Interviews (Answer and Ask)

Answer:

American, British and Canadian Studies Journal
"An Interview with Alex Kudera, Author of Fight for Your Long Day" by Merritt Moseley (June, 2016)

Chronicle Vitae
"The Novelist Who Chronicles Life as an Adjunct" by William Pannapacker (January 8, 2014)

Word of Mouth (New Hampshire Public Radio)
"Fight for Your Long Day" by Rebecca Lavoie (April 4, 2013)

Foreward Reviews
“One of a Kind: A ForeWord Interview with Alex Kudera” Atticus Books Online (May-June 2011)

The Next Best Book Blog
"In Conversation: Lavinia Ludlow Interviews Alex Kudera" by Lavinia Ludlow (April 26, 2016)

This Podcast Will Change Your Life
"This Podcast Will Change Your Life is the Alex Kudera" by Ben Tanzer (August 17, 2016)

Psychology Today
“Darkly Funny Debut Novel Exposes Adjunct Abuse” by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D., Creating in Flow (January 7, 2012)

Karen the Small Press Librarian
"Writer on Writer: Dave Newman Interviews Alex Kudera" by Dave Newman (September 8, 2013)

Clemson University
“English lecturer’s book explores the plight of the adjunct professor” by Angela Nixon, Clemson University media relations (October 11, 2011)

The Chronicle of Higher Education
“An Award-Winning Author on Adjuncts” by Isaac Sweeney, The Chronicle of Higher Education (June 1, 2011)

When Falls the Coliseum
“The Life of an Adjunct: An Interview with Novelist Alex Kudera” by Robert Anthony Watts, When Falls the Coliseum (November 1, 2010)

We Who Are About to Die
“We who are about to breed: Alex Kudera” by Patrick Wensink, We Who Are About to Die (September 27, 2011)

Smarts and Culture
“How One Author Finds an Audience: Part 1″ by Maryann Devine, smArts and Culture (October 27, 2010)

“How One Author Finds an Audience: Part 2″ by Maryann Devine, smArts and Culture (October 26, 2010)

Atticus Books
“Interview with Alex Kudera, Part 2 of 2′” by Dan Cafaro at Atticus Books Online (August 2, 2010)

“Interview with the Author of ‘Fight for Your Long Day, Part 1′” by Dan Cafaro at Atticus Books Online (July 22, 2010)

The New Dork Review of Books
“The Blogger/Novelist Relationship, with Alex Kudera (Part 2)” by Greg Zimmerman, The New Dork Review of Books (August 8, 2011)

“The Blogger/Novelist Relationship, with Alex Kudera (Part 1)” by Greg Zimmerman, The New Dork Review of Books (August 4, 2011)

And Ask:

"Chinese Gucci: The Interview": Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4, The Less United States of Kudera,
May 12, 15, 19 and 22, 2020

"An Interview with Rebecca Schuman" When Falls the Coliseum, April 13, 2017

"Bay Area Blues: An Interview with Lavinia Ludlow" JMWW, February 29, 2016

"Writer on Writer: Part Two, Alex Kudera Interviews Dave Newman" Karen the Small Press Librarian, September 16, 2013

"An Interview With Nancy Peacock" plus Part 2, and Part 3, The Less United States of Kudera, March 31, 2013 to April 3, 2013

"John Warner on Frederick Exley" When Falls the Coliseum, May 13, 2011

"The Exley Influence: A Riff Between Two Authors 'Falling Inward'" Atticus Books Online, February 25, 2011

"Exley, Clarke, and Eleanor Henderson" When Falls the Coliseum, November 9, 2010

"Interview With Mark SaFranko" When Falls the Coliseum, October 19, 2010

"Interview With Dan Cafaro of Atticus Books" When Falls the Coliseum, August 9, 2010

"An Interview With Lee Konstantinou" When Falls the Coliseum, May 13, 2010

"An Interview With Jean-Philippe Toussaint" When Falls the Coliseum, April 19, 2010

"Returning 'Home': An Interview With Jayne Anne Phillips" The South Carolina Review, Spring 2010 (link to table of contents but not the interview)

"Interview With Olga Gardner Galvin" When Falls the Coliseum, June 22, 2009

"An Interview With Author Dan Fante" When Falls the Coliseum, May 21, 2009

"The Writing Life Starring Iain Levison" The Less United States of Kudera, May 4, 2009

"An Interview With Cassendre Xavier" The Less United States of Kudera, March 15, 2009

"Don Riggs on Writers and Writing" The Less United States of Kudera, March 9, 2009

Independence Day

Independence Day by Richard Ford is the novel to begin reading now. It is far superior to The Sportswriter although this one is also quite good. You don't have to be a fan of books with funny sales scenes (in this case, real estate) or a fan of baseball hopeful of renewal via vicarious pilgrimmage to Cooperstown, New York. You don't even have to yearn for a great novel of South Jersey although I'm sure that thought is inspiring!

Last night, I glanced at a copy I own of The Lay of the Land, the third in his Frank Bascombe trilogy, but it didn't grab me. I'm finished Pop Apocalypse by Lee Konstantinou (and I do approve of his messages) and searching for another book to begin. So I'm between books and reading beginnings: Philip Roth's Everyman, Albert Camus's The Fall ( a reread after 20 years or so), and William Vollmann's Riding Toward Everywhere.

It looks like the Vollmann is taking the lead because he is writing about hobos and hitching and hauling ass across the West on freight trains. I'm early in the book, and I've learned Vollman has had a series of small strokes in his past, something not at all shocking when one considers his prolific output. I notice he is published by Ecco Press, and if I'm not mistaken I just read a nice, short article on David Halpern, who founded Ecco in the early seventies; the article is in the back of the most recent Poets and Writers. Halpern has had a life worth vicariously living too!

Back to Vollmann, I've always been interested in his writing career and amazing output although I have not read many of his novels. Ice Shirt is the only one I can remember reading cover to cover although I always check them out at the bookstore when I stumble upon another fat, Vollmann book. I've also always been intrigued by Deep Springs College in Deep Springs, California, and I know Vollmann studied there. A little like St. John's but much smaller, the school sounds like one of those very special places.

Anyway, so far, I appreciate Vollmann's honesty and humility in this book. He is 47 and he needs a bucket for a boost to catch a train; to understand their place on the rails, his friend has coined the term "fauxbeaux." Vollmann sounds fragile and humane. He has punched out 1000s of pages of prose and yet we don't here him brag or boast like various politicians or other celebrities. None of those smiling phonies would have the courage or capacity to live like Vollmann, and yet his voice too is but one among billions.

Does anyone hear a freight train in the distance???