Kevin Wilson has been on Katherine’s interview wishlist oh about forever and FINALLY she got to speak to him.
Kevin Wilson is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Nothing to See Here, which was a Read with Jenna book club selection; The Family Fang, which was adapted into an acclaimed film starring Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman; and Perfect Little World; as well as the story collections Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award; and Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Southern Review, One Story, A Public Space, and Best American Short Stories. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife and two sons.
Kevin and Katherine discuss:
- Early writing and reading life
- The creation of art and secrecy vs. publicness
- Weirdness and how Kevin writes about it with such tenderness
- Kevin’s writing routine (spoiler: it’s non-existent)
- Writing from the point of view of women
- Where this phrase came from and how it keeps appearing in his work:
“The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are the new fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us.”
- This Time Magazine article: I Was Worried My Anxiety Would Prevent Me From Being a Good Father.
Kevin’s favourite novel is We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.
The First Time podcast 