Writing can be a solitary pursuit, and that can mean the tricks of the trade remain quiet.
On Thursday's Up to Date, local writers David Von Drehle, Candice Millard and Linda Rodriguez join Steve Kraske to talk about writing style, the publishing business and the pressure to produce.
David VonDrehle, an editor-at-large at TIME since 2007, covers national stories and politics, and has also covered the presidential campaigns on the campaign trail. Previously, Von Drehle was a senior writer for the Washington Post, having served as the paper’s assistant managing editor, national political writer, magazine staff writer and New York bureau chief. During his career at the Post he wrote about subjects as varied as Donald Rumsfeld and Willie Nelson, and covered Congress, Bill Clinton’s impeachment and the 2000 Florida recount. He is the author of Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America’s Most Perilous Year and three other books, including Triangle: The Fire That Changed America. His work has also appeared in Deadlock: The Inside Story of America’s Closest Election. Candice Millard is a former writer and editor for National Geographic magazine. Her first book, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, was named one of the best books of the year by, among others, the New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and Kansas City Star. It was a finalist for the Quill Awards, and won the William Rockhill Nelson Award. Millard's work has appeared in Time magazine, Washington Post Book World, and the New York Times Book Review. Her second book, The Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine & the Murder of a President, was released on September 20, 2011. Linda Rodriguez is the author of Every Last Secret and Every Broken Trust. She has published two books of poetry, Heart’s Migration and Skin Hunger. She received the 2010 Inspiration Award from the KC Arts Fund, the 2009 Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award from the Macondo Foundation, and the 2009 Midwest Voices and Visions Award from the Alliance of Artists Communities and the Joyce Foundation and has been both a Ragdale Fellow and a Macondo Fellow. She is the president of the Border Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crime, a founding board member of The Writers Place and the Latino Writers Collective, and a member of Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers, Kansas City Cherokee Community, and International Thriller Writers, publishing poetry and fiction in numerous journals and anthologies. Her poems have been broadcast on The Writers Almanac with Garrison Keillor (NPR) and New Letters on the Air (NPR).
