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deareverybodyMichael Kimball‘s epistolary third novel, Dear Everybody, was greeted with rave reviews. The Believer called it a “curatorial masterpiece,” Time Out New York refers to the “stunning prose” that “evocatively hints at entire physical and emotional worlds lying just behind his story’s surface,” and the LA Times argues that “there is a whole life contained in this slim novel, a life as funny and warm and sad and heartbreaking as any other, rendered with honest complexity and freshness by Kimball’s sharp writing.”  And the trailer‘s a thing of beauty, too.

Michael’s first two novels are The Way the Family Got Away and How Much Us There Was. He is responsible for the collaborative art project Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard).

If you weren’t a writer, how would you spend your time?

Growing up in Michigan, I was good at math and science and all that, so I was always supposed to be an engineer, but I was pretty bored with that by college. So my degree is in English education, but I never went into high school teaching. But if I gave up writing now, I would probably spend more time editing and more time painting.

Which book do you wish you’d written?

I have to pick more than one. I am jealous of Lydia Davis’ The End of the Story, also Meredith Daneman’s The Favourite. Ida Fink’s A Scrap of Time, Michael Ondaatje’s Coming Through Slaughter, Don DeLillo’s End Zone.

What are the websites you couldn’t live without?

There are a few of websites I look at pretty much every day—Bookslut, HTML Giant, Facebook, and I love maintaining my blog.

What are you working on now?

I’m still writing lots of life stories for Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard). I’ve had a huge backlog since the Guardian profile, but I’m catching up. And I have started a few different novels, one of which will become my fifth novel. I don’t know which one yet.

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions for 2009?

I didn’t, not officially, but I’m pretty set about two things—weighing under 200 pounds (being on book tour is difficult on the body) and being deep into a new novel (I can’t wait to see what is going to happen).


  1. Myfanwy Collins

    Awesome! Am a big fan of Michael Kimball.

  2. Ken Baumann

    I look forward to your new work, Michael. Best of luck.

  3. blake

    i like this a lot. i need to read that daneman. ‘end zone’ is my favorite delillo also, though i think we talked about that. it could probably use a reread. excited to see what becomes the fifth (and the fourth, when it emerges!)

  1. 1 Fictionauts at Large, 3/13 - Fictionaut Blog

    […] Author’s Bethanne Patrick has a video interview with Michael Kimball about his novel Dear Everybody. Together with Luca Dipierro, Michael is also making a film called 60 Writers/60 Places. In the […]



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