and South Africa. She has studied under J M. Coetzee, and worked in publishing with the African Publishers Network. In 1999 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and while in New York she worked on a groundbreaking archival retrieval project, WOMEN WRITING AFRICA: The Southern Volume. She lives in Cape Town, where we met recently to discuss another of her many projects: Fifteen Men, a collection of writing by South African prisoners, all of whom are serving very long sentences, with whom Margie spent a year leading a creative writing course. This book is the result. We talk here about her experience.

Nigel Beale Interviews Open Letter's Chad Post: On Translation

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 04:07:00 GMT

Open Letter is the University of Rochesterâs literary publishing house. â It is dedicated to connecting readers with great international authors and their works. Publishing twelve books a year and running an online literary website called Three Percent, Open Letter is one of only a handful of U.S. organizations with a commitment to cultivating an appreciation for international literature.â

âChad W. Post is the director of Open Letter, a press dedicated to publishing literature in translation. He also runs Three Percent, an online blog and review site focused on international literature. Prior to starting Open Letter, he was the associate director at Dalkey Archive Press. In addition, he co-founded Reading the World, a unique collaboration between publishers and independent bookstores to promote world literature.â We talk here among other things about the dominance of great non-English speaking novelists, Roberto BolaÃo, Julio Cortazar (Hopscotch is one of Postâs favourite novels), Jose Saramago and the phenomenon of one-foreign-author-at-a-time, reasons for the success of 2666, why American authors have the inside track, how economics works against translation, and the opportunities that exist in publishing foreign authors.

Please listen here: (Apologies for the rather abrupt ending).

Nigel Beale Interviews Author Damon Galgut

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 04:38:00 GMT

Credit: book.co.za

Damon Galgut is a writer based in Cape Town. He wrote his first novel, A Sinless Season (1984), when he was seventeen. Small Circle of Beings (1988), a collection of short stories, was followed by The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs (1991), the story of a young white man on military service who suffers a nervous breakdown. The Quarry (1995), was made into a film by a Belgian production company. The Good Doctor (2003), is set in post-Apartheid South Africa, and explores the relationship between two different men working in a deserted, rural hospital. It won the 2003 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa Region) and was shortlisted for both the 2003 Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His latest novel is The Impostor (2008).

We talk here about national and personal trauma, corruption and realpolitik, the shadow of J.M. Coetzee, South African literature as boundaried by massive inequalities, childhood cancer, ambiguity, the new class system, real world maturity and the need for compromise.

Please listen here:

Nigel Beale Interviews Author Andre Brink

Sat, 23 May 2009 00:07:00 GMT

This from contemporary writers: One of South Africaâs most distinguished writers, AndrÃ Brink was born in 1935. Poet, novelist, essayist and teacher, he began work as a University lecturer in Afrikaans and Dutch Literature in the 1960s. He began writing in Afrikaans, but when censored by the South African government, began to also write in English and became published overseas. He remains a key figure in the modernisation of the Afrikaans language novel.

His book, A Dry White Season (1979), was made into a film starring Marlon Brando while An Instant in the Wind (1976), the story of a relationship between a white woman and a black man, and Rumours of Rain (1978) were both shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Devilâs Valley (1998) explores the life of a community locked away from the rest of the world, and The Other Side of Silence (2002), set in colonial Africa in the early twentieth century, won a Commonwealth Writers regional award for Best Book in 2003. He has also written a collection of essays on literature and politics, Reinventing a Continent (1996), prefaced by Nelson Mandela.

He is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Cape Town. His latest novels are Praying Mantis (2005) and The Blue Door (2007). His memoir, A Fork in the Road, has just been published.

I met Andre Brink recently at his home in Cape Town. (His lovely young wife Karina greeted me at the door and led me into his book-lined study. Before entering the house however, I encountered this in the garden:

). Once seated we talked mostly about his life, about his father, about love and duty, justice, Apartheid, inter-racial sex, J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer; his love affair with poet Ingrid Jonker, her suicide, her poem âPlant me a Tree,â English as his second language, Picasso, recommended wines and staying in South Africa, despite his nephew having been shot dead by intruders last year at his home just north of Johannesburg.

Please listen here:

Copyright Â 2009 by Nigel Beale. www.nigelbeale.com

Nigel Beale Interviews Stephen Johnson, Managing Director of Random House Struik

Thu, 21 May 2009 02:48:00 GMT

Stephen Johnson is Managing Director of the recently formed South African publishing firm Random House Struik. We talk here about the merger, the independence of SABC (the state owned South African Broadcasting Corporation), Cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, Random House Struikâs political power, Apartheidâs banning of Anna Sewellâs Black Beauty, the current governmentâs under-funding of libraries, political corruption and the loss of early promise, Apartheid by other means, freedom, story-telling and other explanations for South Africaâs flourishing publishing sector, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Jacob Zumaâs shower head, and plans Johnson has for the future of his company.

Please listen here:

Nigel Beale Interviews Franschhoek Literary Festival Director Jenny Hobbs

Tue, 12 May 2009 21:19:00 GMT

JENNY HOBBS is a novelist and freelance journalist who lives in Franschhoek, South Africa. She is the author of four novels, Thoughts in a Makeshift Mortuary, The Sweet-Smelling Jasmine, The Telling of Angus Quain, and Video Dreams, four non-fiction books, and short stories published and broadcast locally and by the BBC. She reviewed books for many years and has written for and worked on TV book programmes, both as a presenter and interviewer.

Sheâs also the Literary Director of the Franschhoek Literary Festival, now in its third year. The event has enjoyed success from its opening page. Last year the Commonweath Writerâs Prize chose Franschhoek as the place to announce its winner (Canadian Lawrence Hill). We talk here about how the Festival came about, and what it takes to make it happen.

Nigel Beale Interviews Frye Festival Chair Dawn Arnold

Sun, 10 May 2009 23:06:00 GMT

Dawn Arnold is Chair of the Frye Festival in Moncton, New Brunswick. Jane Urquhart, Wayne Johnston, Neil Smith, Alexandre Jardin and Miriam Toews are among the many authors who will participate in this yearâs ten day event.

Dawn and I talk here about the history of the Festival, Northrop Fryeâs thoughts on imagination and new worlds, the benefits to children of learning more than one language, how writing affects understanding, Moncton strip clubs, Acadie, French language childrensâ authors, Richard Ford, classroom visits, and inspired students. For more information on this yearâs Frye Festival please click here.

Please listen to our conversation here:

Nigel Beale Interviews Pittsburgh Post Gazette Books Editor Bob Hoover

Thu, 7 May 2009 20:06:00 GMT

Pittsburgh Post Gazette Books Editor Bob Hoover has written about books with the paper for more than 20 years. We talk here, at a noisy diner

in the shadow of the Heinz ketchup factory, about the role of a books editor, Pittsburghâs lively literary arts scene, blogs, the 800-900 review copies Bob receives each month, and keeping readers current about everything book related. We also talk about Bobâs connection with authors David McCullough and Michael Chabon, and his disconnect with Philip Roth and Paul Theroux; about Ernest Hemingwayâs Cuban home, and the reviewing genius of John Updike.

Please listen here:

The Biblio File Interview with Priscila Uppal, by Nigel Beale: On Canadian Elegies, and mourning

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:28:00 GMT

Poet, author, Priscila Uppal, an English professor too at York University, challenges traditional psychological and anthropological models of mourning in her new book We Are What We Mourning: The Contemporary English-Canadian Elegy, suggesting that Canadians mourn differently.

Traditional models define successful mourning in terms of detachment from the loved one who has died; the ability to cut the strings of grief, and to step into the roles of mothers and fathers vacated by the dead. To become unnecessarily identified with grief and death is, according to traditional views, to fail at mourning. To succeed - to maintain health- one must âmove on;â accept that the dead are gone; celebrate the fact that they are in heaven. All of this Uppal debunks.

After reading thousands of Canadian elegies she concludes that mourning, at least in late 20th century Canada, is not about forgetting, but about claiming identity. You are, she says, what you mourn. And we, apparently, mourn our parents in elegies to a much greater extent than do others in the U.S. and U.K., for example, who tend to mark the death of youth more frequently with this poetic form.

Many immigrants to Canada didnât know their parents very well; didnât know their countries of origin, didnât learn much about their traditions. In order to take over the roles their parents played - to learn about themselves - many have used mourning as a way to create and recreate the past; as a means to carry on into the future. Art - the elegy - is used as a way to attached to the past, and to connect and incorporate it into the present. What you mourn - what it is you are upset about losing - will determine, according to Uppal, how you see history.

We talk about all of these topics, why and how the work of mourning has so drastically changed in Canada during the latter half of the twentieth century, why the contemporary English-Canadian elegy emphasizes connection rather than separation between the living and the dead.

Please listen to a âlivelyâ conversation here:

The Biblio File Interview with Chris Cleave, by Nigel Beale: On Little Bee

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:24:00 GMT

Chris Cleave was born in London and spent his early years in Cameroon. He studied Experimental Psychology at Balliol College, Oxford, and now writes a column for the Guardian newspaper. His debut novel Incendiary won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, and is now a feature film. Chris lives in London with his wife and two children.

We met recently to talk about his engaging, important new novel Little Bee. Topics discussed include masks, truth-telling, trauma, trust, happiness, the struggle to survive, Maslowâs hierarchy of needs and its deficiencies, asylum seekers are true heroes, engaging with the developing world, people in transition, life-changing events, sexual adventurousness, making sense of life retrospectively, inane reality TV shows and the need for refugees to tell their heroic stories convincingly.

Please listen here:

The Biblio File: Interview with Jessa Crispin, Founder, Editor Bookslut, by Nigel Beale.

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:12:00 GMT

Jessa Crispin is editor and founder of Bookslut.com " a monthly web magazine and daily blog dedicated to those who love to read. We provide a constant supply of news, reviews, commentary, insight, and more than occasional opinions." Author Jana Martin describes her this way:

"Certainly sheâs a reader, a great reader, and she knows how to make one good party after another, whether in a beer-poster-clad upstairs room at the Hopleaf or Bookslut. Sheâs a hostess for all of us, a sundressâd impressario. In that way she belongs on the same hearty category as Mike McGonigal: self-made, peripatetic, generous but with standards and boundaries. The other thing is that, like McGonigal, she gives off a slightly timeless vibe: a bit San Francisco 1950s, a bit Chianti in Greenwich Village, a bit rockabilly, a bit Christinaâs World."

We met at her home recently in Chicago, and talked about, among other things, the origins of Bookslut, her underemployment at Planned Parenthood, ex-boyfriends, blog advertising, hiring writers, shrinking book review sections, writing for oneself, inexplicable successes, the name âBookslutâ and thoughts of changing it, Somerset Maugham, favourite novels, and the future of blogs.

The Biblio File Interview with Keith Fiels, Executive Director, American Library Association by Nigel Beale

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:06:00 GMT

I was in Chicago recently and met with Keith Michael Fiels, Executive Director (since July 2002) of the American Library Association. According to The ALA Constitution the purpose of ALA is ââto promote library service and librarianship.â Stated mission is âTo provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.â In 1998 the ALA Council voted commitment to five Key Action Areas as guiding principles for directing the Associationâs energies and resources: Diversity, Equity of Access, Education and Continuous Learning, Intellectual Freedom, and 21st Century Literacy. Subsequent strategic plans added to these: Advocacy for Libraries and the Profession, and Organizational Excellence.

Keith and I talk here about, among other things, these principles, the benefits of belonging to the ALA, simple actions librarians can take to improve their libraries, the future of the book, the future of libraries, video games, copyright, digitization, the recent Google settlement, library fines, libraries as social centers, amalgamation of libraries and archives, access to databases and dead links, the importance of libraries as purchasers of non best-selling books, and the bounce-back of literary reading.

The Biblio File Interview with Levi Stahl: On the role of a University Press Publicity Manager

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:44:00 GMT

A lifelong resident of Illinois, Levi Stahl works at the University of Chicago Press. For the past three years he has maintained a literary blog, Iâve Been Reading Lately. He has written for the Poetry Foundation, the Chicago Reader, the Bloomsbury Review, the New-York Ghost, the Quarterly Conversation, and McSweeneyâs Internet Tendency. His short fiction has recently been published in the New York Moon. Levi is also an editor with Joyland - Chicago edition (heâs currently accepting submissions from current and/or former Chicagoans. For more information, you can e-mail him at levistahlATgmail.com)

We met recently in Chicago to talk about his role as publicity manager for the University of Chicago Press. Early on we talk about copy writing and appealing to as many different audiences as possible, about tours and dealing with the media, about differences between university and mainstream publishers, Modernism, Robert Graves, black and white comedy teams, and finally, about the role Levi played in getting the UCP to re-issue a series of Richard Stark (pen name of Donald Westlake, who, sadly, died the day before we conducted our interview) âParkerâ mystery novels, most notably The Hunter, which, though stained through with violent âthuggeryâ is, according to Levi, very well written, and filled with insight into humanity.

The Biblio File Interview with Rain Taxi Editor Eric Lorberer, by Nigel Beale

Thu, 5 Feb 2009 23:23:00 GMT

Mr. Wikipedia tells us: "Rain Taxi is a Minneapolis-based book review and literary organization. In addition to publishing its quarterly print edition, Rain Taxi maintains an online edition with distinct content, sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosts readings, and publishes chapbooks through its Brainstorm Series. Rain Taxiâs mission is âto advance independent literary culture through publications and programs that foster awareness and appreciation of innovative writing.â As of 2008, the magazine distributes 18,000 copies through 250 bookstores as well as to subscribers. The magazine is free on the newsstand. It is also available through paid subscription. Structurally, Rain Taxi is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. It sells advertising at below market rates, much of it to literary presses."

Rain Taxiâs website tells us that the publication is a winner of the Alternative Press Award for Best Arts & Literature Coverage that runs âreviews of literary fiction, poetry, and nonfiction with an emphasis on works that push the boundaries of language, narrative, and genre. Essays, interviews, and in-depth reviews reflect Rain Taxiâs commitment to innovative publishing.â

I dined and conversed with RainTaxi editor Eric Lorberer , indoors, recently in Minneapolis. We talk here about the state and nature of todayâs book reviewing business. Please excuse the abrupt ending.

The Biblio File Interview with Used Bookstore Owner Kathy Stransky, by Nigel Beale

Thu, 5 Feb 2009 23:19:00 GMT

Kathy Stransky co-owner, with her husband, of Midway Used and Rare Books on University Avenue in St. Paul Minnesota for the past 27 years, talks about the impact of the Internet, Half Price Books moving in down the street, high tech book scouts, rapid transit, and thieves, on her business. Gloom and doom? Yes, itâs been hard, but still, despite diminishing returns, nothing can beat doing what you love for a living. Nothing can beat the complete joy of reading either, says Stransky. Listen too for the two authors who are most in demand among book thieves.

The Biblio File Interview with ABC Canada Literacy Foundation President Margaret Eaton, by Nigel Beale

Thu, 5 Feb 2009 23:17:00 GMT

Today is Family Literacy Day! Literacy is defined as âthe ability to understand and employ printed information in daily activities at home, at work and in the community - to achieve oneâs goals, and to develop oneâs knowledge and potential.â Four out of 10 adult Canadians, age 16 to 65 - representing 9 million Canadians - struggle with low literacy according to Statistics Canada. This means they are denied the pleasures and benefits of, among other things, reading literature. Literature, as John Carey puts it in the final chapter of his book What Good are the Arts?, enlarges your mind, and it gives you thoughts, words and rhthms that will last you for life.

With this in mind, we talk to Margaret Eaton, President of the ABC Canada Literacy Foundation about what is being done to help those who live with illiteracy to overcome this obstacle. In so doing we discuss the impact of the Internet on reading habits and the income of freelance writers, the future of the book, blogging, publishersâ business models, and bringing the U.K.âs successful Quick Reads program,which commissions authors (including Ruth Rendall, Joanna Trollope and Richard Branson), to write exciting, short, fast-paced books specifically for adult emergent readers, to Canada. Margaret is now looking for well know Canadian authors to write true crime, and how-to titles, both of which were very popular in England. I immediately suggest William Deverell, and a canât miss how-to topic: Seven Steps to Phenomenal Sex.

Please listen here:

The Biblio File Interview with Antiquarian Book Dealer Robert Rulon-Miller, by Nigel Beale

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 16:22:00 GMT

Robert Rulon-Miller is an antiquarian book dealer who lives, if not in a mansion, then at the very least in a great big house on Summit Avenue, one of the toniest in St. Paul, Minnesota. Not that toiling as a bookseller is anyway to get rich quick. He has worked hard for many years in the business, specializing in 'Rare, Fine & Interesting Books in Many Fields; 1st Editions, Americana; LIterature; Fine & Early Printing; Travel; and the History of Language.' His most recent catalogue is titled Language and Learning. Robert is also the Director of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar scheduled for August 2nd-7th, 2009, at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, immediately following the Denver Antiquarian Book Fair.

We met recently at his home to talk books. Topics covered include deaccessioning, Railway and mining tycoon James J. Hill, Robert"s friendship with Elmer Anderson, book collector adn Governor of Minnesota; Robertâs interest in words and language, his expertise in dictionaries and grammars and lack of interest in Dr. Johnsonâs Dictionary, Better World Booksâs business model, partnering to buy and sell expensive books, and advice for the novice bookseller.

Please listen here

The Biblio File Interview with Walker Arts Center Librarian Rosemary Furtak by Nigel Beale: On Artist Book

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 16:19:00 GMT

Rosemary Furtak has been librarian at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for 25 year. She is co-curator of âText Messagesâ, an exhibit on artistâs books currently showing (until April 2009) at the Center. We talk here about her early championing of the artist book genre (her definition being: "a book that refuses to behave like a book (like the 35,000 books that sit in the stacks"), the line between books and art, and words and art, and librarians and curatorsâand how to go about collecting artist books. We talk too about the challenges of cataloguing artist Ed Ruschaâs 26 Gasoline Stations,

about the prolific and surprising Dieter Roth, inexpensive materials and Richard Tuttle, and Lawrence Weiner, his Statements and his art making process. The works of these four are highlighted in the exhibition.

Please listen here:

The Biblio File Interview with Victoria Glendinning, by Nigel Beale: On Biography

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:05:00 GMT

Photo by NB

Biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist Victoria Glendinning was born in Sheffield, and educated at Somerville College, Oxford, where she read Modern Languages. She worked as a teacher and social worker before becoming an editorial assistant for the Times Literary Supplement in 1974.

President of English PEN, she was awarded a CBE in 1998. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Southampton, Ulster, Dublin and York. Her biographies include Elizabeth Bowen: Portrait of a Writer, 1977; Edith Sitwell: A Unicorn Among Lions (1981), which won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for biography) and the Duff Cooper Prize; and Rebecca West: A Life (1987), and Vita: The Life of V. Sackville-West (1983) and Trollope (1992) both of which won the Whitbread Biography Award.

We talk here ostensibly about her latest book, Loveâs Civil War: Elizabeth Bowen and Charles Ritchie: Letters and Diaries 1941- 1973 but in fact, mostly about the nature of biography,the difference between editing letters and writing lives, fabricating dialogue, compiling data, selecting facts; the importance of place, material and familial limitations, life over art, Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville West, Sissinghurst, and text versus context.

Please listen to the Biblio File interview here:

The Biblio File Interview with actress Tanja Jacobs, by Nigel Beale: On playing Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:42:00 GMT

Now Photo By Steve Payne

"Tanja Jacobs is a well known actress, director, teacher and coach. She has worked in the professional theatre since 1981, and performed at most major theatres in Canada. She has been nominated for ten Dora Mavor Moore Awards and has won twice. As a director, her credits include 1002 Nights, Johannâs Cabinet of Wonders, Goddess, and Mid-Life Crisis . On television, besides her role as federal employee SM3 Sexsmith on Power Play, Jacobs guest starred on many Canadian shows including Ready or Not and Street Legal. Film credits include "Trial by Jury" and "Loser"." She recently finished a run at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa as Winnie in Samuel Beckettâs Happy Days directed by Leah Cherniak.

Happy Days, written in 1961, observes determined human optimism in the face of a universe without meaning. Winnie, Beckettâs "hopeful futilitarian" is buried up to her waist in the earth, woken and summoned to bed each day by the same disembodied bell. Throughout the days, she performs a series of carefully observed rituals all related to the contents of a worn, old black purse. She combs her hair, applies lipstick, painstakingly examines a toothbrush, toys with a nail file, a tube of toothpaste and a revolver, all the while chattering at her inattentive companion, Willie. Hopeless yet hopeful; bleak yet funny, Happy Days is Beckettâs "testament to the resourcefulness of the human spirit"

Tanja and I talk here about playing Winnie, the difficulty of working at cliffâs edge without a narrative, talking, doing nothing and the need for communication and attention, loneliness, mid-life marriages, revolvers, supportive fellow actors, the quality of attachment and mirroring, the imperative to carry on, suffering and the avoidance of and surrendering to pain in front of an audience, revisiting moments of terror and fright and aloneness and the agony of doing this as someone who has been abandoned, the unbearable parts of being human, and how the use of simple descriptives can generate profound distilled moments, poems of events.

To start off with I quote V.S. Pritchett on Beckett. Read the quote here.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File Interview with Poet Christian Mcpherson, by Nigel Beale

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:39:00 GMT

Born, raised and currently resident in Ottawa, Canada, Christian McPhersonâs poetry has appeared in a variety of print and online journals. He has won the John Spenser Hill Award and the Ottawa Public Library Short story Award. We met recently to discuss his first published collection called Poems that Swim from my Brain like Rats leaving a Sinking Ship. Please listen here as we talk, among other things, about death, the misery of TV news, and a light hearted approach to life:

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File Interview with Ross Raisin, by Nigel Beale

Wed, 7 Jan 2009 21:21:00 GMT

Ross Raisin is a young British author born in Keighley, Yorkshire. He has studied at the University of London, worked as a trainee wine bar manager and completed a postgraduate degree in creative writing at Goldsmith's College. His debut novel Out Backward (God's Own Country in England) was published in 2008, and shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. It features Sam Marsdyke, a disturbed adolescent living in a harsh rural environment, and tracks his journey from an oddity to a malevolent, insane, psychopath.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File Interview with Nadeem Aslam, by Nigel Beale

Tue, 6 Jan 2009 20:33:00 GMT

Nadeem Aslam was born in Pakistan in 1966, moved to the UK as a teenager and now lives in London. He studied Biochemistry at the University of Manchester, but left to become a writer. His first novel, Season of the Rainbirds (1993) won a Betty Trask Award and the Authorsâ Club First Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award. His second novel, Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), which took 11 years to write, won the 2005 Encore Award and the 2005 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize.

We met in Toronto recently at the IFOA, to talk about his latest novel The Wasted Vigil, about technique, self knowledge, writing 100 page biographies of his characters, the universal from the particular, Afghanistan, war, politics, love, the ignorance of history, Flaubert, Proust, isolation, engagement and Yorkshire.

Listen to the Biblio File interview with Nigel Beale here:

The Biblio File Interview with Anne Enright, by Nigel Beale: On what constitutes a good short story

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:01:00 GMT

This is part three of a series of interviews conducted with three acclaimed short storywriters: Rebecca Rosenblum, Nam Le, and Anne Enright. In each case we riff off those qualities which Flannery OâConnor thought best constituted a good short story. Iâve listed some of them here.

Anne Enright was born in Dublin in 1962, studied English and Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, and went on to study for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She is a former RTE television producer. Her short story collection, The Portable Virgin was published in 1991, and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Two collections of stories, Taking Pictures and Yesterdayâs Weather were published in 2008. Her novels are The Wig My Father Wore (1995); What Are You Like? winner of the 2001 Encore Award ; The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch (2002); and The Gathering (2007) which won the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

We met at the IFOA in Toronto recently to talk about the short story, and, in so doing , about Beckettâs Happy Days, housewives with problems, ideology, awakenings, charactersâ voices, self deception, just doing it, James Joyce and women writers.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File Interview with Joe Dunthorne, by Nigel Beale

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:29:00 GMT

Joe Dunthorne is a graduate of the Creative Writing Masters at UEA, where he was awarded the Curtis Brown Prize. His poetry has been published in Reactions 5, Magma, Smiths Knoll and Tears in the Fence. His work has been featured on Channel 4, BBC Radio 3, 4 and in The Guardian and Vice magazine. We met recently at the IFOA in Toronto to discuss his debut novel, Submarine, why the behavior of teenage boys is often seen as abominable, the importance of getting laid, ambiguous characters, depression, the brilliance of novelist W.G. Sebald, East Anglia University, how humour works, and dustjackets which both attract attention

and complement content.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File Interview with Bruno Racine, President, BibliothÃ¨que Nationale de France, by Nigel Beale

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:44:00 GMT

Bruno Racine was appointed President of the National Library of France on April 2 2007. Over the years he has held many senior postions within the French government including: Director General Cultural Affairs for the City of Paris (1988-1993), Director of lâAcadÃmie de France Ã Rome (1997-2002), and Chairman du Centre Pompidou (2002-2007). He is also a writer. Non-fiction books include his best selling: Art of living in Rome and Art of living in Tuscany. His novel the Governor of MorÃe (Grasset) won Franceâs First Novel Prize in 1982.

We talk here about the role of a national library, about scanning and digitization, Google, the Lyon library (Franceâs second largest), Europeana, the value added offered by Librarians, Canadaâs amalgamation of its National Archives and Library, the unlikelihood that France will follow suit, public servant novelists, Stendhal, and failure and success in careers and love.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File Interview with Amitav Ghosh, by Nigel Beale

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:44:00 GMT

AMITAV GHOSH is one of Indiaâs best-known writers. His books include The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, Incendiary Circumstances and The Hungry Tide. Born in Calcutta in 1956 Ghosh studied in Dehra Dun, New Delhi, Alexandria and Oxford. His first job was at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi. He earned a doctorate at Oxford before he wrote his first novel, which was published in 1986. He is married to the writer, Deborah Baker, and has two children, Lila and Nayan. He divides his time between Kolkata, Goa and Brooklyn.

We met recently at the IFOA in Toronto to talk about his most recent novel, Sea of Poppies, the first volume in a planned trilogy. Among other things we discuss how novels tell the stories of silenced, unheard voices, sailing, Mauritius, multi-racial crews, opium, the Caste system and the pleasures of research.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File Copyright Nigel Beale 2008

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The Biblio File Interview with Junot Diaz, by Nigel Beale

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 22:45:00 GMT

Junot DÃaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and is the author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which won the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. He is the fiction editor at the Boston Review and the Rudge (1948) and Nancy Allen professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

We met recently at the IFOA in Toronto, and talked about, among other things storytelling as a way to give voice to lost life, unique characters, 9/11 and Americaâs dual response: Why donât they like us? and Weâre gonna bomb them into the stone age; gaps, how to inject humour and energy into a text, and the Dominican Republic as the egg from which the U.S. eagle sprang.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

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The Biblio File Interview with Rivka Galchen on her first novel Atmospheric Disturbances

notabenebeale@gmail.com — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:34:00 GMT

Rivka Galchen was born in Toronto. She grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, where her father, Tzvi Gal-Chen, was a professor of meterology at the University of Oklahoma. Her novel Atmospheric Disturbances features a character with the same name, Tzvi Gal-Chen, a professor of meterology and a fellow of the (fictional) Royal Academy of Meterology.

Galchen attended Princeton University, where she was an English major, and applied in her sophomore year to an early-admissions program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She received her M.D. from Mount Sinai in 2003, with a focus in psychiatry. After completing medical school, she completed an MFA at Columbia University. Farcically, Atmospheric Disturbances was nominated for Canadaâs Governor Generalâs Award for fiction (she left the country when she was four years old). No way she was going to win; still, on the flip side, provides nice exposure for both prize and author.

We talk here among other things about denial, death, fathers, unreliable narrators, James Wood, Walter Benjamin, science, consensus knowledge, and being stoned.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)
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The Biblio File: Interview with Nam Le, Author of The Boat, and winner of the 2008 Dylan Thomas Prize, by Nigel Beale.

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:34:00 GMT

Nam Le has won this yearâs Â60,000 Dylan Thomas Prize. It recognizes the best young writer in the English-speaking world with the goal of ensuring that the inspirational nature of Dylanâs writing lives on.

I met with Nam in Toronto recently at the IFOA. This is part two of a series of interviews conducted with three acclaimed short storywriters: Rebecca Rosenblum , Nam Le, and Anne Enright. In each case we riff off those qualities which Flannery OâConnor thought best constituted a good short story. Iâve listed some of them here.

Nam Le is author of The Boat, a collection of âstories that take us from the slums of Colombia to the streets of Tehran; from New York City to Iowa City; from a fishing village in Australia to a floundering vessel in the South China Sea, in a masterful display of literary virtuosity and feeling.â

We talk, among other things, about never condescending to the reader, the prose having to be smarter than its author: tapping into things seen, but a just beyond their ken; gaps and allowing the reader to put their experiences into them; getting into the consciousness of characters; relinquishing ego; the difficulty of writing short stories â and the greatness of those who can do it well; spring-boarding detail and gearing it for expansion; and affecting paradoxical senses of recognition, wonder and redemption.

For more interviews and book reviews www.nigelbeale.com

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The Biblio File: Interview with Joseph Boyden 2008 Giller Prize Winner by Nigel Beale.

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Joseph Boyden has just won The 2008 Giller Prize for his novel Through Black Spruce. We talk here about the novel, and the psychic distance Joseph requires to write novels about Northern Ontario and the Cree; the similarities between North and South, James Bay and New Orleans; snowmobiling over vast amounts of snow-covered bush, isolation in the wilderness; bridges between communities, oral culture, First Nation humour, respect for myths and legends, and soapboxes. Please excuse the abrupt ending!

For more interviews and book reviews www.nigelbeale.com Copyright Â 2008 by Nigel Beale. www.nigelbeale.com

The Biblio File: Tips on how to run a successful used book Sale. Interview with Beryl Barr

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:08:00 GMT

Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library, founded in 1946, is a not-for-profit organization for people interested in books and libraries. Its purpose is to stimulate public interest in the library, purchase library materials, and support other cultural and educational programs in Tompkins County. Each year since inception the Friends have held a book sale in Ithaca New York.

It now ranks among the ten largest (250,000 to 300,000 books, CDs, records, etc. per year) in the United States.

Beryl Barr

is the currently in charge of the Book Sale. I talked with her recently, and asked her to give listeners her top ten hints on how best to run a used book sale.

Hereâs our conversation:

For more interviews and book reviews www.nigelbeale.com

The Biblio File: How to Make Paper for Books: Interview with David Curruthers by Nigel Beale

notabenebeale@gmail.com — Wed, 5 Nov 2008 13:13:00 GMT

Posted in AUDIO:Book People

David Curruthers, owner proprietor of St. Armand Papers in Montreal takes us through the process of how he produces paper that is used in the letterpress

printing of books. We talk here ( please see bottom of this post) about pure fibre rags,

old jute coffee bags, cover stock, denim

and blue paper, beaters

pulp

vat-like structures for pulp

and machines that take 95% of the moisture out of the pulp

and flatten it so that it can been stored in sheets that look and feel like blotting

paper,

and then treated with substances such as potato starch, clay and/or chalk, depending upon the end use of the paper. We also talk about opacity, smooth laid paper, end leafs, machine grain and bookmarks.

Please listen here:

For more interviews and book reviews www.nigelbeale.com

The Biblio File: Interview with Poet Michael Lista: Danger and James Joyce

Tue, 4 Nov 2008 16:04:00 GMT

Posted in AUDIO: Poets

I first heard about Michael Lista in a workshop conducted by Meeka Walsh, Editor of Border Crossings magazine. She raved about him: "Michael is a remarkably gifted young poet who lives in Montreal. He has a special interest in the points of intesection between science and poetics."

These points live dramatically in the person of Louis Slotin, a scientist from Winnipeg involved in the Manhattan project and development of the atomic bomb, and Listaâs desire to capture a day in his life. On May 21, 1946, Slotin conducted a dangerous experiment referred to by his fellow scientists as "tickling the dragonâs tail." Using a framework of existing poems, in the way that James Joyce used Homerâs Odyssey, Lista has borderline plagarized them in a collection which documents this May day. The book will be entitled Bloom. Anansi will publish it.

"Out of admiration for the virtuosity of Slotinâs achievements - with the attendant hubris and arrogance necessary to take risks and make anything new - and taking on those qualities in his own work, Listaâs poems do glitter, but more lastingly than that word would suggest. Dazzle too has a showiness I donât mean to imply but the wit is so apparent. At the same time the tone is held and is exactly what the subject requires in this poetic construction."

Revisiting my Salon des Refuses experience in the last post, I am reminded of how rarely one encounters great literary work. Poetry especially. Pablo Neruda, Ted Hughes, Robin RobertsonâI knew immediately upon first reading their poems that something extraordinary was happening. Their words rubbed up against my experience and sensibilities in ways that satisfied like few others have.

I felt something of this while reading the handful of poems Michael sent me (please find three in a future post) in advance of our conversation. We talk here about the suicidal dangers of emulating Joyceâs Ulysses, and the bookâs unapproachability; punning, the multiple meanings of bloom, epiphanies, coincidences, translation, sex and physics, life and death.

For more interviews and book reviews www.nigelbeale.com

The Biblio File: What Constitutes a Good Short Story (1): Interview with Rebecca Rosenblum

notabenebeale@gmail.com — Sat, 1 Nov 2008 17:45:00 GMT

This is part one of a series of interviews conducted with three acclaimed short storywriters: Rebecca Rosenblum, Nam Le, and Anne Enright. In each case we riff off those qualities which Flannery OâConnor thought best constituted a good short story. Iâve listed some of them here.

We start with Rebecca Rosenblum, author of Once, " a collection of sixteen stories portraying the constricted and confused lives of the rootless twenty-somethings â students, office techies, waitresses, warehouse labourers, street hustlers â who inhabit them. These are stories grounded in the all-too-real comedy and tragedy of jobs and friendships and romances, books and buses and bodies." This debut collection won The Metcalf Rooke Award.

Please listen here:

The Biblio File: What Makes Vampires so Appealing? Interview with Patricia McCarthy by Nigel Beale

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:29:00 GMT

Patricia K. Macarthy is author of The Crimson Series, three books, to date, about vampires. We talk here about what makes Vampires so appealing to so many people, about their being symbolic of manâs desire for supremacy, womenâs desire to be consumed, about the fringe elements of society, the attraction of eternal youth and immortality, confidence, the perfect villian whose weapon is seduction, alpha males, power, the lack of conscience, film, Halloween, the draw of fantasy, the defiance of death and the preciousness of time.

During our conversation reference is made to poems by Byron and Goethe. Both example early literary treatment of Vampires [see vampires (and vampire fiction)].

The Vampire Female: "The Bride of Corinth" (1797) by: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(1) Once a stranger youth to Corinth came,

Who in Athens lived, but hoped that he

From a certain townsman there might claim,

As his fatherâs friend, kind courtesy.

(2) Son and daughter, they

Had been wont to say

Should thereafter bride and bridegroom be.

But can he that boon so highly prized,

Save tis dearly bought, now hope to get?

They are Christians and have been baptized,

He and all of his are heathens yet.

(3) For a newborn creed,

Like some loathsome weed,

Love and truth to root out oft will threat.

Father, daughter, all had gone to rest,

And the mother only watches late;

She receives with courtesy the guest,

And conducts him to the room of state.

The Giaour by Lord Byron was first published in 1813 and the first in his Oriental romance series. It proved to be a great success, consolidating Byronâs reputation critically and commercially. Hereâs how it starts:

No breath of air to break the wave

That rolls below the Athenianâs grave,

That tomb which, gleaming oâer the cliff,

First greets the homeward-veering skiff,

High oâer the land he saved in vain;

When shall such hero live again?

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The Biblio File Interview with Margaret Visser on The Gift of Thanks

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 19:14:00 GMT

Margaret Visser (born May 11, 1940) is a writer/broadcaster who lives in Toronto, Barcelona, and France. Her subject matter is the history, anthropology, and mythology of everyday life.

Born in South Africa, she attended school in Zambia, Zimbabwe, France (the Sorbonne) and Canada. She taught Greek and Latin at York University for 18 years.

Her books include Much Depends on Dinner, The Rituals of Dinner, The Way We Are, and The Geometry of Love; all have been best sellers. Many have won awards. Her most recent work is called The Gift of Thanks, published by HarperCollins. It asks: What do we really mean by Thank you? What are the implications of gratitude, and why are we so enraged when we meet its opposite?

In this conversation Visser tells us, among other things, that gratitude involves thinking, that gift giving takes the place of war, that apparently simple actions and behavior are in fact surprisingly complex, and that gratitude and gift giving is natural because humans beings are innate imitators. Oh yes. And we also talk about sexual gratification!

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The Biblio File Interview with Miriam Toews, author The Flying Troutmans

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:04:00 GMT

This from Random House: "Miriam Toewsâwas born in 1964 in the small Mennonite town of Steinbach, Manitoba. She left Steinbach at eighteen, living in Montreal and London and touring Europe before coming back to Manitoba, where she earned a B.A. in film studies at the University of Manitoba. Later she packed up with her children and partner and moved to Halifax to attend the University of Kingâs College, where she received a bachelorâs degree in journalism. Upon returning to Winnipeg with her family in 1991, she freelanced at the CBC, making radio documentaries. When her youngest daughter started nursery school, Toews decided it was
time to try writing a novel."

Sheâs written four to date, including A Complicated Kindness which won the GGâs Award for Best Fiction in 2004. We talk here about her latest The Flying Troutmans, about her fatherâs struggle with depression and the stigma that still surrounds the disease, about road trips and siblings, the definition of love, the film Little Miss Sunshine, writing novels with movie deals in mind, trust, abandonment and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Please listen:

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File: Interview with Lindsey Davis, Historical Crime Fiction Author, by Nigel Beale.

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:07:00 GMT

Lindsey Davis was born and raised in Birmingham, read English at Oxford, then joined the civil service, which she left in 1985.She started writing about Romans in The Course of Honour, the remarkable true love story of the Emperor Vespasian and his mistress Antonia Caenis. Her research into First Century Rome inspired The Silver Pigs, the first outing for Falco and Helena, which was published in 1989. Starting as a spoof using a Roman âinformerâ as a classic, metropolitan private eye, the series has developed into a set of adventures in various styles which take place throughout the Roman world. The Silver Pigs won the Authorsâ Club Best First Novel award in 1989; she has since won the Crimewritersâ Association Dagger in the Library and Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, while Falco has won the Sherlock Award for Best Comic Detective. She has been Chair of the UK Crimewritersâ Association and Honorary President of the Classical Association. Her Official Website is www.lindseydavis.co.uk.

We met recently at the Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal, and talked, among other things, about the historical mystery genre, Ellis Peters, Wilkie Collinsâs The Moonstone, foreshadowing, the treatment of women, killing characters off, good men, favourite plots and authors, and lessons that can be learned from the Romans,

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The Biblio File Interview with Rawi Hage: Deniro's Game, Winner of the 2008 IMPAC Award, by Nigel Beale

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:58:00 GMT

Rawi Hage was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and lived through nine years of that countryâs civil war. He immigrated to Canada in 1992. He is a writer, a visual artist, and a curator whose debut novel, De Niroâs Game (2006), was shortlisted for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2006 Governor Generalâs Award for English fiction. It has just won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. House of Anansi Press will publish Rawiâs eagerly anticipated second novel, Cockroach, in fall 2008. He lives in Montreal where I caught up with him at the Blue Met International Literary Festival.

We talk about living in war conditions, New York, Deer Hunter and Russian roulette, art as memory, the absurdity of war, the dangers of organized religion, fundamentalism, politics and the writer, canoing and moose, womenâs clothing, Arabic poetry and the influence of fathers.

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The Biblio File Interview with Donald Antrim, author The Afterlife, by Nigel Beale

Thu, 5 Jun 2008 07:41:00 GMT

Donald Antrim is the author of three novels and a memoir entitled, The Afterlife, which is about the strained relationship he had with his mother, Louanne, an artist, teacher and alcoholic. In addition to receiving some of Americaâs most prestigious fellowships, he is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, a magazine that includes him amongst their "twenty writers for the new century."

We met at the Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal, and talk here about his motherâs death, Camus, writing on the edge, suffering and distraction, luxury beds, Donald Barthelme, anger, sarcasm, loss of humour, collecting books, and the appeal of first editions. Donald also treats us to a reading from The Afterlife, and as part of this, the dedication in Sir Philip Sidneyâs Arcadia.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

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The Biblio File Interview with Glenn Patterson by Nigel Beale: On Belfast, Cities, Disney, Tolstoy and Public Houses

Tue, 27 May 2008 20:36:00 GMT

Glenn Patterson was born in Belfast in 1961 and studied Creative
Writing at the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury. He is the author of seven novels. The first, Burning Your Own (1988), set in Northern Ireland in 1969, won a Betty Trask Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.

We met at the Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal to talk about reassessing the past, the development and urban topography of his home town Belfast, cities versus nations, Disney, Tolstoyâs theory of history, human complexity, his latest novel The Third Party, apathy, public houses, the minor impact of books, and how happy he is with his oeuvre.

The Biblio File Interview with Andrew O'Hagan: On Determination, Memoir, Israel, Martin Amis, Islam and Coloured Doors

notabenebeale@gmail.com — Wed, 14 May 2008 02:22:00 GMT

Andrew OâHaganâs most recent novel, Be Near Me, has just won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It is the story of an English priest who takes over a small Scottish parish in a post-industrial town by the sea; a story of art and politics, love and faith, and the way we live now, which pretty well summarizes the conversation we had this past weekend at The Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal.

More specifically we talked about tragedy, escape, the determination not to be determined, fathers, the blurred boundaries between fiction, memoir and journalism, the United States, the role of writer in society, Martin Amis and Islamism, parents, writing ones own life, and coloured doors in social housing projects.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

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The Biblio File Interview with Poet/Critic David Solway What makes a Poem Great?

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 01:10:00 GMT

In honour of Poetry Month, here is my interview with Canadian poet, critic and more recently, political writer, David Solway. We first discuss what constitutes a great poem in the context of âpoliticalâ and other agendas that some poets incorporate into their work. According to Solway, great poems consist of authentic, incontestable, memorable language, with vivid power, lapidary quality and prodigious rhetorical flow, which takes time, education, reflection and maturity to work itself into themes of human importance; synoptic views of the complexity of human life; a confluence of eloquent language and major subject which has something important to say and which will resonate with contemporary and future generations.

Great poems are like Switzerland, says Solway: candidates must pass through a stringent, careful, fine-meshed filter before they are granted citizenship.

It is posterity that decides what is great. Aphoristic memorability and the wish to keep the words alive in the mind, determines its greatness.

Listen here to part one of our conversation:

The Biblio File: Interview with Sally Cooper, Crime Author, by Nigel Beale

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:44:00 GMT

Sally Cooperâs second novel, Tell Everything,delves into the darkest regions of the human soul, and lends credence to Kiplingâs line: "The female of the species is deadlier than the male."

During our conversation about Tell Everything we discuss topics including: the media and murder, Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo,

âbody parts in ponds, Rapunsil and crime plays, three way sex, the blurred, complicated lines of consent, the fear of self revelation, and love, self protection, shame and acceptance, boxes and cameras, novel writing as catharsis, iguanas in snow drifts, crime scene photographs, facing moral issues, true crime magazines, Michael Redhillâs short story The Victim, and women being every bit as predatory as men.

Sally Cooper grew up in Inglewood, Ontario, population 400. She has an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Guelph, and has published in such places as Shift, Blood & Aphorisms, Carousel, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and eye weekly. Her first novel, Love Object, came out in 2002 to critical acclaim. She currently teaches creative writing at Humber College and lives and writes in Hamilton, Ontario.

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The Biblio File: Interview with Author/Bookseller Larry McMurtry by Nigel Beale

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:20:00 GMT

Novelist, screenwriter and essayist Larry McMurtry is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1985 novel Lonesome Dove, a sweeping historical epic that follows ex-Texas Rangers as they drive cattle from the Rio Grande to Montana.

He grew up on a ranch outside of Archer City, Texas, which is the model for his fictional town of Thalia. A book collector, McMurtry purchased a rare book store in Washington, D.C.âs Georgetown neighborhood in 1970 and named it Booked Up. In 1988he opened a second Booked Up in Archer City, establishing the town as a "Book City." This store is arguably the largest single used bookstore in the United States, carrying somewhere between 400,000 and 450,000 titles.

McMurtry is well-known for the film adaptations of his work, especially Hud (from the novel Horseman, Pass By), The Last Picture Show; James L. Brooksâs Terms of Endearment, and Lonesome Dove, which became an enormously popular television mini-series. In 2006, he was co-winner (with Diana Ossana) of both the Best Screenplay Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Brokeback Mountain.

I interviewed him as part of a project Iâm doing for the Canadian Booksellers Association. We talk about his latest book Untitled Fiction, his life as a book rancher, having the right books, junk, the fun of the hunt, book scouting, catalogues, bookstores and cultural vitality, keeping stock fresh, burning out on fiction and movies, the declining number of used book stores, and optimism for the future. For more interviews and book reviews www.nigelbeale.com

The Biblio File: Interview with Ray Hinst, Haslam's Bookstore by Nigel Beale

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:42:00 GMT

Haslamâs Books, now Floridaâs largest new & used book store, was established in St. Petersburg in 1933 by two avid readers, John and Mary Haslam. After World War II they were joined by the second generation, Charles and Elizabeth. The business began to expand. In response to customersâ requests, new technical books were added, then Bibles and religious books and finally a complete line of trade books and a large section for children. The business has moved four times to accommodate growth. Today the store covers 30,000 square feet and contains some 300,000 books.

To promote books and reading, Charles had a television program on WEDU, the local PBS station, called "The Wonderful World of Books," and reviewed books on WSUN radio. He also appeared as a regular guest on WTOG-TV. Elizabeth operated book fairs at local schools for 25 years and now conducts "field trips" of âFloridaâs largest book storeâ for elementary classes. Both have been active in the American Booksellerâs Association (Charles was president from 1978 - 1980). They have taught in Bookseller Schools and written chapters in "The Manual of Bookselling." Both are published authors.

In 1973, the third generation came into the business: daughter Suzanne (who also authored a chapter in the "Manual on Bookselling") and husband Ray Hinst a history, classics & military expert. Ray and I talk here about book re-printers, early Baedekers, not collecting your own inventory, the explosion in self publishing and authors who want bookstores to carry their works and provide signing events, collecting what you like, and the error of passing up on buying opportunities.

The Biblio File: Interview with Ian Brookes, Editor, Chambers Dictionary by Nigel Beale.

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:26:00 GMT

Ian Brookes is Editor-in-Chief of The Chambers Dictionary which was first published in 1901 and most recently updated in 2006. We talk here about lexicographers, Samuel Johnson, Scotland, the speed of language change getting quicker, Chambersâ unique focus on old, Scottish, literary, historical words with humorous, sardonic definitions, such as mallemaroking and pock pudding, use of the dictionary by crossword puzzle and word game enthusiasts, Wikipediaâs Hawaiian roots, the charm of browsing, the influence of rap, urban slang, multiculturalism, and instant messaging, cookery terms and the pain of being a teacher. For more interviews and book reviews www.nigelbeale.com

The Biblio File: Interview with Kathryn Court, President, Penguin Books by Nigel Beale

Wed, 6 Feb 2008 02:11:00 GMT

Kathryn Court joined Penguin Books in 1977 and became Editorial Director two years later. In l984 she was named Editor in Chief of Viking Penguin and in 1992 Senior Vice-President, Publisher, and Editor in Chief of Penguin Books. She was named President of Penguin Books in August 2000. Authors she has worked with include: Reinaldo Arenas, Andrea Camilleri, J.M. Coetzee, Slavenka Drakulic, Mary Relinda Ellis, Robert Fagles, Josephine Humphreys, Garrison Keillor, Nora Okja Keller, Donna Leon, Mary McGarry Morris, John Mortimer, Richard Rodriguez, C.J. Samsom, Jim Trelease, and William Trevor.

We met last summer at BookExpo in New York, and talk here about: the role of publisher, artist Chris Wareâs funky Candide cover, new ways of selling things you already own, showing the young that reading can be fun, finding new authors and having faith in them, Andrea Camilleri and the benefit of buying series, hard cover versus soft cover sales, 4000 title backlists that finance front lists, J.M. Coetzeeâs greatness, sales and distain for interviewers, the need for confidence in young editors in order to convince others that their picks are as good as they say they are, advertising in book review sections and how it doesnât work, how emotional novels and those with voices women can identify with sell best, the three million copy selling The Memory Keeperâs Daughter, the sales power of word of mouth, and the joyful intensity of working as part of an editorial teamâas a happy few against the world.

The Biblio File: Interview with Patrick McGahern, Antiquarian Bookseller by Nigel Beale

Wed, 6 Feb 2008 02:07:00 GMT

Patrick McGahern has been selling books in Ottawa, Canada since 1969. His store specializes in used and rare books: Canadiana, Americana, Arctic, Antarctic, Travel, Natural History & Voyages, Illustrated & Plate Books, Irish and Scottish History and Literature. More than 30,000 titles are stocked at the Glebe store. Thousands of rare, scarce and interesting books are offered through their Catalogues which are published six times a year. Almost 10,000 titles are featured in their online database through ILAB (International League of Antiquarian booksellers).

I talked with Patrick recently in his store about the book trade: how it was, how it is, how it will be. About idiosyncrasies, obsessions, buses and booksellers playing psychiatrist and priest; about ILAB and AbeBooks, and finally, about simply doing the work.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File: Interview with Margie Macmillan Granny Bates Books by Nigel Beale

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:55:00 GMT

Margie McMillan is co-owner of the award winning Granny Bates Childrenâs Bookstore in St. Johnâs Newfoundland. We talk here about longevity and research as a reason for success, the brilliance of Graham Oakley and The Church Mice, the difference between back lists and mid-lists, schools as bread and butter, book sellers as literary critics, driving through the swiss alps, new products that are called books, movies and cereal.

The Biblio File:Interview with Poet John Burnside by Nigel Beale

nbeale@rogers.com — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:25:00 GMT

Poet and novelist John Burnside was born in 1955 in Dunfermline, Scotland. He studied English and European Languages at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. A former computer software engineer, he has been a freelance writer since 1996. His first collection of poetry, The Hoop, was published in 1988 and won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Other poetry collections include Common Knowledge (1991), Feast Days (1992), winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and The Asylum Dance (2000), winner of the Whitbread Poetry Award and shortlisted for both the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year) and the T. S. Eliot Prize.

We talk here, at the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, of his love of Milton, Eliot and ice-hockey, about poetry being written mainly to impress girls (see here for more on this hot topic), the Madonna-Whore complex, Charles Wright as the best living poet in the world, and what metaphor does in our lives

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File: Interview with John Freeman, President of the National Book Critics Circle, by Nigel Beale.

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:10:00 GMT

John Freeman is president of The National Book Critics Circle. Founded in 1974, the NBCC is a non-profit organization consisting of nearly 700 active book reviewers who honor quality writing and communicate with one another about common concerns. We met recently and talked, among other things, about the NBCCâs awards program, an impressive new blog site called Critical Mass, and the Campaign to Save Book Reviews, which is addressing the alarming shrinkage of newspaper book review sections across North America.

The Biblio File: Interview with Bernard Margolis President of the Boston Public Library by Nigel Beale.

Thu, 24 May 2007 17:09:00 GMT

Bernard Margolis is President of the Boston Public Library (BPL). Founded in 1848, it was the first large free municipal library in the United States. Mr. Margolis has served on the Governing Council of the 63,000-member American Library Association (ALA), and has won many awards including âColorado Librarian of the Year,ï? two John Cotton Dana library public relations awards, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Artsâ âAward of Excellenceï? for his library-sponsored âImagination Celebration.ï?

Heâs also a master storyteller as youâll find out. We talk here about libraries as a public good, a culture of words and books designed to help everyone improve their lives, French ventriloquist and originator of the concept of the modern library Alexandre Vattemare (1796-1864), the U.S. as a leader in realizing this concept, immigration and self learning, an informed citizenry as the best defense of liberty, democratic access to information, BPL as the first to have a newspaper room, branch libraries and a separate childrenâs room, the Red Sox and the Yankees, why the ebook hasnât replaced the paperback, Brewster Kahle versus Google and the Internet archive, and the question of whether or not information will be âfree for allâ to improve the world.

The Biblio File: Interview with John Wronoski, Archives Dealer by Nigel Beale

Mon, 21 May 2007 17:03:00 GMT

John Wronoski is a rare book dealer who specializes in literature, and primary works in the history of ideas in English, German, French, Spanish, and Russian. His shop, Lame Duck Books, contains the most significant selection of 19th and 20th century Spanish language literature in the world, and important originals of 17th and 18th century English poetry. In addition to performing the traditional role of bookseller, John serves as agent in the institutional placement of archives for some of the 20th Century's most important authors.

It is in this capacity, as literary archives dealer, that we talk here about, among other things: the importance of recognizing value in the rare book trade, paper production in the lives of writers, evident spiritual input in the process of creation, the evaluation, cataloguing, packaging and marketing of manuscripts, the comparative value of long-hand versus typed documents, the compatibility of pen and paper with the flow of thought, the value of hand written/type-written correspondence versus email, rich book dealers getting richer, Frederic Tuten's Tin Tin in the World, loosing $1 million manuscripts and adoption agencies.

(Please note the interview was conducted before the British Library purchased the Pinter archive)

The Biblio File: Elias Khoury Interview with Nigel Beale

Thu, 10 May 2007 16:27:00 GMT

Elias Khoury is author of eleven novels including Little Mountain and Gates of the City. He is currently professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University, and editor in chief of the literary supplement of Beirutâs daily newspaper, An-Nahar. We talk here, at the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, about his latest novel in English Gate of the Sun, of how great literature speaks to what is human and how religion doesnât; of how telling stories helps us to overcome death, and how knowledge helps to overcome power; of keys, loss, hatred and love; of how important the right to story, memory and language is to the existence of a people; of the double tragedy of Palestine in 1948, the real one and the fact that the telling of this catastrophe has not been permitted; of how reading literature helps us discover ourselves and of how literature attempts to give meaning to the meaninglessness of life.

www.nigelbeale.com

The Biblio File: Peter Behrens Interview with Nigel Beale

Thu, 3 May 2007 16:41:00 GMT

Peter Behrensâ short stories and essays have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Tin House, Saturday Night, and The National Post and have been anthologized in Best Canadian Stories and Best Canadian Essays. He was born in Montreal and lives on the coast of Maine with his wife and son.

We talk here, at the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, among other things about voice and poetry in his debut novel The Law of Dreams, Winner of The 2006 Governor Generalâs Literary Award for Fiction. It tells the story of a young manâs struggle to survive the Great Famine in Ireland of 1847. On his odyssey through Ireland and Britain, and across the Atlantic to Canada Fergus Oâbrien encounters death, violence, sexual heat, âboy soldiers, brigands, street toughs and charming, willful girls â all struggling for survival in the aftermath of natural catastrophe magnified by political callousness and brutal neglect. â Think Dickens meets J.M. Coetzee.

The book has been hailed by many reputable media outlets including The New York Times and The New Yorker.

The Biblio File: Interview with Lydia Davis author/translator

Thu, 3 May 2007 15:46:00 GMT

Lydia Davis is a contemporary American author and translator of French. From 1974 to 1978 she was married to Paul Auster, with whom she has a son. She has published six collections of short stories, including The Thirteenth Woman and Other Stories (1976) and Break It Down (1986). Her most recent collection is not Samuel Johnson Is Indignant, but rather Varieties of Disturbance, published by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. Her stories are acclaimed for their brevity, poetry, philosophy and humour. Many are only one or two sentences long.

We talk here, at the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, about the role of the translator, her Swannâs Way, measuring rooms three inches at a time, becoming Proust as an actor might a character, dialogue being more of a translation challenge than description because speech is born of environment and times, and the goal of creating living language thatâs timeless.

The Biblio File: Interview with Clock Book Collector Arthur Galwin by Nigel Beale

nigelbeale — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:23:00 GMT

Arthur Galwin has collected clocks for more than 30 years. In so doing he has amassed an impressive reference library of books on the topic. Not driven to collect First Editions, Arthurâs primary motivation has been to cover the waterfront, to pull together as comprehensive a collection of books on clocks as can be found anywhere in the world.

During our conversation Arthur refers to the person who restored John Harrisonâs extraordinary marine timekeepers. That person is Lt Cdr Rupert T. Gould. His story can be found in Time Restored: The Harrison timekeepers and R.T. Gould, the man who knew (almost) everything, by Jonathan Betts. Arthure also refers to a number of âclassicâ book on clocks. The include: Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, and The Watch and Clockmakers Handbook: Dictionary and Guide, both by F.J. Britten, English Domestic Clocks by Cescinsky and Webster, and French Clocks the World Over, by Tardy.

As for us non-technical types interested in this fascinating field Arthur recommends Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World by David Landes.

The Biblio File: Interview with Book Designer/ Author C. S. Richardson by Nigel Beale.

nigelbeale — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:57:00 GMT

C.S. Richardson is an accomplished book designer who has worked in publishing for over twenty years. He is a multiple recipient of the Alcuin Award (Canadaâs highest honour for excellence in book design) and a frequent lecturer on publishing, design and communications. A rare bird indeed, he recently published his first novel The End of the Alphabet, and is currently at work on his second.

We talk here about C.S. Lewis, the role of the book designer, the award winning Bedside Book of Birds, âthumbage,â how the best book design is invisible, the best designers currently at work in Canada, the U.S. and Britain, and Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, published by Chatto and Windus in England, and Knopf in the U.S. as one of the best designed books in recent memory.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File: Interview with Ottawa Librarian Barbara Clubb by Nigel Beale

nigelbeale — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:38:00 GMT

Barbara Clubb is City Librarian and CEO of the Ottawa Public Library, past president of the Canadian Library Association, a member of the International Relations Committee of the ALA/Public Library Association; a director for the Canadian Writers Foundation and Monthly Book Reviewer for CBC Ottawa Radio One.

In this fascinating, wide ranging conversation we talk about the role of a city librarian now, at the turn of the 21 century; about library as placeâwhere loitering is okay; accessibility, prescriptive versus reflective provision of information; the move from education to recreation and culture; Harry Potter in plastic; downloading copyrighted books; the zero list; a contest between librarians and Google; leveraging Google; the book as client versus people as clients; nine million items going in and out; and the necessity for librarians to be the opposite of their anti-social stereotype.

The Biblio File: Interview with Editor John Metcalf by Nigel Beale.

nigelbeale — Sat, 7 Apr 2007 21:16:00 GMT

John Metcalf is a highly regarded author who happens to have edited many of Canadaâs foremost short story writers including Lisa Moore, Alice Munro, and Michael Winter. Born in Carlisle, England, and educated at the University of Bristol, he emigrated to Canada in 1962. In addition to his own writings (novels, stories and essays), he currently holds the unsalaried post of Senior Editor at the Porcupineâs Quill of Erin, Ontario and is the editor of Canadian Notes and Queries. He resides in Ottawa, Ontario with his wife, Myrna.

We talk here about the role of the editor, game playing, the placement of words and punctuation, manipulating emotions, unclogging channels between writers and readers, diplomacy, nouns, hammers, electric current, anti-Americanism, ignorant Canadian nationalists and inferiority complexes.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File: Interview with Erotica writer Amanda Earl by Nigel Beale.

nigelbeale — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 05:36:00 GMT

Amanda Earl writes erotic fiction in Ottawa, Canada, as much for her own pleasure as anything else. Her stories have consistently been selected for publication in Carroll and Grafâs annual Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica. Amanda publishes and writes poetry, is managing editor of the Bywords Quarterly Journal, and hosts Bywords.ca, a website invaluable to Ottawanians interested in local literary events.

We talk here about the definitions of erotica and pornography (a common joke: âErotica is when you use a feather. Pornography is when you use the whole chicken.â?), red wine versus white, connecting with and arousing readers, giving pleasure, the act, golden showers, being bad, the Erotica Readers and Writers Association, S&M, compelling characters and work as prostitution.

The Biblio File: Interview with Churchill Bibliographer Ron Cohen by Nigel Beale

nigelbeale — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:10:00 GMT

Ronald Cohen is author of the Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill 3 Volume Set (ISBN: 0826472354) published in 2006: a ârichly annotated workâ containing thousands of entries, with detailed descriptions of each work by Churchill, including information on content, typography,paper, illustrations, maps, facsimiles, bindings, dust jackets, publication and printing history, translations, and library/collection locations, plus circumstances of publication.

Cohenâs fascination with Churchill began during his time with The Economist in London, shortly after his graduation from Harvard University. He began collecting Churchilliana in 1969. The publication of this major work is the culmination of 25 yearsâ dedicated research. Cohen is the National Chair of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, a lawyer, founding Chairman of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, a Genie award-winning film producer, and President of the Friends of Library and Archives Canada.

We talk here generally about the art of bibliography, specifically about binding and centriod colour charts, altruism, accessibility, building road-maps, how many bibliographers start off as disgruntled collectors, experiencing the thrill and joy of collecting without having to lay out the dough, bibliography as storytelling, innovative periodical entry descriptions, errata, when to stop, how Cohen always got it wrong, surrendering, and uncharted works bolting from the undergrowth.

(For more of Nigel Beale's Musings on the Book, Literature, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Collecting, Media, Life and the Arts...please visit http://nigelbeale.com)

The Biblio File: Interview with Author Illustrator Barbara Reid by Nigel Beale, The Biblio File

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:10:00 GMT

Barbara Reidâs Plasticine artwork makes her books instantly recognizable. They have won acclaim around the world, and many awards. We talk here about what makes her so good, about great childrenâs book illustrators, the accurate conveyance of emotion, mice in subways, making room for the imagination, chiaroscuro, working in ice cream, wanting to show things to those you love, pony tails, playing hooky and war.

The Biblio File: Interview with Author Ramona Dearing by Nigel Beale, The Biblio File

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:09:00 GMT

Ramona Dearing lives in St. Johnâs, Newfoundland, and is the latest member of the longstanding (and increasingly famous) fiction collective The Burning Rock to publish a collection of short fiction. Dearing works for CBC Radio where she is currently busy putting together a nationally broadcast program featuring young Canadian artists. So Beautiful was published in 2004 by The Porcupineâs Quill Press.

We talk here about her stories, my favourites, and hers, bodies in bags, judging oneâs own work, doing the right thing, frustration, Christian brothers at Mount Cashel, dogs, Kafka at the CBC, the importance of radio and the weather to Newfoundlanders, Brad Pitt and parallel plot lines.

The Biblio File: Interview with Author Lisa Moore by Nigel Beale,

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:08:00 GMT

Lisa Mooreâs fiction has been published widely in literary magazines and in anthologies. Her two collections of short stories, Degrees of Nakedness and Open have received praise for their âsupple sensuality and emotional authenticity.â She lives in Newfoundland. We talked there, and here about her recently published first novel, Alligator, about tea, pine martins, time, the exotic, Tasmania, Cezanne, St. JohnÃââs as a bowl of oranges, Cubism, being in the present, survival, light, if itâs ever okay not to be good, cadence and wit in storytelling, and the colour blueâquite a few things really.

The Biblio File: Interview with AuthorTim Parks by Nigel Beale,

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:08:00 GMT

The Biblio File: Interview with Author Michael Crummey by Nigel Beale,

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:07:00 GMT

The Biblio File: Interview with Crime Fiction Writer James O. Born by Nigel Beale,

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:05:00 GMT

James O. Born is a Special Agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and author of three best selling crime novels. We talk about his most recent, Escape Clause; about blurbs, putting humour and a human face on the real life experience of cops, how life followed art in this novel, Karma and good moral compasses, the goal of writing compelling prose with surprise endings, cheer leading competitions, smacking people who talk of movie options without deliverying, Jaws, the compulsion to write and the unsurpassibility of Elmore Leonard.

The Biblio File: Interview with Author Tim Winton by Nigel Beale,

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:04:00 GMT

Australian Tim Winton wrote his first novel, An Open Swimmer (1982), at the age of 19. It won the Australian/Vogel National Literary Award.

Born in Perth, in 1960, he is the author of Shallows (1986), a novel set in a whaling town, and Cloudstreet (1991), the story of two working-class families rebuilding their lives. Both won Miles Franklin Awards. The Riders (1995) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won a Commonwealth Writers Prize.

He is also the author of two collections of short stories, Scission and Other Stories (1987) and Minimum of Two (1987), and co-author of several travel books about Australia, including Landâs Edge (1993). Dirt Music (2001), was shortlisted for the 2002 Man Booker Prize.

I spoke with him during the 2005 Toronto International Writers Festival about his latest book The Turning, a series of linked stories. He seemed tired, a bit bummed about having been away from home for so long. The bloody tape ran out right in the middle of a lovely story he was telling about his converting wood from an old weir into a set of bookshelves for his library. An extremely likeable, self effacing man with interesting ideas about the relationship between writing and music, as you will hear if you choose to listenâ

The Biblio File: Interview with Author Andrew Miller by Nigel Beale,

notabene@nigelbeale.com — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:01:00 GMT

ANDREW MILLER was born in Bristolâin 1960 (induced, according to the family legend, by his mother eating a large supper of fish and chips). At age eleven, having convincingly failed his Eleven Plus, he went to boarding school in WiltshireâMaster of Arts in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia in 1991âPhD from Lancaster UniversityâIn February 1996, after six years of writing, âIngenious Painâ his first novel, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Grinzane Cavour prize & the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Ingenious Pain & his second novel Casanova are being/have been adapted for Film. His novel, Oxygen, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2001. His third novel, Oxygen was shortlisted for the Booker. His books have been published in over twenty countries. He now lives in Brighton and believes that on clear days he can see the coast of France. His latest novel is THE OPTIMISTS, published in March 2005.

We talk about it, prizes, Shakespeare, Hardy, Lawrence, stylism, and his looks and wish to be a fat woman. Andrew Miller is as articulate orally as he is in writing. Hearâdonât just take my word for itâ