Peter T. Kilborn was a reporter for The New York Times for thirty years, having covered business, economics, social issues, and the workplace. He was also one of the contributors to the Times’s award-winning series and book Class Matters. Kilborn is a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and was a Professional Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. Starting out in Rhode Island, he became a Relo himself with stints in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, London, Miami, and Washington. He and his wife Susan live in Maryland.
Where are you from? Providence, Rhode Island
Who are your favorite writers?Tom Wolfe, Ian McEwan, Annie Proulx, Cormac McCarthy, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, Joseph Mitchell, A.J. Liebling, Mark Twain, Henry James, Peter Mayle, Evelyn Waugh, Edward P. Jones, and Jonathan Raban
Which book/books have had the biggest influence on your writing? Tom Wolfe’s Man in Full, Bonfire of the Vanities, and From Bauhaus to Our House, Joseph Mitchell’s McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon, Up in the Old Hotel, and Joe Gould’s Secret, Annie Proulx’s Shipping News and That Old Ace in the Hole, Willa Cather’s Oh Pioneers!, Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady and The American, Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall and Scoop, Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence and Encore Provence, assorted New Yorker articles about low-lifes by A.J. Liebling, Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Saturday, and On Chesil Beach, Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men and Cities of the Plain, Edward P. Jones’ The Known World, and Jonathan Raban’s Old Glory.
What are your hobbies and outside interests?Traveling the backroads of the United States and Europe, photography, and golf
What is the single best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?Don’t badmouth the boss.
What is your favorite quote?“As life is action and passion, it is required of man to share the actions and passions of his time, at the risk of being judged not to have lived.”—Oliver Wendell Holmes
What is the question most commonly asked by your readers? What is the answer?What is the book about?It’s about “Relos”—the families who are moved periodically for jobs, and the effects of that moving on the families and their communities, or Relovilles.
What inspired you to write your first book? Running into the people living around metropolitan Atlanta who called themselves “Relos.” I describe the moment I heard the term, at a yard sale, in the book.
Where do you write?In my study, in the attic of my house, in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
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