Sunday, January 21, 2018

James Anderson

James Anderson was born in Seattle and raised in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. He is a graduate of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and received his Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Pine Manor College in Boston. For many years he worked in book publishing. Other jobs have included logging, commercial fishing and, briefly, truck driver. He currently divides his time between Ashland, Oregon, and the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. The Never-Open Desert Diner is his first novel.

Anderson's new novel is Lullaby Road.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Anderson's reply:
My taste in reading is extremely varied, everything from biographies, philosophy, neuroscience, physics, history, as well as fiction, nonfiction and a fair amount of poetry. Right now I am reading the newest from someone I feel is one of our most gifted novelists—Steve Yarbrough—The Unmade World. Yarbrough’s stories are complex, as are his characters, and his ability to elevate a seemingly conversational style into a quite extraordinary intricate use of language. Every page of a Yarbrough novel is exquisite in some way. He is not a carpenter but a diamond cutter.

Rounding out that list is the new collection of stories by Steven Huff—Blissful & Other Stories; Human Ink, The First Five Books, poetry by Michael Poage; Star Journal, Selected Poems by Christopher Buckley, who has long been a favorite poet. And Sherman Alexie’s memoir, You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me—which is absolutely extraordinary in every way.
Visit James Anderson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Lullaby Road.

--Marshal Zeringue