74. Peter Mendelsund (Originally aired 5/2/18)

Scratching the Surface

Peter Mendelsund is a graphic designer, writer, and musician. Until recently he was the associate art director at Alfred A. Knopf where he designed book covers for everyone from James Joyce to Franz Kafka, Stieg Larsson and Simone De Beauvoir. In 2014, he published What We See When We Read and Cover and will publish his first novel, Same Same, next year. In this conversation, Peter and I talk about his relationship to graphic design, working across mediums and disciplines, and the differences between writing fiction and nonfiction. This episode originally aired on May 2, 2018. Since we spoke, Peter became the creative director of The Atlantic and published his second novel, The Delivery. This week, he has two new books out, Exhibitionist, a memoir, and Weepers, a novel.