Two years ago I interviewed Sherman Alexie for the second time. The interview was going to be a centerpiece of a theme issue for a magazine that I had written for a number of times before. The editors decided to scrap said theme and the interview hung in limbo for nine months before the managing editor killed it. I've interviewed dozens of individuals from Wanda Sykes to Ron Jeremy and Alexie remains among my favorites, both because his art impacts my life and because he is boundlessly intelligent. He sends my mom the sweetest thank you notes when she sends him baklava, plus, he is the only person who's ever had the balls to write her and say, "Could you please send more?"
Alexie's new book, the autobiographical young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, was just nominated for a National Book Award. What follows is the introduction to and an excerpt from the interview that never ran. It went up this morning on the literary site I write for, The Nervous Breakdown:
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing this, Litz. Once again, your staggering and indisputable journalistic talents have bitched-slapped the rest of us into submission.
I should also mention that I'd gladly follow Alexie's lead and beg - not ask, mind you, but beg - your mother for baklava. Her baking genius is matched only by your writing genius. (How's that for shameless ass-kissery?)
You, my cherished friend, remain on the baklava list.
What's hilarious, though, is that when a certain unnamed managing editor cut this interview and then my John Vanderslice interview, *w/out having read the latter* and then tried to stiff me on payment, the first thing Mom said was, "I'm never sending baklava to him again." Then she advised me to file a complaint w/ the California Attorney General's if I didn't receive payment in 30 days.
Do not fuck w/ my mom or she will cut you.
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