Peter Zheutlin
Current Home:
Dover, MA
Place of Birth:
Aguadilla, Puerto Rico
Education:
B.A. cum laude, Amherst College 1975; J.D. magna cum laude, Boston College Law School 1979.
Why did you choose to come to Amherst?
The college admissions process was so different back in 1970-1! We didn’t research schools the way kids (and their parents) do now. But a family friend I respected said Amherst was one of the best colleges in the country, so I applied. After being rejected by UMass (am I the only Amherst grad who can boast of that distinction?) I wasn’t encouraged about my chances of getting into Amherst. Someone in admissions apparently mistook me for another applicant and I received an acceptance letter.
Most memorable or most influential class at Amherst:
I can’t possibly name just one! See the next question.
Most memorable or most influential professor:
There are several. Alan Babb of the anthropology/sociology department was the most captivating lecturer. Time in his classes flew by. I was enthralled. Earl Latham’s wit and Socratic method of teaching were positively genius and were good preparation for law school. I enjoyed a life-long friendship with my freshman year advisor and thesis advisor, the wonderful, late Don Pitkin, who was both a mentor and friend. He was such a gentle soul. And, the brilliant and engaging Austin Sarat. I think I was a senior the year he started teaching at Amherst. So glad I didn’t miss him!
Research Interests:
SPIN is my ninth book, but my first novel. But it’s based on the same story as my first book, Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry’s Extraordinary Ride (Citadel Press, 2007). In November 2019 The New York Times ran an obituary of Annie (my great-grand-aunt) as part of its “Overlooked” series. My wife Judy practically ordered me to revisit the story as historical fiction saying (a) you’ve already done all the research and (b) if you don’t, someone else will. The 1890s, when Annie made her daring dash around the world by bicycle, is an ongoing interest, including the way women were making a big impact on journalism. Indeed, when my great-grand-aunt Annie wrote her first person account of her bike trip for Pulitzer’s New York World, the byline was “Nellie Bly, Jr.” Nellie Bly, of course, was the most famous journalist of her day.
Awards and Prizes:
Rescue Road: One Man, Thirty Thousand Dogs, and a Million Miles on the Last Hope Highway (Sourcebooks, 2015), which was a previous Amherst Reads book, was a New York Times bestseller. That’s not technically an award or prize, but since my list of honors is, let’s say, modest, let’s include it. My last book before SPIN, The Dog Went Over the Mountain: Travels with Albie—An American Journey (Pegasus Books, 2019) won the Lowell Thomas Silver Award from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation for best travel book, 2019-20. In 2016 I received the “Humane-itarian Award” from The Massachusetts School of Law for my writing about rescue dogs, and in 2019 a commendation from the California State Senate for “commitment and contributions to the literary arts and animal rescue.”
Favorite Book:
William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner and John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden
Favorite Author:
Bill Bryson.
Tips for aspiring writers?
Writing is like walking. You put down one word after another. It’s often said, “write what you know,” but I’d say “write what you really care about, or what really interests you.” Passion for the project will carry you through the part of the work that’s drudgery, and there’s a fair amount of that.
Tell us a bit about your path to becoming an author:
I used to be a lawyer. End of story. O.K., I’ll elaborate. It only took a couple of years for me to realize that I wasn’t going to be happy working as a lawyer, so I went to work for an international non-profit working on nuclear weapons issues at the height of the Cold War, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. As the organization’s public affairs director I started writing op-ed columns and was placing a lot of them in national newspapers. I got such a kick out of it and that’s when the writing bug really took over.
Learn more at https://peterzheutlin.com/.