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Not many honors top the Pulitzer Prize. Was getting the news that you won as surreal as we imagine? So surreal. I was watching the livestream announcements on YouTube, as one does. I was home alone, sitting on the couch, watching on my laptop, when I heard them call my name. I had no prior knowledge, not even a clue that I might be a finalist. I started screaming, but there was no one to hear me. So I texted my daughter and told her to meet me at Dairy Queen after school to celebrate. During King’s lifetime, the U.S. government—the FBI in particular—was bent on undermining him. This year, MLK Day coincides with the presidential inauguration. Given what we know so far about the new administration, that timing seems … incongruous. It’s a bitter irony that the same government that once tried to destroy King now honors him with a national holiday. It’s also ironic that the King holiday shares emotional real estate this year with the inauguration of President Trump. But I hold out hope that King’s voice will be heard. This is the time to embrace the radical King, the King who urged us to remember that injustice anywhere poses a threat to justice everywhere, the King who reminded us to stay awake to change and never lose hope. It takes years to research and write books like yours. What’s reentry like when you’re done? Is it hard to say goodbye, or have you fully turned your mind to the next thing? I shift from research and writing to marketing mode, which is not my favorite part. But I do like to know that the book is finding an audience, so I work hard on marketing—with an eye on the telescope, scanning the horizon for the next book idea. Sometimes I spot it right away, sometimes not. In this case it took me about a year to settle on my next biography subject: George Soros. We love good book recommendations. Have any for us? I just reread Memoirs of Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar, which is beautiful, and I finally got around to A House for Mr. Biswas, by V.S. Naipaul, which was every bit as good as I’d hoped. I just read an advance copy of Mother Emanuel, by Kevin Sack, which tells a stunningly big chunk of American history through the frame of the 2015 Charleston church massacre. Oh, and I loved, loved, loved The Book of Goose, by Yiyun Li. You’re a longtime Cubs fan. How are you feeling about the 2025 season? You had to bring up the Cubs when we were having a perfectly nice time? I have no hope for the Cubs in 2025. Or the Bears, or the Bulls, or the Blackhawks. It’s a bad time to be a Chicago sports fan. At least we have books!
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