Leitch interviews SI's Gary Smith

[Inky_Wretch]

Wish Leitch had more time to talk to Smith. I'd love to read more about how Smith does what he does ...

http://deadspin.com/5051975/a-few-moments-with-gary-smith

 

[Angola!]

I thought this was pretty funny:

Do you read blogs? You’ve been talking to me for 20 minutes and you haven’t gone Bissinger on me yet.

I don’t read them. If I’m researching something that takes me there, that’s when I end up looking at them. But to go and peruse them, I don’t. But I have no ax to grind with blogs. I read about the Bissinger thing, but I haven’t seen it. Actually, I just now realized that was you.

 

[silentbob]

I can honestly say I learned absolutely nothing about Gary Smith from that interview.

A shame.

 

[Small Town Guy]

I was a bit surprised to see Smith has a new book out of his collected stories. It looks like many of them were ones that appeared in Beyond the Game, which was published in 2001.

The Times had a good story on Smith, reveals a bit more about him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/books/16smit.html?ref=books

 

[goalmouth]

"A Few Moments with Gary Smith..."

..as we rode the elevator together.

Seriously, it's hard work making one of the great sports journalists come off like a lightweight.

Face to face, and Leitch couldn't even get a new photo.

 

[Montezuma's Revenge]

And if he'd have delved deep into the writing process, 99 percent of the people would have fallen asleep. One of the things that amazed me my first 10 years in the business was how little interest people in the business have in talking about the process. So the subject would be a real snoozer for the average reader.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

Wondering how much responsibility his assistants have.

 

[broadway joe]

Wondering how much responsibility his assistants have.

I don't think Smith has any assistants. There are fact-checkers who go through his stories after the fact, as with all SI stories, but it's not like he has anyone do any interviewing for him, if that's what you mean.

 

[sirvaliantbrown]

Hey, I was just going through Smith stories in the SI vault, and I wondered what happened to Richie Parker. Anyone know where he is now?

 

[silentbob]

Obvious questions for Gary Smith:

You write about your subjects with such authority and intimacy, often from their points of view, what is their reaction after the story is printed?


What are some techniques you use to get people to open up?

How do you go about reconstructing scenes?

Do you ever let your subjects read the story before its published just to make sure you have it correct?

Since your stories require exhaustive research, how do you keep them from consuming you?

When do you know it's time to write?


What's your favorite story?

 

[Joe Williams]

Obvious questions for Gary Smith:

When do you know it's time to write?

Obvious answer from most of us:

When we leave the locker room, race back to our laptops and know that we can hit deadline, give or take five minutes, with the first mish-mash that pours out of our heads.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

This interview is a wee bit better.

http://nopyramid.blogspot.com/2006/11/adam-bornsteins-interview-with-gary.html

 

[Billy Pritchard]

And yet another recent interview with Smith, this from mediabistro.

http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a10300.asp

I was more disappointed in this one than with Leitch's interview. I expected far more technical talk from mediabistro, which is a site dedicated to media professionals.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

I'd expect a student's interview to be better than Leitch, sight unseen.

 

[PeteyPirate]

Obvious questions for Gary Smith:

You write about your subjects with such authority and intimacy, often from their points of view, what is their reaction after the story is printed?

Incredulity that he got to know them better than they knew themselves, if the quotes in the NYT story are to be believed.