{"id":1403,"date":"2018-12-31T17:04:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1403"},"modified":"2018-12-31T17:04:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:04:10","slug":"lone-star-listensauthor-interview-by-michelle-newby-lancaster-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1403","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star ListensAuthor interview by Michelle Newby Lancaster"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Each week Lone Star Literary profiles a newsmaker in Texas books and letters, including authors, booksellers, publishers.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby Lancaster<\/span> is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews<\/span> and Foreword Reviews, <\/span>writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine,<\/span> and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

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8.12.2018\u00a0\u00a0 Mimi Swartz talks Ticker, Texas women, and Houston\u2019s surfeit of great stories<\/h1>\n

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Mimi Swartz, author of the just-released <\/span>Ticker: The Quest for an Artifical Heart,<\/span> and the author, with Sherron Watkins, of Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron<\/span>, is an executive editor of <\/span>Texas Monthly.<\/span> Previously, she was a staff writer at <\/span>Talk,<\/span> from April 1999 to April 2001, and a staff writer at the <\/span>New Yorker<\/span> from 1997 to 2001. Prior to joining the <\/span>New Yorker,<\/span> she worked at <\/span>Texas Monthly<\/span> for thirteen years. In 1996 Swartz was a finalist for two National Magazine Awards and won in the public interest category for \u201cNot What the Doctor Ordered.\u201d She was also a National Magazine Award finalist for her November 2005 issue story on tort reform, titled \u201cHurt? Injured? Need a Lawyer? Too Bad!\u201d and won the 2006 John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest, Magazine Journalism, for the same story. In 2013 she won her second National Magazine Award (again in the category of public interest), for \u201cMothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives,\u201d a compelling look at the state of women\u2019s health care in Texas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years, Swartz\u2019s work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, Slate, National Geographic, <\/span>and the New York Times\u2019<\/span> op-ed page and Sunday magazine. It has also been collected in Best American Political Writing 2006 and Best American Sportswriting 2007. She has been a member of the Texas Institute of Letters since 1994. Swartz grew up in San Antonio and graduated from Hampshire College, in Amherst, Massachusetts. She now lives in Houston with her husband, John Wilburn, and son, Sam.<\/p>\n

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE:<\/span> Ms. Swartz, how did you begin writing? Is writing something you always knew you wanted to do?<\/span><\/p>\n

MIMI SWARTZ:<\/span> I started writing in high school. I had amazing English teachers in my public school who challenged and inspired me. Sometimes I am amazed at the quality of the education I got back in the day.<\/p>\n

You grew up in San Antonio, attended college in Amherst, Massachusetts, and now call Houston home. Why Houston, and what\u2019s it like to live in the midst of such an outstanding writing community? Does that community influence your choice to make your home in Houston?<\/p>\n

You know, it’s funny. When I moved to Houston in 1976 there wasn\u2019t really much of a writers\u2019 community. That\u2019s grown up along with the city, and, in particular, the University of Houston writing program. Now, yes, it\u2019s great to have so many supportive friends. What really keeps me in Houston, though, are the fascinating people in general from all over the world. And as my husband says, you can\u2019t walk out your front door without stumbling over a great story.<\/p>\n

Your first book, written with former Enron executive turned whistleblower Sherron Watkins, is Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron<\/span> (Doubleday, 2003). Is Enron the quintessential Houston story?<\/p>\n

To me, the greatest Houston story is Blood and Money,<\/span> written by Tommy Thompson <\/span>in the 1970s. The book is by a terrific writer who knew exactly what to do with every bit of information he had: oil, wealth, crazy doctors, murder, passion, and more.<\/p>\n

You are an executive editor at Texas Monthly.<\/span> What does that position entail? What are your responsibilities to the National Magazine of Texas, and how has your role changed \u2014 if it has \u2014 with the new regime?<\/p>\n

The titles at Texas Monthly<\/span> are sort of misnomers, given to people who end up lasting the longest. My role is mainly to write stories and contribute ideas for upcoming issues. In the past I have also edited stories, written titles and sub-titles, etc. It\u2019s a collaborative place.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been reading your work in Texas Monthly<\/span> for decades now. You write often about healthcare, politics, and the very disparate lives of contemporary women, among them Barbara Bush, Wanda Holloway, and Anna Nicole Smith. Why these three areas of particular interest?<\/p>\n

To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I\u2019ve also written about law and flooding. Sometimes I feel obligated to write about what\u2019s most important at a given time. I would say that my favorite topic \u2014 or the topic I come back to most often \u2014 is Texas women. It ain\u2019t easy to be one and because of that we cause, and get into, all sorts of trouble.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year I read and reviewed Lawrence Wright\u2019s God Save Texas,<\/span> which he says is the result of trying to explain Texas to David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker.<\/span> You\u2019ve covered Texas for the New Yorker<\/span> and the New York Times.<\/span> What\u2019s your approach to explaining Texas? Has that task become more or less difficult over time?<\/p>\n

I love explaining Texas because what I\u2019m really doing is explaining it to myself. It\u2019s gone from being a pretty backward place to being a very complex place, which is sometimes STILL backward. I never run out of ideas. Who could make up Dan Patrick? The only thing that can make it more difficult is that I have to be careful not to become a crank, or a broken record, complaining about the same things.<\/p>\n

Your new book\u2014your second\u2014is Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart.<\/span> What inspired Ticker?<\/p>\n

I thought it was another great Houston story that, with the passage of time, was being lost. Drs. DeBakey and Cooley were the rock stars of their time \u2014 around the world \u2014 and most people alive today don\u2019t know it. Dr. Frazier is the bridge between Houston\u2019s past and high-tech present, which includes Dr. Billy Cohn and others. Ticker<\/span> is a way to tell several stories at once \u2014 about changes in Houston, changes in medicine, and changes in society.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read and reviewed Ticker,<\/span> and I remain astonished by the amount of research involved in such an undertaking and your ability to identify the perfect fact or analogy to illustrate your point. What can you tell us about how much research you did for Ticker <\/span>and what that research involved?<\/p>\n

I did a lot of research and still made dumb mistakes! I hate to confess this, but it will help other writers: I started out reading children\u2019s books about the heart, because, frankly, that was my level of expertise. I was also fortunate to have very patient sources willing to help me, as my husband puts it, Dare to be Stupid.<\/p>\n

What can you tell us about your next project?<\/span><\/p>\n

My next project is to do a lot of yoga and get as many massages as I can afford. I need to clear my head!<\/p>\n

What books are on your nightstand?<\/p>\n

I very much want to read [John Carreyrou\u2019s<\/span>] Bad Blood,<\/span> but only after I\u2019ve read the books by friends I haven\u2019t had time to get to in the last FIVE years: The Midnight Assassin<\/span> by Skip Hollandsworth<\/span> and The Train to Crystal City<\/span> by Jan Jarboe.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Praise for Mimi Swartz\u2019s TICKER<\/h1>\n

\u201cA riveting medical thriller\u2026Told in an appropriately over-the-top style, this is a quintessentially Texas story: sprawling, unpredictable, and teeming with risk and opportunity.\u201d
\u2014Publishers Weekly<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSmart, compelling, and completely engaging, Ticker<\/span> is a story about science, personality, innovation, and obsession, all in pursuit of a staggering accomplishment, the creation of an artificial heart. Mimi Swartz drives the narrative with great style and deep reporting; it\u2019s a book anyone with a heart will love.\u201d \u2014Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend<\/span> and The Orchid Thief<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTicker<\/span> is like a medical version of Tom Wolfe\u2019s The Right Stuff<\/span>. Swartz takes you into the operating theater with some of the most brilliant, ingenious and driven heart specialists in the world. It\u2019s a book full of memorable characters grappling with life-threatening crises, which is both illuminating about modern medicine, and also just a wonderful read.\u201d
\u2014Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTicker<\/span> is a page-turner, a mind-expander, a heart-pounder. Swartz unveils a wild story of medical innovation with the keen eye of a storyteller.\u201d \u2014David Eagleman, Stanford University neuroscientist and internationally bestselling author of The Brain<\/span> and Incognito<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA thrilling and affecting account of a modern medical miracle. Ticker<\/span> is not only an inspiring tale of persistence, imagination, and sacrifice, it\u2019s also a joy to read.\u201d \u2014Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning author of The Looming Tower<\/span> and God Save Texas<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWho knew that the story of the artificial heart was such a rip-roaring one, with one larger-than-life character after another, and plot twists galore?\u00a0 In Ticker,<\/span> Mimi Swartz has told that story with verve and elegance, and brought those characters to vivid life. A wonderful work of nonfiction by a wonderful nonfiction writer.\u201d
\u2014Joe Nocera, Bloomberg News <\/span>columnist and author of Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA<\/span><\/p>\n

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Each week Lone Star Literary profiles a newsmaker in Texas books and letters, including authors, booksellers, publishers. Michelle Newby Lancaster is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews and Foreword Reviews, writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}