Author of the Month
Colin Woodard
[September 2008]
Chosen by reviewer and Babes to Teens Columnist Beverly Rowe
, MyShelf.Com
Colin Woodard exemplifies what a non-fiction writer should be. His passion for the subjects of his articles and books spills over to the reader and infects them with enthusiasm and the desire to learn more and to become involved somehow.
I just finished reading The Republic of Pirates. It was a book that I couldn't put down. I've always been interested in pirates...aren't we all? This book finally gives us the real low-down on the activities of each pirate and what finally happened to him or her, as well as a compelling history of Woodes Rogers and his role in ending the pirates' reign of terror.
Colin has written dozens of magazine articles as well as books on world humanitarian and environmental issues. He writes for The Christian Science Monitor and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and has had articles published in dozens of other publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, The Economist, the Los Angeles Times and many others.
A native of Maine, he has also lived in many other places, including Washington, DC; Brownsville, Texas; Budapest, Hungary; and Zagreb, Croatia.
Colin agreed to answer a few questions about his career as a writer.
Interview
Beverly Rowe: Thanks so much for visiting with us on MyShelf.com. I just finished reading The Republic of Pirates, and was mesmerized. Tell us about yourself... a mini-biography, please. How long have you been writing? Tell us about your journey as a writer.
Colin Woodard: I've been writing for newspapers and magazines for nearly 20 years now, and I started my first book, Ocean's End, a decade ago. That's a global journey describing the crisis in the world's oceans, a project that was a direct outgrowth of my work as a foreign correspondent. I'd been based in Eastern Europe before, during, and for years after the collapse of Communism and wound up covering a lot of the region's profound environmental problems, among them the collapse of the Black Sea. That led, ultimately, to Ocean's End. Since then I've written a very influential book about the past and present of coastal Maine - where I'm from - and, most recently, the most robust history of the great Caribbean pirates published to date (if I can be so modest).
Bev: I know that you have won numerous awards for your articles and books. Tell us about them.
Colin: I was awarded a Jane Bagley Lehman Award for my global environmental reporting, including Ocean's End. Most of my other honors were more to support the creation of my work including fellowships from the US Antarctic Program, the Institute for International Education, the German Marshall Fund, Freedom House, and the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies.
Bev: Your writing covers many topics, but which subject is your greatest passion, and why?
Colin: In journalism, I suppose it's still the Bosnian conflict. I was based in the region throughout the war, and covered Bosnia for The Christian Science Monitor starting immediately after the Dayton Peace Treaty. There was a sort-of mini holocaust there and the West just stood around and let it happen. It's not something one forgets easily.
Bev: Your writing has taken you worldwide as a foreign correspondent...Wow...you have been everywhere, and to places that I would love to see. Was most of your travel on assignment, or freelance?
Colin: I've always been self-employed, but none of it was done "on spec," if that's what you mean. At different times I've been under retainer to cover certain regions - essentially specialized contract labor - and most of my other work is on a per-story contract basis. Eight out of ten of my pieces are things I proposed, the rest came to me, especially if it has to do with the oceans, global environmental issues, or the cultural and historical landscape of Maine.
Bev: I can't even imagine the amount of research that you did for your latest book - The Republic of Pirates. Tell us about that
Colin: It was a bit of a treasure hunt - the primary evidence is fragmentary and scattered - but I had a great deal of fun chasing it all down. I started by reading everything anyone else had ever written about them, then chased down their original sources (if they actually had any), and finally went on a quest for items I thought might still be out there, undiscovered. I read every page of every newspaper published in the Americas between 1714 and 1719, plus a good deal of the London press, and most of the official dispatches from the British colonial governments. Ultimately I tracked down a good deal of heretofore unexposed material at the British National Archives outside London, including information from customs registries, the letters and logbooks of Royal Navy captains, and a variety of trials and legal documents. All of this got fed into vast spreadsheets tracking the movements of each pirate (and pirate hunter) from month to month and, sometimes, day to day.
Bev: Pirate popularity is at an all time high, and I'm sure that Jack Sparrow had a lot to do with that, but there were some real characters among the pirates. Do you have a theory about why we all tend to make heroes out of History's bad boys?
Colin: My subjects were from the early 18th century - a single gang of pirates who all knew one another, who operated from a shared base in the Bahamas, and are responsible for virtually all of our pirate imagery and pop culture. They were heroes in their own day, and have remained icons ever since for two reasons: they were enormously successful, rising to the point that the Royal Navy was afraid to encounter them, and, secondly, they saw themselves not as common thieves, but as social revolutionaries.
Bev: What major projects are you working on now?
Colin: I'm negotiating the sale of a new book project but its at that early juncture where I can't quite talk about it yet. Ask me again in a month!
Bev: That sounds interesting....I'll be watching for it. Do you have any other thoughts you would like to share with us?
Colin: History is usually stranger and more compelling than fiction. It's a pity so few people know how to bring it alive.
Bev: Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us.
Colin's books: |
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Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas - Basic Books (February 19, 2001) |
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The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier - Viking Adult (May 24, 2004) |
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The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down - Harvest Books (June 30, 2008) |
2008's Honorary List
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