A few years back, Susan S. Szenasy interviewed me for Metropolis Magazine, the New York City-based magazine of architecture, culture, and design (you can read it here).
At the time, Susan was the editor of Metropolis. She is also the author of several books on design, and a co-founder of R.Dot (Rebuild Downtown Our Town), a coalition of New Yorkers who came together after the 9/11.
We had a very interesting conversation and I was pleased by how much she enjoyed the book. As she writes, “I read fiction whenever I can carve out a quiet hour or two, which I must admit ruefully, is very hard to find in my frenetic metropolitan life. But when I come across a narrative that provides a richly grained context of place, time, connectivity with human foibles and a linkage to well-defined segments of humanity’s accumulated body of knowledge, I claim my right to slow down….it gave me the gift of sitting back and reading for hours on end. The story of two brothers, haunted by the colorful past while thoroughly engaged in the painful now, rambles the earth from New England to Mexico.“
In the interview, she asks me questions about architecture, creativity, and breaking into new worlds.
Later, Susan and I appeared together at Parsons The New School for Design, School of Constructed Environments where I once taught. We discussed my novel with her, Joseph Salvatore (Assist. Professor of Writing at NSPE and author of To Assume A Pleasing Shape), and Alan Bruton (Assist. Professor & Director of Public Programs at SCE).
Susan, as always, brought a lot to the table.