Daniel Handler is a writer of books in which you might be interested. He is a columnist for The Believer where his “What the Swedes Read,” about reading one book by each Nobel Laureate, appears in each issue. His novel, We Are Pirates, and Hurry Up and Wait, co-authored with Maira Kalman, are new this spring and have inspired a flurry of events. In the fall, the final installment of Lemony Snicket’s All The Wrong Questions series will be published. Its sequel, “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” is currently being developed by Netflix as an original series.
- Tell us about your column for “The Believer.”
It’s called What The Swedes Read, and for each column I read one book by a Nobel laureate. It’s a curious and glorious reminder of the breadth of literature, as well as my way of attempting to guilt the NYRB press into reissuing Paul Heyse’s great and oft-forgotten novel In Paradise.
- Was it hard to switch from writing a long series to a novel?
My children’s series both feel like long novels to me. But so does getting up in the morning. Writing can be hard, but not really compared to much else. - Are you just as sarcastic and witty in person, as your writing is on the page (and on on your website)?
Announcing oneself as witty is like announcing oneself as possessing a fine ass. Let someone else say it. - Two of your books released this spring are co-authored, what was it like to write a book alongside someone?
“Alongside” is just it. It is glorious to sit with someone and make schemes, and to say, “Why yes, I never thought of that,” and “Have you considered this?” and “Let’s order another round and talk about it some more.” And then it’s nice to go home and work by yourself. - What gave you inspiration for “We Are Pirates”?
Oh, so many things. A high school prank in which I got my entire homeroom to write “pirate” on a career form. Staring at the grey and beautiful Pacific from various San Francisco sites. My sister, my angry sister when she was 14. Richard Hughes’s wonderful novel A Wind In Jamaica. Walking around town. - What are you looking forward to this summer regarding your writing?
This summer I will be in Cape Cod and Australia. I will be working on something very secret. Nobody knows about it, so of course nobody knows how it will go.
About The Author:
Daniel Handler is the author of the bestselling A Series of Unfortunate Events (under the pen name of Lemony Snicket), a collection of books for children, and three books for adults: Basic Eight (based on a true story of a teenaged girl who commits murder), Watch Your Mouth (a melodramatic satire of family life), and Adverbs, due out this year. He also wrote the screenplay for the films A Series of Unfortunate Events, Kill the Poor, and Rick.
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