Audio Interview with author David Mitchell, conducted by Nigel Beale.
This from the incomparable British Council's contemporary writers website:
Born in Southport in 1969, David Mitchell grew up in Malvern, Worcestershire, studying for a degree in English and American Literature followed by an MA in Comparative Literature, at the University of Kent. He lived for a year in Sicily before moving to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before returning to England.
In his first novel, Ghostwritten (1999), nine narrators in nine locations across the globe tell interlocking stories. This novel won the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.
His second novel, number9dream (2001), was shortlisted for the 2002 Man Booker Prize for fiction. It is set in modern day Tokyo and tells the story of Eiji Miyake's search for his father.
In 2003 David Mitchell was named by Granta magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British Novelists'. In his third novel, Cloud Atlas (2004), a young Pacific islander witnesses the nightfall of science and civilisation, while questions of history are explored in a series of seemingly disconnected narratives. Cloud Atlas was shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
David Mitchell lives in Ireland. His latest novel is Black Swan Green (2006)
We met recently in Toronto to talk about experimentation and realism, plot, character and all that good stuff, but also about the greatness of John Cheever, high brow and pulp fiction, good pot boilers, the cosmos, cosmi, connections, melding verbs, platitudinous profundities, critics as platypus taxidermists, poetry in prose, the originalities of happy blunders and cultural juxtapositions, Perec's W, monkeying with structure, planning your funeral, evaluative criticism and the delightful experience of reading Chekhov's short stories.
Please listen here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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- Audio Interview with Author David Gilmour conducted by Nigel Beale. BF #3
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- Audio Interview with Damon Galgut, by Nigel Beale.
- Audio Interview with Author Anne Degrace conducted by Nigel Beale. (BF #1)
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October 15th, 2009 at 10:25 PM
Hi there,
I really enjoyed your interview with David Mitchell. Do you happen to know if he is still in Toronto? If so, do you have any idea how I can get in touch with him? I’m an old friend looking to reconnect and would appreciate any help.
Thanks for your help.
Richard
October 16th, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Thanks. I’ll forward your request on, and leave it up to David to respond, or not.
October 16th, 2009 at 12:29 PM
As a writer, my favorite author used to be Fitzgerald purely for the language. I’d have to say, though, that you have interviewed the author who will come to be one of the greatest writers of the 21st century. Lines like (this one from “Black Swan Green”):
“I arse flopped into this ankle-deep puddle where the gutter’d flooded.”
…don’t just happen. They are carefully crafted. And the topic here is NOT a beautiful one, which makes the sentence even greater!
Btw, my website (http://www.basilbaker.com/Dedication/dedication.html) is dedicated to both Fitzgerald and Mitchell.
October 19th, 2009 at 5:04 AM
Thank you for putting this up, Nigel. An audio interview with David Mitchell is as rare as a duckbill platypus sighting.
Your ‘unstructured’ conversation with Mr Mitchell was candid and insightful.
Looking forward to his next one.
October 20th, 2009 at 11:15 PM
My pleasure Alexis. Thanks for listening.
February 14th, 2010 at 2:51 PM
Lovely thanks! He seems very endearing…I'd love to have him as a creative writing teacher…
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