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An author’s search for her Chinese roots has led her to write critically acclaimed novels set in her ancestral land. Snow Flower And The Secret Fan by Lisa See has been turned into film and opened inSingaporelast month. Find out more about this author in a two page (part 1; part 2) interview here.

There is an awkwardness about Levitt. He is the ultimate geek gone mainstream. The genius that has successfully bridged that gap between academia and popular culture. He is self-depreciating and is unfamiliar with his newfound rock star status.

Read the rest of the interview with Levitt here.

Perhaps you have heard that the winner for this year’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction went to Julian Barnes for his novel The Sense of An Ending. But what you probably didn’t know was the controversy that followed soon after the announcement. To find out what was the fuss about, read it here.

John Wong was in his early thirties with a thriving career and a bright promising future when he suddenly became paralysed and blind. Doctors told him his nerves were damaged and recovery was near impossible. Yet, recover he did and if you saw him today you would never have guessed what he went through. John feels that we all have the ability to heal ourselves and shares his story here.

If you came across a stranger in need of an organ, would you donate yours? That is exactly what Chew Hoong Ling did, and though the organ recipient passed on months later, she is not regretting her decision and has even wrote a book about it.

Read the interview here on what made her decide to do it – part 1 & part 2.

Although every new book of his appears on bestseller lists everywhere from Malaysia to New York, thriller writer Steve Berry likes to say that he does not know much about writing. “But I’m an expert on rejection,” the 56-year-old adds in his good-humored drawl. His work was turned down 85 times before one got published.

Read the rest of the interview here.

British thriller writer Mo Hayder says her gruesome tales help her deal with the darkness in her own mind. “I don’t know what other writers are like, but I’m very unsettled in my head,” she said. “My books are a way of metabolising my fears.”

Read the rest of the interview here.

In 2005, John CW Wong, a 31 year old molecular biologist was struck down by an unusual illness that caused him to be paralysed from the neck down. Some of his organs started to malfunction and he also lost his vision. Yet, through self-determination and a strong faith in the Creator, Wong managed to defy the diagnosis of his doctors who said his illness was incurable and had practically given up hope on him.

Read the interview with John here.

Most people write because they have something to share. For some authors, it is a form of creative expression. Thus, it is rare indeed to come across an author so prolific that he has expanded his horizon from writing for adults to children, all with the objective of trying to get more children to read. Of course, critics will be quick to dismiss his effort as profit-minded but what does James Patterson have to say?

He’s been described as the best living humorist in America. Author Bill Bryson thinks he’s the funniest American writer since SJ Perelman. But he has neither appeared in a sitcom or a film. What other people think as dark and despairing, he calls it funny. Who is David Sedaris really? Find out here.