A Conversation with Michael Greenberg

In reading Michael Greenberg's "Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer's Life," I was struck by how much the author has struggled to make a literary life for himself: how intellectually bleak his upbringing ("I grew up in a house with no books," he says) was, how financially difficult his early years were. 

Yet in person, Greenberg is anything but bleak. His energy and spirit are so joyful and arresting that I wanted to talk with him all afternoon, to hear about all of his adventures and his planned books. During our interview, we talk about the "drop of blood" his editor at the Times Literary Supplement (where all of these pieces first appeared, in the "Freelance" column) asked that he shed in writing each one.

However, though Greenberg does prick himself and does shed blood (I asked him to read from one of the most moving and difficult pieces, "Negro Burial Ground"), it doesn't seem to have drained his creative reserve. He received accolades for "Hurry Down Sunshine: A Father's Story of Love and Madness," published in 2008 by Other Press. He is working on a novel -- and I'm eager to read it. After watching Greenberg, I think you will be, too.