SOURCE: Mosley, Walter, and Jeff Zaleski. “A Host of Ideas from an NBA Host.” Publishers Weekly 250, no. 50 (15 December 2003): 53.

In the following interview, Mosley discusses hosting the National Book Awards, the inspirations behind The Man in My Basement, and the perils of being a “literary writer who writes in genre.”

PW met with Walter Mosley, host of this year's National Book Awards ceremony, days before the event at a downtown Manhattan restaurant. As Mosley dined on sweetbreads (“these are thoraxes, you know”), we talked of many matters, including the Stephen King controversy and Mosley's new novel, The Man in My Basement.

[Zaleski]: Why were you chosen to host the National Book Awards?

[Mosley]: I didn't really ask. Neil Baldwin [executive director of the National Book Foundation] called me. I'm a literary writer who writes in genre often, unapologetically—not trying to say that I've gone beyond the genre, not...