WATCH: Bill Fitzhugh on Finding Satire in the Serious

Authors in the Tent is a filmed series of interviews with established and emerging authors conducted in a tent Ona Russell purchased during the pandemic. Inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron and the 1001 Arabian Nights, the tent—elemental, ancient, and ubiquitous—serves as a magical backdrop for literary conversation.

In the second episode of the second season, Ona Russell talks with Bill Fitzhugh about his latest novel, A Perfect Harvest, exploring humor in medical diagnosis, playing with narrative conventions, working in the vein of Jonathan Swift and Laurence Sterne, and his screenwriting career in Hollywood.

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This series is in support of the charities Tents-4-Homeless, PATH, Alpha Project, and VVSD.

Ona Russell holds a PhD in literature from UC San Diego where she also taught for many years. She is author of three award-winning historical mysteries and the recently released Son of Nothingness: A Novel of Appearances.

Bill Fitzhugh is the award-winning author of eleven or so comic and satiric crime novels. He has also written for film, television, radio, and theatre. His debut novel, Pest Control, was translated into half a dozen languages, the film rights sold to Warner Brothers, it was produced as a popular radio show in Germany, and as a stage musical in Los Angeles. The New York Times said “Fitzhugh is in a league with Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard…he is a strange and deadly amalgam of screenwriter and comic novelist.” The late, great political humorist, Molly Ivins said, “Fitzhugh is one seriously funny guy.” A one-time FM rock deejay, he wrote, produced, and hosted Fitzhugh’s All Hand Mixed Vinyl for five years on Sirius-XM’s Deep Tracks channel. Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Fitzhugh lives in Los Angeles where he is at work on his next project.