Bob Thurber is the author of Paperboy: a dysfunctional novel (Casperian Books, 2011) Over the last decade his short fiction has received numerous awards, including The Barry Hannah Fiction Prize, and various citations, most recently a finalist for the Donald Barthelme Prize. Visit his website and his blog.
Natasha Stagg: How long have you been writing?
Bob Thurber: About 35 years now.
BT: Yes. That has always been and remains Rule Number One.
BT: I’d be willing to wager that no one has read more books on writing than I have over the years. I still own a couple hundred of them.
BT: Probably. I certainly hope so. But I’d only be paraphrasing something I read years ago. My best advice is Rule Number One.
BT: I tend to avoid reading other writers when I’m in the midst of a project, which is the case right now. But I’m looking forward to reading Susan Henderson’s debut novel, Up From The Blue.
NS: What is a book that kind of blew your mind, that we’d be surprised by?
BT: Origins of the Sacred: The Ecstasies of Love and War by Dudley Young.
It’s brilliant, a readable scholarly work that’ll change your notions on mankind, mythology, art and more.