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Author News & Interviews

Author Talk: Ariel Burger, author of Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom

Nov 14, 2018

Ariel Burger is a writer, artist, teacher and rabbi whose work combines spirituality, creativity and strategies for social change. A lifelong student of Elie Wiesel, he spent years studying the great wisdom traditions, and now applies those teachings to urgent contemporary questions. In this interview, Burger explains how the idea for WITNESS: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom came about, the impact that Wiesel’s passing in 2016 had on him and his writing of the book, the significance of the title, and what he hopes people will take away from reading it.

Author Talk: Steven F. Havill, author of Lies Come Easy: The Posadas County Mysteries

Nov 14, 2018

Family dynamics play a huge role in Steven F. Havill's 23rd Posadas County mystery, LIES COME EASY, as Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman and her entire department work to pull the right threads out of a tangle of seemingly small lies. In this interview, Havill explains his decision to develop the series in real time, discusses how he learned to dramatize the exhaustive process of police work so realistically and where his expertise in firearms originates, and names some of the authors who he holds in very high regard and whose books he reads on a regular basis.

Author Talk: Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book

Nov 1, 2018

In her latest work of nonfiction, THE LIBRARY BOOK, journalist and author Susan Orlean turns her keen powers of observation and narrative gifts to the overlooked, underreported saga of the 1986 fire that ravaged the Los Angeles Public Library. In this interview, Orlean talks about how the book evolved as she researched and wrote it, and what drew her to this story in the first place; explains how technology complements a library; expresses her surprise and amazement when she learned about some of the day-to-day situations that librarians face these days; and ponders the future of the local library and its changing role in the community.

Author Talk: Steven Axelrod, author of Nantucket Counterfeit: A Henry Kennis Mystery

Nov 1, 2018

NANTUCKET COUNTERFEIT, Steven Axelrod’s fifth Henry Kennis mystery, takes readers into the closed, gossip-riddled, backstabbing world of Nantucket's community theater. In this interview, Axelrod talks about his inspiration for making his protagonist a police chief who writes poetry on the side; details his writing process, explaining why he tends to outline his novels while at the same time being a “pantser” (writing by the seat of his pants); and discusses why there is no shortage of plot concepts to come up with as it relates to Nantucket, despite its tiny size.

Author Talk: Mary Reed, author of An Empire for Ravens: A John the Lord Chamberlain Mystery

Nov 1, 2018

ONE FOR SORROW, which kicked off Mary Reed and Eric Mayer’s John the Lord Chamberlain historical mystery series, was the very first novel published by Poisoned Pen Press back in 1999. Two decades later, the husband-wife writing duo is still going strong, with the 12th installment, AN EMPIRE FOR RAVENS, now in stores. In this interview, Mary explains how she and Eric managed to connect with the Press all those years ago, the amount of research that goes into recreating the world of Byzantium in the sixth century, and the fascinating inner workings of their collaboration process.