Interviewing A to Z

The structure of these interviews is simple: I email the interviewee 26 words/phrases, each beginning with a different letter of the English alphabet. Then it's up to them.

This method of interviewing accomplishes many things, the most important of which is that it gets the interviewer out of the way of the interview subject. (I trust that no one is reading these interviews to hear what I have to say.)

The interviewee is free to respond to each item as completely or as curtly as they wish. Each word or phrase can be interpreted multiple ways, which can often result in a large gap between my intention and the interviewees response. But I think this is a good thing.

Brief example: in the Bob Kanefsky interview, for the letter "G" I chose "gardening." I was prepared to hear Kanef's views on the ever-controversial term "filk gardening." Kanef chose to take the "gardening" more literally, and now we know his favorite flower.

Whether he wisely avoided the potential minefield of filk gardening, or it just didn't occur to him to interpret my question in that way doesn't much matter.

Welcome to reader-response interviewing.

As in the traditional interview, we're gaining insight into the facts of the interview subject's life and work. This interview method allows us to learn not only what they think, but also a bit about how they think. And most significantly, we learn what is important to them, not how they respond to what is important to the person interviewing them.

These interviews are not linear or cumulative, so please don't feel compelled to read them in alphabetical order. Like a collection of short stories, you can read them in order and in one sitting, but they don't suffer from being read randomly over a long period of time. This is facilitated by the online context, where the reader can easily click on whatever word/phrase catches their attention.

I am quite excited about the possibilities of this interview method, as well as the opportunity it gives me to connect with some very talented individuals. But my favorite aspect of all of this is that I finally get to interview people without having to ask any questions.