SELF PORTRAIT

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: Nov. 25, 1957, Little Rock (St. Vincent Infirmary)

THE FIRST NOVEL I REMEMBER READING IS: A Wrinkle in Time.

MY FAVORITE MOVIE IS: Local Hero (1983), by the Scottish director Bill Forsyth. It’s a gentle comedy about a Houston businessman (Peter Riegert) sent by his bombastic boss (Burt Lancaster) to buy a entire Scottish town in order to build an oil refinery on the North Sea. The Mark Knopfler score is terrific, too.

IF I COULD SPEND A WEEK ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, I’D GO TO: Copenhagen.

I DRIVE A: Honda CR-V

MY FAVORITE TIME TO WRITE IS: Mornings. When I’m immersed in a project, I can write at any time of day.

MY FAVORITE CHARLES PORTIS CHARACTER IS: Charles Portis. His short memoir, “Combinations of Jacksons,” is a beautiful evocation of a midcentury Arkansas (and Southern) childhood, and the ending — like the ending of True Grit — is heartbreaking.

MY FIRST JOB WAS: Working the summer before my senior year of high school for the Arkansas Highway Department.

THE SECRET TO BEING A GOOD EDITOR IS: There’s no one secret as every piece is its own puzzle, but attention to detail and encouraging a writer to reach for a story’s full ambition are important.

ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP: Reader.