Read the April 5, 2008 interview in The Desert Sun.
If only all teachers could be so life changing.
Michael Chabon broke through the literary world's binding when a UC-Irvine professor submitted his master's thesis to a publisher. The novel would become the 1988 best seller, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, which 20 years later premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize.
When asked why Chabon did not submit the novel himself, he admitted, "I just wasn't there yet; I was just focusing on getting it approved as my thesis."
Chabon would receive further recognition when his second book, Wonder Boys, hit the big screen in 2000, starring Michael Douglas and directed by Curtis Hanson. Though he confessed that moving a novel from page to screen had mostly monetary benefits, he felt confident to release his words into the right hands.
"You're lucky if you have smart people that you're letting it go to," Chabon said in a recent telephone interview. "You want your book to be the best it can be, but I'm not a movie farmer. If it's successful, more readers might find their way to the book it's based on."
The year that Chabon earned his first screen credit, he published the book that would be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction — The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
"It was definitely a great thing that changed my life and my writing career for the better in every way — something I'm still grateful for all these years later," Chabon said. "It validated what I was doing and also increased my profile to a degree, and made writing easier to the sense that I can keep doing what I want to do with a greater sense of freedom."
With this newfound freedom, Chabon spun off a series of graphic novels that followed the comic superhero created by the characters of his book -- an idea proposed independently by both DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics. The latter published the series Michael Chabon Presents: The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, which was followed by Brian K. Vaughan's mini-series, The Escapists.
"I got to meet, work with and even edit to some degree the work of all kinds of comic book artists and writers I admired, including the great Will Eisner," Chabon said. "They didn't sell particularly well, but at Comic-Con I won an Eisner -- the Oscars of the comic book world."
The award takes a place of honor next to his Pulitizer. The book will receive yet another incarnation with an expected film release in 2009, presently attached to Stephen Daldry who directed the nine-time Oscar-nominated The Hours, based on another Pulitzer-winning novel.
Chabon shares each honor with his wife, Ayelet Waldman, a lawyer-turned-novelist. In a common writing room, the couple works through hurdles but never writer's block.
"I don't really believe in writer's block," he said emphatically. "We help each other constantly and continuously, tossing ideas out there and seeing how it sounds to the other person. We go for long walks called 'story walks' to talk our way through a problem we're having. We do this all the way through to publication; it's a family publication."
Chabon admitted that it is tempting to pursue new experiences for their eventual literary value.
"It's an occupational hazard; every day provides you with chances to do just that, even just eavesdropping." He explained, "It's really about paying attention, watching and listening and putting yourself in a place where you are able to observe what they are saying."
Once he finds the story, it can also be hard to escape the connection that readers make between him and his characters.
"I think I've worked as hard as I can to confound people. I hate being pigeon-holed," he said. "I respect and admire artists who resist pigeon-holing, whether it is David Bowie, Prince or Margaret Atwood."
"I just follow my impulses; it's not like I'm forced to do different things each time," Chabon said. "What I try not to do is say, 'You can't do that,' or 'The editor won't like it.' I don't let myself think those thoughts – I would never do that when picking up a book."