FRED WAITZKIN was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to an abstract artist and a light fixture salesman and knew he was going to be a writer by age 13. He’d dabbled in other things, like sales, big game fishing, and Afro Cuban drumming, but between the literary influences of his parents and Ernest Hemingway, it almost made no sense to become anything else.
Waitzkin studied English at Kenyon college, received his master’s at NYU, and then taught poetry at the College of the Virgin Islands where he met his wife, Bonnie. After the two settled in New York City, he tried his hand at writing short stories, to no avail, and ended up launching his career by writing feature journalism, personal essays, and reviews for various magazines. He published Searching for Bobby Fischer, one of his best-known works, in 1984, and has been publishing books ever since. His newest novel, Anything is Good, is a complex and genius portrayal of homelessness inspired by Fred’s childhood friend. Waitzkin shares more in our interview with him below.