Michael Koryta

View Reviews of books by Michael Koryta

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Michael Koryta

Michael Koryta (pronounced Ko-ree-ta) worked as a private investigator, a newspaper reporter and taught at the Indiana University School of Journalism before turning to writing full-time.

His first novel, Tonight I Said Goodbye, was accepted for publication when he was 20 years old. He wrote his first two published novels before graduating from college and was published in nearly ten languages before he fulfilled the ‘writing requirement’ classes required for his diploma.

Michael and his wife Christine divide their time between Bloomington, Indiana, and Camden, Maine, with a cranky cat named Marlowe, an emotionally disturbed cat named John Pryor (named after the gravestone on which he was found as an abandoned kitten) and a dog of unknown heritage named Lola.

Interviewed 13 July 2019

Ten words to sum up your working life to date ...

Omit all the needless words. Omit needless words. Omit needlessness.

Nine things you can see from where you're sitting ...

A mountain, a frozen river, birch trees, snow, one cold crow, one brave squirrel, a woodpile, a notepad covered in red ink, and now that you've got me looking around, a troubling stain on the baseboard. When did that get there? What does it mean? Is it alive? Hmm ... 

Eight minutes to prepare a meal. What's it going to be ?

Eight minutes? Fish on the grill, side of asparagus, beer in hand.  

Seven people you'd like to go for a drink with ...

The Magnificent Seven, of course.

Six things you can't live without ...

Books, laughter, trees, music, good scotch, friends who will tolerate me.  

Five favourite words ...

This one has me stumped. Stymied. Stupefied. Flummoxed. Baffled. There are so many great words, but particularly those that seem to carry contradictions within themselves. Unquiet. That's a great word. The unquiet dead. Ah, such a beautiful phrase!

Four places you'd run away to ...

Maine, Montana, Tasmania, and French Lick, Indiana. It's a real place. Just trust me on this.  

Three books you've bought recently ...

Northland by Porter Fox, On Desperate Ground by Hampton Sides, and The Clasp by Sloane Crosley. 

Two things that make you rant ...

People who sit together in restaurants while staring at their phones, and people who think LeBron James is overrated. He won a championship in Cleveland, folks. Cleveland! That's not allowed in Cleveland. He had to leave and then sneak back so the Ghosts of Cleveland Past were asleep at the wheel, and then he managed to escape with a trophy.  It was a brilliant tactic, really the only way to defeat the supernatural powers of Cleveland sports.

One thing you'd tell your teenage self ...

Laugh at yourself. Take the work seriously, but not yourself.