What inspired you to write about your mother?
I started out trying to write about myself.
Then I realized that those were tired old stories and that my mother was actually much more interesting.
So I turned to her.
[The process took] a couple years.
It was like a big door opened when I realized that she was responsible for everything.
What do you think that she would say if she could read it?
Irma would probably like the book because she encouraged me to write.
You say Irma instead of Mom.
Did you actually call her that?
I started calling her Irma when I was old enough, I thought, to call her Irma.
She got a kick out of that.
I was probably 40.
I was just showing off, you know?
Can you share a special memory of her?
I remember driving west to California in a new Ford convertible with the top down.
She said we were working on our tans, and she liked to sing along to the radio.
Whats on your reading list?
Im reading Jim HarrisonsComplete Poems, which is a great, great volume.
Its thick, and its over his entire career.
I read one poem a day and note the day I read it and if I have any thoughts.
Its becoming kind of a diary at the same time.
When I was working onIrma, it was invaluable to me in terms of language and ideas.
Im still not through it.
Also, Tom McGuanesCloudbursts: Collected and New Storiesis staggeringly brilliant and funny.
What is one thing all great writers have in common?
I think all great writers share a kind of a linked insecurity.
They want to be better, they want to do good, they want people to like their work.
They thought about that all the time.
Who are some of the best writers that youve ever edited?
