Stacy Schiff (Cleopatra) on Publishing, Writing and Winning the Pulitzer

There's a lovely interview with the even lovelier biographer Stacy Schiff (who won the Pulitzer in 1999 for her biography of Vera Nabakov) over on the Days of Yore website, where she talks about her days working in publishing (where she went through the slush pile and helped write rejection letters), her transition to writing, her embarrassment at asking the tough questions, and what's it like to be shortlisted for the Pulitzer (oddly, she doesn't discuss the thrill of actually winning one!)

While I'll let you read the interview yourself, I just want to quote one little bit --- Schiff's typically eloquent advice to writers:

"He or she should remember that every editor out there is just as hungry for a fine manuscript as the writer is for a publisher. Possibly even hungrier. Difficult to believe, I know, but true. There is an acquisitive anxiety on the other side of the desk, though of course it pales compared to any and all writerly anxieties."

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The interview is right here.

Go read it. Good stuff.