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Is it possible to be a good writer without being a good reader? I don’t think so. They go hand in hand. Reading is the most important part of becoming a writer. Have you ever belonged to a reading group? No, but I was part of a small group of writers who met each week for years and we often read & discussed favorite books, stories, poems. What books are you reading now or do you plan to read? Recently re-read Marilyn Sides wonderful stories The Island of the Mapmaker’s Wife and Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust Right, and now finishing up Jesse Browner’s The Uncertain Hour which is rich and fascinating. I’m looking forward to reading next The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish, A Season of Fire & Ice, and Hick. If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one book with you to read, what would it be and why? If you mean a novel, Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. The characters are great and you feel you grow with them. It’s funny and moving with great detail and realism. But if not necessarily a novel, the one book would be the King James Bible because there’d be so much to read – so many genres – poetry, short stories, parables, -- war, history, wisdom, humor – and the most beautiful language you’ll ever find. If you could have dinner with 3 writers (dead or alive) who would they be and why? James Joyce, Roald Dahl– because they were such great observers and it would be fun to observe them observing – and Giuseppe Di Lampedusa – a Sicilian aristocrat and writer who wrote only one book, a beautiful novel, The Leopard. His descriptions of meals are magnificent. I would love to be at a restaurant with him and let him do the ordering! Have you ever read anything you're too embarrassed to admit (except in this interview)? No. Maybe. I don’t know. Should I be? Favorite book when you were a child? Heidi. If you have children, is this the same book you read to them? If not, what is your favorite book for your children? Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Great Expectations. Favorite heroine in literature and why? Edith Wharton’s Lily Bart in The House of Mirth for all she goes through, all she‘s up against (within herself and externally) her mistakes, missed chances, hopes and -- I don’t want to give away too much about her. Favorite hero in literature and why? Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Like all heroes, he irritates us (his tragic flaw) but you see his goodness, the tenderness he would never admit or acknowledge. Favorite first line from a book? "Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond." Book that changed your life? To the Lighthouse
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