Deborah Kalb is a freelance writer, editor, and blogger. She spent about two decades working as a journalist in Washington, D.C., for news organizations including Gannett News Service, Congressional Quarterly, U.S. News & World Report, and The Hill, mostly covering Congress and politics. She is the co-author, with her father, Marvin Kalb, of Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama (Brookings, 2011), and she’s also the co-author or co-editor of two books published by CQ Press (The Presidents, First Ladies, and Vice Presidents; and State of the Union: Presidential Rhetoric from Woodrow Wilson to George W. Bush). She started her blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb (found at deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com), in October 2012, and has interviewed hundreds of authors—including Carol Matas!—about their books.
Q: How do you choose your authors?
A: I look through lists of upcoming books, I read book
reviews, I ask friends if they know of anyone with a book coming out soon, and
I keep an eye out in general for authors and books that seem interesting. Also,
authors and their publicists often get in touch with me to ask if I’d like to
interview them/their author. It’s a real pleasure to learn about so many great
books before they’re published!