latest interviews
Lydia Millet, Author of Love in Infant Monkeys and How the Dead Dream
"The truth is I'm fascinated by the details where different circles of culture overlap and by the manifold ways in which we now treat the profane as the sacred and vice versa."
Aural Improvisations: An Interview with Poet Major Jackson
"There is a period of gestation that leads to a kind of quiet and silence and distance, space. What filters through is what becomes the material for the poem."
Random Truths About...Miranda Lee Richards
Interview with vocalist behind Light of X about her fears, prejudices, and how she believes music can change lives.
Interview with Photographer William L. Wacker
Artist and wanderlust William Wacker shares images and impressions gathered during his recent tour of Asia, why he needs to catch up on vampire flicks and how, when it comes to art, it’s sometimes best to “shoot from the hip.”
Choir of Young Believers Interview
"I think total democracy in bands can sometimes be a bad thing musically."
Paul Krassner, Author of Who's to Say What's Obscene: Politics, Culture & Comedy in America Today
"I guess it's greed or fear of not getting big numbers, you know, so comedians want to have their six minutes so they can go on Jay Leno or David Letterman. Everything gets homogenized in the process."
Tom Grimes, Author of Redemption Song
"The writing life has too many shades of grace, too many unexpected ways it can defeat and elate you, to ever be reduced to publications. Once you've made the commitment to be a writer, you do the best work you can. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you fail. But all writers are lucky."
Rick Moody, Author of The Diviners
"Gentleness may be just around the corner. I am not going to become humorless, but I expect the humor is going to be more compassionate, less malevolent."
Joe Quirk, Author of It’s Not You, It’s Biology: The Science of Love, Sex and Relationships
"Have you ever asked yourself the deepest philosophical question that drives all introspection, which is: Why am I so neurotic and screwed up? Well, stop blaming your mother. It's because you have three brains, and they have never once agreed on anything."
Tamim Ansary, Author of Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes
"The story-like essence, that deep narrative structure, is the thing that is most true about a life. Writers who make up additional facts or change the facts in order to make of their memoirs 'a better story' are breaking faith with the proposition that the story-like essence actually exists."
Snowshoes and Hunters: An Interview with Midlake
"I guess we got into more of this British folk thing and a 'fair maiden' thing as I call it, but I don't think we really sound like these bands, though there is more than a hint of it on the new album."
Joe Meno, Author of The Great Perhaps
"I feel like whether you’re religious or spiritual or not, I feel like that’s probably the most important part to me about being alive is being able to use your imagination. It’s really, really sad that there’s not enough opportunity."
6 Questions: Surviving the Great Recession with Nick Nigro
Author of No Job? No Prob! discusses how to engage in a proactive job search, revamp your resume, and remain optimistic even when the odds are against you.
Interview: Yiyun Li, Author of The Vagrants
"William Trevor influences me more than any other writer, so in reality I write stories to talk to his stories. And a story can talk to another story in many ways--a line, a character, a few details, or sometimes it is the mood of the story, the pacing and the music of the story..."
Eau de Colonia: An Interview with Nina Persson of A Camp
"Melancholy is not really the right word to describe the mentality. Swedes are more... serene and mellow, and not afraid of the dark, and this is something that I still think is a big part of my personality."
Vestal McIntyre, Author of Lake Overturn
"When you're a writer and your creative life involves endless hours alone, thinking, it's good to have a job that involves running around, putting on a friendly face, enjoying the occasional screaming fight with the kitchen guys."
Interview with Damascus Gate Author Robert Stone
"The aestheticization of the politics of ordinary life—of being able to wake up every day and be in a play, in a drama, in a political drama—this is what the 20th century lived for. It is what destroyed civilizations that came before, but...this is what the communists and the Nazis and the fascists were all offering."
A Sight for Sore Eyes: An Interview with Klum
"I assume people don’t really know who is singing what because sometimes we don’t even remember who sings certain parts that are on the record. The most important thing to us is just that it’s good." -Brock Flores
An Interview with My Abandonment Author Peter Rock
James Warner talks with the author of the novels My Abandonment, The Bewildered, The Ambidextrist, This Is the Place, and Carnival Wolves, and a story collection, The Unsettling.
I Am My Father: An Interview with Writer/Editor Lee Montgomery of Tin House
"Most people who write need to work on some level. You hear people who teach whine that it destroys their work. I just don’t know there’s a good way to support yourself as a writer. I mean, perhaps the best way is to work as a florist, and then write...to be able to focus all your energies [on writing]. It’s something I really battle with quite a bit. But I have a perfect situation. I think working for a literary journal is maybe a little different."
An Interview with Livability Author Jon Raymond
Jon Raymond is the author of the novel The Half-Life and of the recently published short-story collection Livability. He is also the co-writer of two films directed by Kelly Reichardt, Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy--both adapted from stories in Livability.
The Residue of Interchange: An Interview with Painter Joan Curran
Philadelphia-based painter Joan Curran creates urban still lives inspired by the interaction between humans and nature--a constantly fluctuating relationship that reveals both beauty and excess.
Someplace New: An Interview with Uncle Owen Aunt Beru
"My music really is like a journal, so as soon as I know my feeling or idea has been documented, the song is done. It's so fast and introspective that I forget about the rules."
Go to the Radio: An Interview with Psychic Ills
Largely improvised, but never sloppy or misguided, their long and sometimes disturbing pieces are hypnotic and transcendent, blending a driving rock aesthetic with unnameable textures.
Brave New Music: An Interview with Frida Hyvonen
After listening to her new album, Silence is Wild, it is impossible not to feel that Frida has genuinely revealed herself, leaving the listener feeling slightly awkward, and highly impressed.
Howard Zinn talks with Robert Birnbaum
It is unlikely that 20 years ago, when Howard Zinn's magnum opus A People's History of the United States: 1492 to the Present was published, that anyone thought it would sell close to two million copies and spawn an entirely new historiography.
Oz Captain! My Captain!: An “Ode” to Midnight Oil & An Interview with Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie
From the first rumblings of the opening riff--the brassy stomp of “Beds Are Burning” (i.e., the now-famous duh, duh, du-u-uh!)--I became stupid with goosebumps. My heart pounded like some long-extinct herd. And for the first time in my rock-n-roll life, I felt my very aliveness...
Planting Seeds: 13 Questions with Mia Doi Todd
"I like to listen to the arc of a record, like reading a book from start to finish. I make records that way."
Only Love is All Maroon: An Interview with Bon Iver
With all your lies, you're still very lovable. - "For Emma"
Writers on Music: An Interview with Robin Benway
"For a band that's just starting out, it's still fun and exciting and very Kerouacian to be in a van and touring the country. That's the spirit I wanted for Audrey, and listening to that music definitely helped to infuse the book."
Laying Bricks to Build Social Change: An Interview with Favianna Rodriguez and Josh MacPhee
The co-authors of Reproduce & Revolt, a twenty-first century primer on creating socially radical art, discuss the power of visual culture--and our ability to use visual tools to make change.
You Know This Gloom: An Interview with The Notwist
"In the end it was all about finding a way to express something that you cannot express otherwise."
Writers on Music: An Interview with Mysterious Skin Author Scott Heim
"I was just out driving in my car, and five totally different things came on--an old New Order song... a track from the new Portishead record... a Brian Eno Music for Films song... 'Touch and Go' by the Cars... and then this campy '70s disco song called 'Let's All Chant.' I love how this weird mix put me in five different moods within twenty minutes or so."
A Walking Bible: Interview with Rap Artist Tech N9ne
"When Reagonomics hit--if you recall--a lot of after-school activities were taken away...so that left a lot of young people on the street...[Then in] '85, crack hit...so if we were on the streets, instead of in school, that's what we were doing."
Interview with The Flowers author Dagoberto Gilb
"I like reading reviews not for the truth element but as a form of writing—I don't even know what they mean. We have reached this juncture in the country where nothing is what it is supposed to be. Who knows, books aren't books anymore. I don't know what we are up to. We're in a new phase."
Big Mad John: An Interview With John Cusack on War, Inc.
"Their game has been to privatize the entire essence of what it means to be a state--from military to disaster relief. They want these unaccountable elements. They want to turn everything that it means to be a state into a for-profit enterprise, including outsourcing the advanced interrogation techniques, which is torture."
Prickling all Over: An Interview with My Brightest Diamond
"Even if there is tension in a collaboration, that frustration allows you to further define your own musical ideas, why you disagree or what it is that is important to you..."
"To Comprehend a Nectar": 14 Questions with Peter Moren
"The things I go through, most people go through, so I think it communicates."
Interview with Surfwise Director Doug Pray
"When I got out of film school, there was sort of this realization like, 'Oh my God, I have to make this happen.' You don't get jobs out of film school. Nobody ever says, 'Oh, did you go to UCLA? I have a fine position for you.'"
Killing Ground, Healing Ground: An Interview with Photographer John Huddleston
Armed with a camera, Middlebury College professor John Huddleston makes pilgrimages into the American landscape to capture touchstones for shared cultural memory.
"Our True Love Finds Us When it is Time": An Interview with Mark Kozelek
"Sometimes I write in the voice of someone who I believe is trying to get through to me, sometimes. But I never really understood that Nick Cave style of 'I am a murderer on this album' kind of thing. It's just not me. I'd rather just cover someone else's song."
Shared Islands: An Interview with High Places
"The whole idea of playing in a band as a way of paying the bills is a new concept to Rob and me. We come from a basement show pass-the-hat-to-pay-for-gas mentality."
What Kind of Animal Are We: An Interview with Sara Lov
"It's strange to me that so many hands can have a part in someone's self-expression. It puzzles me that what I think is so bad can be considered to be so good by so many, and something that is so good can go undiscovered."
Colliding with Nature: An Interview with Jason Middlebrook
The relationship between humans and nature--and "humans' endless fear and misunderstanding" of nature--is at the center of artist Jason Middlebrook's work.
Interview with Wetlands Preserved Director Dean Budnick
"Wetlands was unlike any music venue or any nightclub I had ever entered, let alone one in New York City. I remember being blown away by the use of space, in particular the downstairs lounge, which was something of the ultimate chill zone."
Do Not Despair: 11 Questions with El Perro del Mar
"I have this physical need for being around and making music, and I think I've had that inside of me from the very start."
Homespun: An Interview with Gregory and the Hawk
"When you look back in history there are great musicians and great artists who've been screwed over, who stole others' material and passed it off as their own, who went unnoticed 'til they were dead..."
New Miserable Interview: Gin Blossoms Frontman Robin Wilson
"In the past, it always took so much effort and [money] to get a band into record stores across the country. That was one of the main things you needed a record company for-so that you could be in every Tower Records. But, obviously, Tower Records is gone."
Contours: An Interview with Sian Alice Group
"Sometimes it all stretches out in front of you in an instant, and other times you really have to put the hours in. Each song has its own rules."
Channelling Sophie: Patricia J. DeLois on Bufflehead Sisters
Author of the YouWriteOn.com Book of the Year talks about the publish-on-demand industry, the online peer-reviewing process, and the role libraries play in selling books.
Pop Noir: 13 Questions with Martina Topley-Bird
"I was exposed to lots of different kinds of music and culture living in London, and my parents traveled a lot and loved bringing stuff back from their travels. I suppose it's made me open to non-mainstream music."
The New Street Renegades: An Interview with Francesca Gavin
The London-based author of Street Renegades: New Underground Art talks about how today's underground artists are taking Guy Debord's ideas to city streets and forcing everyone to take a look.
What You're Talking About is Pure: An Interview with Idaho
"Many of my favorite trees in Los Angeles came from somewhere else. Also something about that city makes you feel like people aren't supposed to live there."
G-rock, Arkansas: An Interview with Novelist John Brandon
The newest McSweeney's wunderkind ruminates on his literary debut, Arkansas--a darkly comic novel about Ozark-based drug runners.
12 Questions with John Grant of The Czars
"I have a troubled relationship with lyrics. You can think too much about them..."
Video Volunteers for Social Change: A Conversation with Jessica Mayberry
"If the media is made by just one elite percent of the global population, how much of the world's reality must we be missing? We need to change this."
Shifting Scales & the City: An Interview with Jane South
Artist Jane South discusses how her large-scale, wall-mounted constructions explore the "phenomenological experience of architecture."
Fictional Worlds: An Interview with Susanna
Perhaps the most lasting impression of Susanna's music is its unyielding tastefulness. Where one would expect a drum loop, a soaring harmony, or a bed of violins or keyboards, one is left most often with Susanna's bare voice, a few notes on a piano, and a lingering melody.
An Off-Kilter Liveliness: 12 Questions with David Leavitt
Floridian novelist and editor of Subtropics talks about being "chosen" to write his new novel about Ramanujan (The Indian Clerk) and discusses the philosophy behind the University of Florida's first literary magazine.
A Boy's Prayer, a Filmmaker's Passion: An Interview with Director Ilana Trachtman
When people say to me, "You took such a risk," "You were so brave (to make the film)," or "What a leap of faith," I almost cannot relate to those comments--I just felt like I didn't have a choice. I knew someone should make a movie about Lior.
"The Desert is Full of Silence": An Interview with Rio en Medio
Danielle Stech-Homsy's primary instruments are a ukulele and a sweet, fairy-tale voice, though she balances these with spooky samples and arrhythmic loops.
Staring Down the Blind Spots: An Interview with Laura Moriarty
The author of The Rest of Her Life and The Center of Everything talks about the significance of mother-daughter relationships, religious communities, and breast implants in her latest novel.
interviews by robert birnbaum
Complete list: Dorothy Allison, Steve Almond, Julia Alvarez, Jonathan Ames, Martin Amis, Roger Angell, Blake Bailey, Nicholson Baker, Todd Balf, Russell Banks, Julian Barnes, Andrea Barrett, Alex Beam, Louis Begley, Thomas Beller, Nathaniel Bellows, Elizabeth Benedict, Jill Bialosky, Sven Birkerts, Amy Bloom (2002), Amy Bloom (2000), Alain de Botton, TC Boyle, Arthur Bradford, Courtney Angela Brkic, Frederick Busch (2005), Frederick Busch (2003), Ethan Canin, Stephen Carter, Benjamin Cavell, David Champagne, Iris Chang, Alston Chase, Sandra Cisneros, Marcelle Clements, Andrei Codrescu, Paul Collins, Michael Connelly, Richard Conniff, Frank Conroy, Mark Costello, Betsy Cox, Jim Crace, Barry Crimmins, Nicholas Dawidoff, Andre Dubus III, John Dufresne, Kristin Waterfield Duisberg, Geoff Dyer, Tony Earley, Barbara Ehrenreich, Gretel Ehrlich, Stephen Elliott, James Ellroy, Joseph Epstein, Natatcha Estebanez, Marc Estrin, Percival Everett, Tibor Fischer, Alice Flaherty, Maria Flook, Nick Flynn, Jonathan Safran Foer, Richard Ford, Richard Ford (2007), Tom Franklin, Alan Furst, Alan Furst, Joshua Furst, Eduardo Galeano, Tim Gautreaux, Anthony Giardina, Barry Gifford, Dagoberto Gilb, John Gimlette, James Gleick, Francisco Goldman, Adam Gopnik, Alma Guillermoprieto, Allan Gurganus, Barbara Haber, David Hajdu, Brian Hall, Donald Hall, Jake Halpern, Kent Haruf, Ethan Hawke, Patricia Henley, Amanda Hesser, Christopher Hitchens Pt. 2, Christopher Hitchens, Eva Hoffman, Janette Turner Hospital, Gabe Hudson, Siri Hustvedt, Karl Iagnemma, Elizabeth Inness-Brown, Edward Jones, Ben Katchor, Nora Okja Keller, Arthur Kempton, Jason Kersten, Chip Kidd (2006), Chip Kidd (2003), Chip Kidd (2001), Anthony Lane, Erik Larson, James Lasdun, Don Lee, Don Lee, Annette Lemieux, Michael Lesy, Michael Lewis (2006), Michael Lewis (2003), Alan Lightman (2003), Alan Lightman (2000), David Liss, Vyvyane Loh, Paul Lussier, Richard Marinick, Ruben Martinez, Daniel Mason, Colum McCann, Thomas McGuane, Jenny & Martha McPhee, Abelardo Morell, Azar Nafisi, Adam Nicolson, Thisbe Nissen, Sherwin Nuland, Tim O'Brien, Joseph O'Connor, Susan Orlean (2006), Susan Orlean (2001), Ann Packer, ZZ Packer, Tom Paine, George Pelecanos, Thomas Perry, Arthur Phillips, Neal Pollack, Samantha Power, Richard Price, Alice Randall, Christopher Rice, David Rieff, Hazel Rowley, Richard Russo, Richard Russo, George Saunders, John Sedgwick, Will Self, Saira Shah, Jim Shepard, David Shields, Lionel Shriver, Peter Singer, Jane Smiley, April Smith, Ilan Stavans, Robert Stone, Darin Strauss, Graham Swift, Manil Suri, Donna Tartt, David Thomson, Nick Tosches, Brady Udall, Vendela Vida, Sarah Vowell (2005), Sarah Vowell, Barbara Wallraff, Brad Watson, W.D. Wetherell, Mark Winegardner, William Wright, Howard Zinn (2003), Howard Zinn
author interviews
- Recent: Tom Grimes, Rick Moody, Joe Quirk, Tamim Ansary, Joe Meno, Nick Nigro, Yiyun Li, Vestal McIntyre, Jon Raymond, Peter Rock, Lee Montgomery
- Popular: Jonathan Safran Foer, Sandra Cisneros, Chip Kidd, Lionel Shriver, Mia Fontaine
- From Robert Birnbaum: Robert Stone, Howard Zinn, Dagoberto Gilb, Richard Ford, Donald Hall, Michael Lewis, Elizabeth Benedict, John Gimlette, Eduardo Galeano
- More books coverage
music interviews
film and art interviews
more interviews
- Tara McKelvey (Monstering) with Mara Naselli
- Mark Monmonier (From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow) with Colette Labouff Atkinson
- Alix Ohlin (Babylon) with former student Jesslyn Roebuck
- Fernanda Eberstadt (Little Money Street) with Summer Block
- Janet Desaulniers with Alex Shapiro
- Lee Klein (Incidents of Egotourism in the Temporary World) w/ James Stegall
- Sherman Alexie talks to Robert Capriccioso
- Sarah Vowell (The Partly Cloudy Patriot) with Robert Capriccioso
- Retort Magazine publisher Brentley Frazer with Star Jewel Smith
- Poet Virginia Hamilton Adair with Anna Van Lenten
- Noah Kerner (Chasing Cool)
- Hillary Carlip (Queen of the Oddballs)
- Paul Neilan (Apathy)
- Interview with a Winner: Erin Bealmear
- Scott Snyder (Voodoo Heart)
- Toni Schlesinger (Five Flights Up)
- Mia Fontaine (Come Back)
- Craig Davidson (Rust and Bone)
- Katy Lederer (Poker Face)
- Andy Behrman (Electroboy)
- Jennifer Niven (Ada Blackjack)
- David Levien (Rounders, Swagbelly)
- Sheri Fink (War Hospital)
- Susannah Breslin (You're a Bad Man, Aren't You?)
- Mary Roach (Stiff)
- Kimberley Snow (In Buddha's Kitchen)
- Carolyn Parkhurst (The Dogs of Babel)
- Elise Blackwell (Hunger)
- Matthew Derby (Super Flat Times)
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Identity Theory is an online magazine that publishes author interviews, music interviews, original fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, book reviews, film reviews, a social justice blog, and whatever else seems like a good idea at the time. Learn more, contact us, get our 
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