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An Interview with Mark Harris

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Mark Jonathan Harris is a Los Angeles writer/filmmaker who has published essays, award-winning children’s novels, and non-fiction books, as well as written, directed, and produced numerous documentary films, three of which won Oscars. Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, a feature documentary he wrote and directed, won an Academy Award in 2000 and was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for permanent preservation in the National Film Registry. For many years, he headed the documentary program at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, where he was a Distinguished Professor.



Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

The book title is the same as one of the stories in my collection. When I began putting the book together, Misfits seemed an apt description for many of the characters in my stories.

How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?

Seeing the eleven cover designs for my book was one of the most exciting moments for me in the publication process. Ronaldo Alves and his team had visually captured the essence of my stories. All the designs were spot on. The decision was difficult, but I finally chose the boldest and brightest cover—an image that connects to one of my favorite stories in the book, “The Cactus.”

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

Since high school, I’ve written as a way to understand the world and myself. Like Annie Ernaux, the Nobel Prize-winning French memoirist, I write to “unearth things.” I started writing professionally as a newspaper reporter in Chicago, moved on to become a documentary filmmaker, then alternated between making films, writing articles and essays for magazines and newspapers, children’s novels, and an occasional short story. During COVID, when it was very difficult to make documentary films, I returned to writing short stories. I didn’t set out to write a collection, but one day I realized I had a dozen short stories that were loosely linked, “in conversation with each other,” as my wonderful Atmosphere Press editor Colleen Alles says. My five children’s novels ranged in age from 10 to 14. There are also children in several of these stories, but the stories are told from an adult’s rather than a child’s perspective.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I’ve been making documentary films about social, political, and historical issues since the late 1960s. As diverse as the subjects I’ve explored, there is a commonality to the subjects I’ve tackled. I’ve made films about exploited Filipino and Mexican farmworkers, impoverished villagers in Colombia, and the child welfare system in Los Angeles. I’ve also explored slavery, the Holocaust, the humanitarian crisis in Darfur—“If it’s genocide, call Dad,” my son used to say. I’ve dealt with child labor, child poverty, child abuse, child neglect, and teenage murderers. I’ve also documented revolution and war in Ukraine and the complicity of doctors and psychologists in torture in Iraq and our military prisons. Doctors of the Dark Side is the title of Martha Davis’s documentary that I wrote, and you might say that most of my films deal with the dark side of human nature—cruelty, hate, exploitation, oppression. But in my books as well as films, I always look for hope, resilience, the possibility of reform and redemption. Despite all the horrors I’ve documented, I still believe we can build a better world for future generations.

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

In addition to writing, directing, and producing documentaries, I also taught filmmaking for forty years at the School of Cinematic Arts and the University of Southern California. Publishing Misfits has given me an opportunity to reconnect with many of my former students and to communicate to them what I’m dreaming about when I’m not dreaming about filmmaking.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

Misfits portrays a number of fraught encounters between mismatched people: young and old, privileged and marginalized, powerful and powerless. If there is any theme that links all these encounters, it’s the idea that despite our considerable differences, we are all connected.

What new writing projects are you currently working on? Or, other projects that are not writing?

I’m currently working on a new documentary film about old age in America, based on the 1975 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Why Survive? Being Old in America by Dr. Robert Butler. In recent months, I’ve also published two new short stories and one article about documentary filmmaking. All are listed in the current news on my website: www.markjharriswrites.com.

How was working with Atmosphere Press? What would you tell other writers who want to publish?

Atmosphere Press is the most author-centric press I’ve had the privilege to work with. I found the entire publishing process gratifying.


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Atmosphere Press is a selective hybrid publisher founded in 2015 on the principles of Honesty, Transparency, Professionalism, Kindness, and Making Your Book Awesome. Our books have won dozens of awards and sold tens of thousands of copies. If you’re interested in learning more, or seeking publication for your own work, please explore the links below.