The best interviews with authors make you want to read—not just their work, but read in general, and read all the time, and read with a new fervor.

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1. “The Art of Not Belonging: Dwyer Murphy Interviews Edwidge Danticat.” (Guernica, September 2013)

Danticat gives a beautiful interview, discussing her book Claire of the Sea Light and what it’s like living on the hyphen between American and Haitian.

2. “‘Who survives, who doesn’t?’ An Interview with Margaret Atwood.” (Isabel Slone, Hazlitt, August 2013)

The “wise witch” of Canada discusses technology, military history, and the reception of Canadian literature.

3. “One Thing Leads to Another: An Interview with Malinda Lo.” (Julie Bartel, YALSA, June 2013)

Lo didn’t dig her teenage years, yet she’s a successful YA author. She calls two of her books “love letters to the X-Files.” She co-directs a website about diversity in YA literature and believes in honoring each letter of LGBTQ. Read more about this genre-bending maven.

4. “An Interview with Disability Activist and ‘Good Kings Bad Kings’ Author Susan Nussbaum.” (Caitlin Wood, Bitch Magazine, August 2013)

Nussbaum’s debut novel is a fine work of intersectional storytelling, relating the experiences of differently disabled Chicago teens. In this interview, Nussbaum talks about a new vocabulary for disability politics, the importance of sexually active disabled characters, and research for Good Kings Bad Kings.