Andre Dubus III

[November 5th, 2008]

You really should read: Garden of Last Days

Very few writers can please critics and move paper. Andre Dubus is one. A former bounty hunter who took up the quill, he’s best known for House of Sand and Fog, the story of a struggling family of Iranian immigrants. Oprah dug it, and you will, too, but don’t stop there. Dubus’ new novel, Garden of Last Days, is conceptually ambitious, and it’s got a real thumper of a twist ending. JOHN MINERVINI. 2 pm Sunday, Nov. 9. Powell’s Books Stage.

What’s your personal writing ritual?
I write with Ticonderoga No. 2 pencils I sharpen with a utility knife from my carpentry days. I write in Mead composition notebooks.

What are your favorite themes to write about?
I try not to think about themes at all. Instead, I work hard on finding the story that will reveal themes I never could have found any other way.

The most beautiful word in the English language is:
Peace.

What authors made you want to pick up a pen in the first place and why?
Bob Dylan. Because he wrote and sang things that seemed to be inside me, too.

Fight Club time: If you could fight one author (or critic), who would it be and why?
Having fought a lot in my life, I’ve learned that it is a physically and spiritually ugly business, one I would only turn to now to protect my family from physical harm. So unless a fellow writer or critic is literally coming at us, I’m not going to get into my fight stance.

Name a book that you think is highly overrated. Be honest.
I won’t do that publicly. There are books out there, of course, that are overrated, but writers work hard on even lesser books, so why not leave them alone and encourage them to write better ones in the future?

Dream project:
Daily writing, no matter what it is; the practice IS the project.

Most recent nightmare:
Who knows? I forget them immediately, and then they seem to find their way into my work.

Your cure for writer’s block:
Stop caring how you appear to others: forget career, focus on the WORK.

Pessimistic question: Will you keep writing even after people stop reading?
Absolutely. The novelist Thomas Williams was asked once why he wrote; he responded: “So that I don’t die before I’m dead.”

Optimistic question: Kittens? Discuss.
I find nothing optimistic about kittens; I hate cats!

Please paste a short paragraph from a story, poem, article, blog post, etc., you’re currently working on below:
I write with a razor-sharpened pencil in notebooks. I don’t know how to “paste.”