This Writers On the Fly interview begins with Edward Carey reading from his 2014 novel, Heap House. The interview was recorded while Carey was in Iowa City for the 2014 Iowa City Book Festival.
Carey illustrates his books, and he talks about the importance of drawing his characters as part of his writing process. “The writing and drawing are always arguing with each other and getting them to actually agree is the hard part,” he says. He also discusses the characters he creates who never quite make it into his books.
“The thing about writing is I don’t think you can be too precious about it. I think you just have to get on and do it,” he says. Nevertheless, he acknowledges those wonderful moments, “and they’re few and far between,” when a writer seems to have been absent during the process of writing and something special has taken place.
Carey hails from England, but currently lives in Austin, Texas. He is married to the writer Elizabeth McCracken. He is an alumnus of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program and has taught in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Since this interview was recorded, Carey has published two sequels to Heap House, Foulsham and Lungdom.
