Always Apprentices: The Believer Book of Even More Writers Talking to Writers

Believer Books of Writers Talking to Writers

by Vendela Vida (Editor), Sheila Heti (Editor), Ross Simonini (Editor)

The Believer Book of Even More Writers Talking to Writers collects five years of intimate, wide-ranging conversations with many of today’s most prominent writers, taken from the pages of the Believer. The participants don’t limit themselves to issues of writing and craft, but instead offer unfettered exchanges on a wide range of topics—from what it means to be a consumer to whether or not to kill a deer, from how we get to know each other to walking while inebriated. The interviews feature the serious-yet-casual Believer approach to the often staid interview format. For example, Sheila Heti asks Mary Gaitskill, �If you go into a room or go to a party, is there a basic disposition you have toward humans going through the world?” Elsewhere, Colum McCann begins his conversation with Aleksandar Hemon by asking, �What are we doing here? Why aren’t we in a pub?” Other interviews include Don DeLillo talking with Bret Easton Ellis; Joan Didion talking with Vendela Vida; Sarah Manguso talking with Amy Hempl; Barry Hannah talking with Wells Tower; and Edmund White talking with Derek McCormack.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Books About Books

352 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 2013

About the author

Vendela Vida is the award-winning author of four books, including Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name and The Lovers, and a founding editor of The Believer magazine. She is also the co-editor of Always Apprentices, a collection of interviews with writers, and Confidence, or the Appearance of Confidence, a collection of interviews with musicians. As a fellow at the Sundance Labs, she developed Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name into a script, which received the Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award. Two of Vida’s novels have been New York Times Notable Books of the year, and she is the winner of the Kate Chopin Award, given to a writer whose female protagonist chooses an unconventional path. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two children, and since 2002 has served on the board of 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring lab for youth.

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conversations between two writers, sometimes as an interview, sometimes in letters. Sometimes they seem like equals, other times one is clearly interviewing the other. I liked Don DeLillo and Bret Easton Ellis, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Sarach Schulman best in what they had to say. Expected a bit more from Joan Didion and Vendela Vida!

"Before you all embark on this weird career, I'd encourage you to ask yourselves whether you really want to spend your scant years on the planet stalking life in the peculiar way that writers must." - Barry Hannah

[William Torgerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book.

Three Golden Lines:

Lawrence Schiller on choosing a topic for writing about: “First, find a story that has depth and general appeal.”

Gary Lutz: “Ideally, as I see things, every sentence should bestow a fresh verbal bounty on the reader. A writer needs to give in every sentence-a writer is someone who is forever bearing gifts.”

Victor LaValle “Fear is a powerful motivator in human behavior, for bad and for good.”

Will check this out on upcoming trip: Norman Mailer is buried in Provincetown.

Stories/Texts/Writers I want to look into because of reading this one:

Norman Mailer’s Executioner’s Song. Note the Lawrence Schiller connection.

My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist

The Complete and Collected Work of V.S. Pritchett

Joan Didion’s Blue Nights

Bruce Jay Friedman

Requiem for a Dream

Ideas for teaching as a result of reading:

For the fall of 2013, I want to start the class on what we’ll call “Intellectual Browsing.” I’ve been dis-satisfied with the way my requirement that the students include articles from the library databases has often caused student writing to veer off course according to what articles they find. The direction of their writing shifts only because of what they are able to find and not because of what they have decided. The articles that are found drives the paper rather than the students’ interest or curiosity.

I have in mind a new sort of research paper, one called “Intellectual Browsing.” Students can browse journals in the library, books in the library, check out Google or Amazon books, and take a trip to the local bookstore. Then they can “report back” and get some practice or experience using MLA format while also hopefully firing some intellectual curiosity. The book/film project we have been doing can follow this stage of intellectual browsing.

[Gabe Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great conversations between writers talking to writers about writing.

[Tony Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another sparkling collection!

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

i only read like 4 of these interviews, and they were very good. reminds me that i need to reread more Didion and DeLillo. yes.