Q & A with author Kirk Ellis and San Diego Writers Festival

SDWF: What books are on your nightstand?
KE: The End of the Myth by Greg Grandin
American Dirt by Jeannie Cummins
The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson

SDWF: What were the last great pieces of writing you read (or re-read)?
KE: Book:  A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Play: Americana West by Red Shuttleworth
Screenplay: The Two Popes by Anthony McCarten
Poem: “Requiem for Sonora” by Richard Shelton

SDWF: What advice would you give your younger self?
KE: Don’t be such a workaholic. Take some time out and enjoy life. Travel more. It’s by collecting experiences, places and people that we become better at our craft.

SDWF: What writing resources have been most valuable?
KE: For an historical dramatist, nothing beats original documents and manuscripts. That old paper exudes an almost palpable sense of their authors and the times in which they were written.

SDWF: Where can we find you online?
KE: You can find me on FB (I’m the Kirk Ellis whose screen ID reads “USC Cinema”). Otherwise an unrepentant Luddite. No Twitter or webpage.

SDWF: Thanks, Kirk!