Conversations with Russell Banks - Literary Conversations Series

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; Per publisher, paper not currently available. Publisher Marketing: If Russell Banks (b. 1940) says he doesn't "think about [his] reader at all when [he's] writing," he clearly enjoys talking with his actual readers, whether they be students, writers or academics, delighting in the diversity of his audience and in the "greater democratization of commentary" provided by alternative media. These conversations span a period of over thirty years, from 1976 with the publication of his first novel, "Family Life," and his first collection of short stories, to 2008 with "The Reserve." Most date from the late 1990s on, when the publication of Pulitzer-finalist "Cloudsplitter" in conjunction with the back-to-back release of film adaptations of his novels "The Sweet Hereafter" and "Affliction" suddenly put Banks in the spotlight as "Hollywood's Hottest New Property."Banks has always believed that the writer plays "the role of the storyteller," fulfilling very basic and universal human needs: "to talk about the human condition, to tell us something about ourselves." Yet, for him, writing is not a one-way process. It is an exchange where the key is to tune in and listen--to the voices of the characters engaging the writer's imagination and to the voices of the readers sharing their own experiences of his books and of the world.

Contributor Bio:  Roche, David David Roche is professor at the Universite Toulouse Le Mirail. He is the editor of "Conversations with Russell Banks" (published by University Press of Mississippi), coeditor of "Approaches to Film and Reception Theories", and author of "L'Imagination malsaine: Russell Banks, Raymond Carver, David Cronenberg, Bret Easton Ellis, David Lynch".