Rachel Kramer Bussel speaks with a veteran editor looks for drama and believes it takes "time and money" to get a book right:

Mediabistro: What kinds of books to do you work on/are you looking for? Conversely, what kinds of books don't you want to see at all?

Hodgman: I like big characters and-this sounds incredibly pretentious-but things that reflect some human spirit-perseverance, desire, imagination. I like writerly journalists who can render character, detail, and place beyond "just the facts" and who are narrative-oriented. Kate Boo, who writes for The New Yorker and who I pray to get a book out of before I expire, is an example. So is Anthony Shadid, the Washington Post reporter whose book on Iraq, Night Draws Near, is a title I'm proud of. At Holt, I've been especially drawn to young professors who know a subject and have a real narrative story that truly illuminates a period or character. Kevin Boyle, who won the National Book Award, for his first trade book, Arc of Justice, is an example of this. I buy a bit of fiction and am very often drawn to novels that involve research or have some sort of non-fiction element.

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