On episode 15 of the WRITER 2.0 podcast, I speak with NYU professor and bestselling non-fiction author Michael Norman.
In the interview, we discuss:
- his strange first assignment at the New York Times;
- his book TEARS IN THE DARKNESS, which was picked by the editors of The New York Times Magazine as one of the 100 best nonfiction books ever published;
- what it takes to raise non-fiction to the level of art;
- what it’s like working on a book with your spouse for ten years;
- what is and isn’t narrative non-fiction;
- whether it’s ever okay to create composite characters and invent details in non-fiction;
- why media has not just changed, but devolved;
- which Law and Order character my daughter modeled her haircut after.
Plus, on “Today in Writing”–the anniversary of Alice in Wonderland. And a bonus segment with Erika Mitchell: Barbara Kingsolver’s path to literary success.
About our guest:
Michael Norman, is the co-author of TEARS IN THE DARKNESS: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath (2009), a work of narrative non-fiction that was on the New York Times bestseller list for eight weeks and was picked by Times critic Dwight Garner, as well as other reviewers, as one of the top ten books of year, and by the editors of The New York Times Magazine as one of the best 100 nonfiction books ever published. He has also written THESE GOOD MEN: Friendships Forged in War, a memoir published to critical acclaim in 1990. He is a former reporter and columnist for The New York Times national, foreign and metropolitan desks and was the inaugural writer for the following New York Times columns: “A Sense of Place”, a monthly column that explored the dislocations of modern life in one suburban town; “Lessons”, a national column on education; and “Our Towns”, a twice-weekly column on life outside New York City.
Norman’s work also includes major articles for various other national publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine and GQ Magazine. His work has been syndicated both here and abroad. He is currently under contract to MacMillan Publishers to write a major work on Bellevue Hospital in New York City, America’s oldest continuously operating hospital and perhaps the best-known medical center in the world. He is again working with a co-author, his wife, Professor Elizabeth M. Norman (Steinhardt/Humanities). The book will be a narrative look at the institution — inside Bellevue. The authors have been named Visiting Professors of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at New York University Medical School, Bellevue Hospital Center. They have been working on the book for six years and plan to have it on the shelves in 2016/2017.
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