My interview with Jonathan Evison

I'm embarrassed to admit that this footage of Evison is more than a year old. It sat on digital ice while I finished work on my Robert Ripley biography. Now that my book is done, and Evison's latest is out – West Of Here, getting great reviews and named among Amazon's Best Books of the Month – it seemed a good time to dust this off and share.

I'd met Evison in late 2009 when his previous book, All About Lulu, was awarded the Washington State Book Award for fiction. After the ceremony we had a couple beers and talked about paper waste, red pens, bong rips, writing drunk, and kuckleballers. Favorite lines: "Rewriting is the process" and "I have to write. That's what it is, it's a mania."

He's a smart writer, savvy promoter, and pretty damn funny. I expect to hear much more about Evison. (He lives on Bainbridge Island, as does Bruce Barcott, whom I'd previously interviewed. Hoping next to interview Barcott's wife, Claire Dederer, author of Poser).

Evison will read at Elliot Bay Books in Seattle on Feb 16.

Links: West of Here and a Powell's Q&A.