dripping in charisma like some of my colleagues is because I have clinical depression and it puts a little damper on things. were a little bit miffed , we'll say, until they saw the reaction.
Well, in the 1920s, during the Harlem jazz era, you had a lot of African-American artists who were miffed . And they were miffed because they felt that white jazz artists were getting the most publicity, making the most money, and it was almost like white jazz artists had created this musical genre.
to be there? Is it fear? Somebody gets a bit miffed with you.
You're a novelist, but you've spent most of your career at this point, or a significant part of it, basically judging short fiction. When you were an editor at Houghton Mifflin, did you work a lot with short fiction or did you just stumble into short fiction? Well, before I worked at Houghton Mifflin, I got my MFA at Emerson College, and most writing students start out by studying short fiction because it's
I would love to ask you a question about this book. I also should say Houghton Mifflin is publishing a book called "100 Years of the Best American Short Stories," and that's coming out in October.
And they send it off to the metallurgy division to be polished. And metallurgy, a bit miffed , sends it back and says, hey, it's breaking our polishing wheel. And so there's this moment of what would be strong enough to break your polishing wheel?
Remember when we were rehearsing and you and E.J. were in the ballpark, right? So that just kind of put-- some people were pretty miffed at me, but the wish family taped it themselves on their iPhone.
She was here last week for David Duchovny as our guest. Heidi worked for nine years as an editor at Houghton Mifflin. Since then, she's worked for another nine years as co-editor of the Best American Short Stories
Certainly some things missing. Because we push off of this and we get sucked into Pearson and Houghton Mifflin and Common Core, when this is Common Core.
When you were an editor at Houghton Mifflin, did you work a lot with short fiction or did you just stumble into short fiction? Well, before I worked at Houghton Mifflin, I got my MFA at Emerson College, and most writing students start out by studying short fiction because it's a very workshoppable form.
an aspiring fiction writer. Oh good. You mentioned that at Houghton Mifflin, at least, and I assume most publishers, that, if I understood correctly, it's easier to get published as a novelist than as a short story writer.
But now it is exactly like 2011 I came, 2015 with my own cookbook. This book is made with Tapnotes Publishing Company, Houghton Mifflin. And the best of the best editor, my cowriter, all book people.
You did a brilliant job of describing it. It's like, you're sitting there in a hamster cage with your time monitored, your voice being listened to, and people are not calling to see how you're doing. They're calling because they're a little bit miffed about this, that, or the other thing, right Benji? So you know what the turnover rate is in this? In a typical -- in the call center industry?
How does that really get the connotation that it has today? Well, in the 1920s, during the Harlem jazz era, you had a lot of African-American artists who were miffed . And they were miffed because they felt that white jazz artists were getting the most publicity, making the most money, and it was almost
which got really good response. And then, that turned into "Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating," which came out with Houghton, Mifflin. And then it all kind of went from there.
"The Cat in the Hat" is racially complicated, inspired by blackface caricature and by actual people of color. One story of the book's origins is that in 1955, William Spaulding, director of Houghton Mifflin's educational division, thought that Dr. Seuss could solve the "Why Johnny Can't Read" crisis by writing reading primers that children actually enjoyed reading, instead of Dick and Jane, which children did not enjoy reading.