- Eye 94 interview with Jeremy Kitchen & Michael SackI gave a radio interview a couple of weeks ago to Jeremy Kitchen and Michael Sack on Eye 94 (105.5 FM Chicago); Jeremy has now sent me a link to a recording. For those who might have liked to listen and missed the show, the whole thing is here.
- Profile by Christian Lorentzen in New York MagazineAccording to my publicist, I have NOT committed professional suicide. Good to know. The whole thing here.
- Ilana Teitelbaum on HuffPoAs so often, the interviewer has more interesting things to say than I do. The whole thing here
- My first time – Paris Review video interviewTom Bean and Luke Poling, directors of Plimpton!, have been commissioned by the Paris Review to do a series of video interviews in which writers talk about their first book. They came up to my cottage in Vermont to talk to me back in March, and the video is now online here. (About five hours… Read more: My first time – Paris Review video interview
- Bottle Rocket Science – Podcast with Scott GosnellInterview with Scott Gosnell, in which my shortcomings as a media personality are, like, I mean, you know, you know, you know, revealed. Scott kindly pointed out that the podcast form gives people time to hit their stride. Hm. In any case, we talk about The Last Samurai, work in progress, Paul Graham’s great discussion… Read more: Bottle Rocket Science – Podcast with Scott Gosnell
- BOMB Magazine : Mieke Chew (photos Jesse Ruddock)Helen DeWitt’s personal library is on display as part of The Library Vaccine, an exhibition of six distinctive collections at Artists Space in Soho. The books, shipped from DeWitt’s home in Berlin, are exhibited on one side of the gallery. The facing wall is covered in Xeroxed passages of books in different languages, printed emails,… Read more: BOMB Magazine : Mieke Chew (photos Jesse Ruddock)
- The Fabulist : Jesse BarronOne advantage of living in a pleasant and inexpensive European capital is that people want to visit you. Another, that there is access to the Internet. Neither paves the road of novel-finishing, and so the American writer Helen DeWitt decided to leave Berlin two years ago, taking with her a toothbrush and laptop. A series… Read more: The Fabulist : Jesse Barron
- Anne Strainchamps: Wisconsin Public Radiosurreal in fiction here
- New York Observer : Michael MillerThe first time Helen DeWitt disappeared was in 2000. . . . The whole thing here. Some qualifications on paperpools, here and here.
- LA Review of Books : Lee KonstantinouWe conducted this interview over email last month (as the inserted images probably make clear). In bold defiance of the LARB tradition of having an absentee interviewer, I present the questions that inspired these responses, though, in the hopes of pre-disorienting the reader, detached from the provided answers. 1. Was there a time when you… Read more: LA Review of Books : Lee Konstantinou
- n + 1 : Elizabeth Gumport and Chris GlazekEarly in September, Christopher Glazek and I spent a long, pleasant afternoon interviewing Helen DeWitt. Helen had arrived in New York a few days earlier, about a month before her latest novel, Lightning Rods, was to be released by New Directions. There were miles of book tour events to be traveled before she slept,… Read more: n + 1 : Elizabeth Gumport and Chris Glazek
- The Awl : Jenny DavidsonJENNY DAVIDSON: Here’s one sentence that caught my eye early on, as your protagonist Joe’s first trial of his sexual-release program for high-performing employees leads him to tweak the product he’s offering: “It meant another head-to-head with Beginning Programming for Dummies, but the thing that separates the sheep from the goats is the willingness to… Read more: The Awl : Jenny Davidson
- boingboing : David IsraelDavid K. Israel: As I understand it, you actually finished this manuscript for Lightning Rods before completing and publishing The Last Samurai. Sounds like an interesting story for aspiring novelists. What happened there? The whole saga here.
- Bookforum : Morten Høi JensenOne of the most exciting literary events this fall is the publication of Helen DeWitt’s long-anticipated second novel, Lightning Rods. DeWitt, a Maryland-born polymath, is best known as the author of The Last Samurai, the story of a boy genius who sets off in search of his missing father. Sam Anderson called that book “the… Read more: Bookforum : Morten Høi Jensen
- Axiom Magazine : Mitzi AkahaEven beyond incorporation of the film, you use a lot of Japanese language—among many others—in your book. Have you studied? Many years ago, in London, I came across a book by Murakami Haruki whose English title is “A Wild Sheep Chase” (Hitsuji o meguru boken). I loved this book. I read somewhere that Murakami had… Read more: Axiom Magazine : Mitzi Akaha
- if:book : Dan Visel“Your Name Here is a book that feels profoundly of-the-moment: it documents how we read online in the early years of the twenty-first century. Bertrand Russell praised Stefan Themerson’s novel Bayamus as being “nearly as mad as the world,” which feels entirely apropos to Your Name Here, nearly as mad as the Internet.” Dan Visel… Read more: if:book : Dan Visel
- I am other people (A Softer World) : Joey Comeau“A Softer World is a comic that was created by Emily Horne and Joey Comeau so that people would recognize them as important artistic geniuses.” It is in the tradition of Simenon, not Schultz. EH takes photographs for which JC writes captions with a sting in the tail. Joey: Suicide is often associated with mental… Read more: I am other people (A Softer World) : Joey Comeau