A year-round book festival dedicated to great conversations with today's best writers.

Bryan Gruley is the Chicago bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal. An award-winning journalist, Bryan shared in the Pulitzer Prize given to the Journal in 2002 for coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He is also the best-selling author of “Starvation Lake,” set in Northern Michigan, and the forthcoming “The Hanging Tree.” In advance of his guest turn hosting “An Evening with Mary Karr” this Sunday at the City Opera House, we talked with Bryan about his career in journalism, his recommended recent reads (“The Turnaround” earned a nod), and the local spots that made his list of favorite haunts in Northern Michigan.

National Writers Series: The Writers Series is focused on encouraging young people to pursue careers in writing. How did you first get your start in writing?

Bryan Gruley: I was very young. I became a fan of the Hardy Boys mysteries. The first one I remember reading was “The Crisscross Shadow,” which I still have a copy of. When I was seven, I made up my own version of the Hardy Boys called the Anderson Twins – I believe their names were Scott and Chip. I’d write out stories longhand and read them to my elementary school class in Detroit. My mother and teachers were very encouraging (of my writing).

NWS: When you reached high school and began looking at college, did you know that writing was the career path you wanted to pursue?

Bryan: No, not initially. I went to Notre Dame and figured I’d be an English major and go to law school, because that way I could make a living. By the time I was a junior, I wanted nothing to do with tests and classes and papers anymore. I had to figure out a way to pay the bills, so I ended up in journalism. It was a detour – but it ended up being a great detour. I learned a lot about writing and observing and researching from journalism.

NWS: You shared in a Pulitzer Prize earned by the Wall Street Journal for its coverage of September 11. I also understand that (slain journalist) Daniel Pearl was a friend of yours. How did those two situations in particular shape your views on the role of journalism and journalists in America?

Bryan: I was in Washington (D.C.) during September 11, so I was relatively safe. My friends in New York were not so fortunate. The danger there was immense.

What I remember most about that day is two waves of email coming in. The first wave was from New York friends saying “I’m safe” and “How can I help?” The second wave was of memos describing what was happening there. Many of the journalists literally risked their lives to cover that story. I had a friend who rode his bike back into Ground Zero after the towers had fallen, which was extremely dangerous.

Whenever I hear bloggers or others complain about the mainstream media, I always think, “Would they have gotten on their bikes and gone back in there?” Because there were people willing to get out of their cabs and ride their bikes down and start writing and reporting, people around the world were able to experience vicariously what happened that day. I was personally humbled by and proud of those guys. I was just a vessel for the story based on their good work.

Bryan: Danny’s death was terrible. What these people do covering places like that is just amazing to me. They risk their lives every minute of every day. And again, that feeling is even more magnified when I think of people who complain about the media and fantasize about bloggers saving journalism or being our future. Some bloggers may go to places like that, but not many. They couldn’t do anything without people like (Danny and the Reuters photographers).

NWS: Recently you made the leap from journalism to fiction. Does being a good writer in one genre make you good in another genre, or do you have to develop different skill sets for different genres?

Bryan: You do need different skill sets. However, I think my journalism background certainly helped me a great deal when it came to writing a novel. Good nonfiction writing requires attention to detail – you need to have your ears and eyes open, keep your senses engaged so you can paint pictures with your words. Writing fiction, you’re still basing it on things you observe. What do the houses across the lake look like? How does the tavern smell? You also learn the economy of words. The editors at the Journal are experts at that – taking 300 pounds of potatoes and putting them into a 3-pound sack.

One major difference between the two (genres) is that fiction requires you to have a voice. In journalism, you have to back off and let the facts speak for themselves.

NWS: As a writer, do you think you are born with that voice, or is it something you have to develop?

Bryan: Both. I have been telling stories and jokes since I was a kid. It came naturally to me, but over the years I worked at it and got better at it. There are all kinds of tricks and editorial secrets you learn. For example: Don’t give away the ending. Don’t over-foreshadow things. I learned that as I went along.

Bryan’s debut book, “Starvation Lake,” was published in 2009. Called a “wonderfully polished and assured first novel” by Booklist, the thriller focuses on a disgraced reporter – Gus Carpenter – who returns to his hometown and begins investigating the possible murder of the town’s beloved hockey coach nearly a decade prior. “Starvation Lake” has been nominated for a 2010 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author.

NWS: “Starvation Lake” is set in a locale that will be familiar to many of those reading this – Northern Michigan. Talk about the book and the inspiration behind it.

Bryan: I always wanted to write a novel. I took a crack at one back in the late ‘90s, but my agent didn’t like it. However, there was a glimmer of hockey in it, and she said I should use that. She also encouraged me to make the setting Northern Michigan, because she knew how familiar with it I was. My parents bought a place on Big Twin Lake in 1971, and I was coming up here to visit before even that.

It gave me a certain comfort in writing about this setting; it’s a beautiful one. It has remoteness, starkness and quiet. It’s also a place where if you want to write dark, you can write dark. Writing about it gave me an excuse to come visit here under the guise of research, which was great.

NWS: Being your first novel, what was your writing process like for this book?

Bryan: Disorganized. I made a bunch of mistakes. For instance, I would write a chapter, then go back and polish it. Until you’re done with the book, you don’t really know what it’s about. So polishing language that might not even be in the book is a waste of time, at least for me.

The writing itself became a form of reporting for me. You’re going into your imagination and subconscious, and you’re digging out the facts. Once you have the facts, you pare away what you don’t need and what’s left is the story.

NWS: “The Hanging Tree,” which is the sequel to “Starvation Lake,” comes out August 3. Can you give us a preview of the plot?

Bryan: “The Hanging Tree” is set a year after “Starvation Lake” ends and is narrated again by Gus Carpenter. What transpires very early in the novel is a young woman, Gracie, is found hanging in a shoe tree after a snowstorm – an apparent suicide. She started the shoe tree when she was a young girl, then mysteriously moved downstate after high school and disappeared. Eighteen years later she moves back, and soon after is found dead. Gracie is Gus’ second cousin and also has connections to the other characters, and it falls on Gus to find out what happened to her.

 

NWS: Most writers also love to read. Are there any books you’ve picked up lately you’d recommend to our readers?

Bryan: I’ve been immersed in Mary’s books in preparation for Sunday. I haven’t finished “Lit” yet, but I think that will be my favorite of the three. Readers up there already like Michael Harvey – he has a new book called “The Third Rail” coming out next week folks should check out. Another book I really liked recently is “The Turnaround” by George Pelecanos. He’s supposedly a crime writer, but really he’s just a great novelist.

NWS: Even though you live in Chicago, you mentioned you visit here often. What is on your must list of things to see or do when you come up North?

Bryan: I love in the summer just sitting on my dad’s deck. I love getting up really early, like at dawn, and swimming out to the middle of the lake. The lake is like glass then; it’s dead quiet.

I love stopping by the Hide-A-Way Bar in Kalkaska for a Patty Melt and a beer and a chat with my favorite bartender, Pete Bookless, who ironically loves books. Lately I’ve been stopping at Gordy’s Place in Fife Lake on my way up to grab a burger and write. I love the Cherry Street Market in Kalkaska. Sometimes I’ll make it into Traverse City. I’m looking forward to this weekend and having a chance to do some of those things again.

Bryan Gruley will host “An Evening with Mary Karr” this Sunday, April 18 at the City Opera House. His debut novel, “Starvation Lake,” is in local bookstores now.  You can learn more about Bryan Gruley at www.bryangruley.com.