"Success is when the world returns your faith": my conversation with editor Lauren Wein

When I started this blog more than four years ago, I could not imagine what it might become or where it would take me.  I vaguely remember the early blogging months, those fragile missives I put out into the world.  Was anybody listening?



But we do, eventually, find each other out here, and one of the very special people blogging has brought into my life is Lauren Wein, an editor of impeccable taste, huge heart, and graceful fortitude in an era in which so much about publishing is being recalibrated.  It was my blog review of Book of Clouds that began our conversation, but I have had the privilege since then of reading and loving the enormously interesting and original Lauren list; just yesterday, I ordered her newest book, Shards. Lauren is smart and thoughtful; I trust her sensibilities.  When she agreed to a conversation with me about her new role as senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and her continuing interest in global stories, I counted myself lucky.



Here, then, featured on the front page of the fabulous on-line magazine, Publishing Perspectives, is Lauren Wein.  For those who are interested in learning even more about Lauren, I highly recommend this powerful essay about the making of Francisco Goldman's novel, Say Her Name.



My first story for Publishing Perspectives, on the making of the international bestseller Between Shades of Gray (Tamra Tuller, Philomel), can be found here.