Archive for November, 2009


Susan Ramsey interviews Bonnie Jo Campbell

Poet Susan Ramsey and I have been corresponding for years, since she worked as a bookseller and I actually had time to answer my email, and she’s been urging me to read her friend Bonnie Jo Campbell almost that long. When I finally do crack the spine on American Salvage, I’m sure I won’t be disappointed. Ramsey is basically never . . .

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Aunt Maude: teacher, car dealer — and Twain fan?

Maud is a nickname now, one most of my friends call me, but it started as a pen name. I chose it years ago as a sort of homage to Maude Newton, my great-great aunt, a woman nobody wanted to answer questions about. For the longest time, I only really knew about her marital separation by peppering. Then census data . . .

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