Interviewee: Neil Gaiman
Interviewer: City TV Toronto
Date: February 6, 2009

Tagged as one of the “Top 10 Living Post-Modern Writers” by the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Neil Gaiman is a world-famous writer of novels, poems, songs, comics, plays, and screenplays.

Neil Gaiman’s popularity lies mostly in his fantasy novels, both conventional and illustrated. Bestsellers in many countries, his novels have been translated into 19 languages.

Neil Gaiman broke into the scene first as a graphic novel writer. He holds cult status for putting out a monthly comic series called Sandman, which bagged a 1991 World Fantasy Award. It is the first comic in history to get a literary award.

Writing books since he was 21, Neil Gaiman began as a children’s author. His first title, The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish, was published in 1997 to critical adulation. Newsweek ranked it among the best children’s books of 1997.

One of his most popular junior novels, Coraline, appeared in 2002. A New York Times bestseller, Coraline won the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, Locus and the British Science Fiction awards in 2003.

Other children may know Neil Gaiman for books like M is For Magic, Blueberry Girl, The Wolves in the Walls, Crazy Hair, The Dangerous Alphabet, The Graveyard Book, and Tales of Odd.

Neil Gaiman’s expertise in children’s fiction also extends to adults. He wrote Stardust, winner of the Mythopoeic Award for best adult novel in 1999 and an Alex Award the year after. Originally a DC comic series, Stardust was hailed as one of the best books of 1999 by Publishers Weekly. Stardust was later adapted into a hit film starring Taylor Dayne and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Yet another adult novel, American Gods, appeared in 2001. The following year, the book collected Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, Nebula, SFX and Geffen awards. Neil Gaiman also won a hodgepodge of awards through works like Anansi Boys, Smoke and Mirrors, A Study in Emerald, October in the Chair, Closing Time, and Angels & Visitations. He also wrote the 1996 BBC series Neverwhere and the 2005 film Mirrormask, which was directed by longtime collaborator Dave McKean (who illustrated many of the covers of Sandman.