Howard Norman is the author of the novels The Bird Artist and The
Museum Guard, as well as a children's book, Between Heaven and Earth,
and the memoir In Fond Remembrance of Me. He is the recipient of
a Lannan Foundation Prize, a NEIBA Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and
three fellowships from the NEA. He teaches in the MFA program at the
University of Maryland.
On your nightstand now:
A biography of Somerset Maugham, Ann Beattie's Walks with Men and Collected Plays of Max Frisch.
Favorite book when you were a child:
An illustrated Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Your top five authors:
IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER: Thomas Pynchon, Max Frisch, George Eliot, W.S. Merwin and Keats.
Book you've faked reading:
What would be the purpose?
Book you're an evangelist for:
Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon.
Book you've bought for the cover:
None!
Book that changed your life:
The Carrier of Ladders by W.S. Merwin.
Favorite line from a book:
"How have I outlived my own mind?"--Nikolai Gogol, The Inspector-General.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot.
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Photo by Emma Norman