Today the NY Times profiled multitasking New Yorker editor David Remnick–looking at his Barack Obama biography, The Bridge.
Intrigued, we caught up GalleyCat reader and author (of Mr. and Mrs. Grassroots) John Presta to find out what it was like to be interviewed by the great writer: “I had sent Remnick a copy of my book at the suggestion of Obama’s former campaign manager, Dan Shomon, and two days later Remnick called me back and had read the book … Remnick makes the interviewee feel very comfortable … The telephone interview lasted nearly an hour … I was struck by the similarities of talking to the President and talking to Remnick.”
He concluded: “He zoned in on the early campaigns in 2000, when we first met Obama, our impressions of Obama, questions about the candidates forum I had organized. I had called it Obama’s ‘Coming Out Party.’ Unfortunately Obama had lost that election. Remnick and I discussed some of the reasons Obama lost. And then what Obama had learned in the 2004 campaign, that election Obama had won. It was clear to me that Remnick is one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject of Obama.”
If you are interested, FishbowlNY has more about the NY Times feature.