David Gilmour is a Canadian novelist and former television journalist and film critic.     Born in London, Ontario, Gilmour later moved to Toronto for schooling. He is a graduate of Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto. In 1980 he became managing editor of the Toronto International Film Festival, a post he held for four years. In 1986 he joined CBC Television as a film critic for The Journal, eventually becoming host of the program’s Friday night arts and entertainment show. In 1990, he began hosting Gilmour on the Arts, an arts show series on CBC Newsworld. In 1997 he left the CBC to concentrate full time on his writing. His 2005 novel A Perfect Night to Go to China won the 2005 Governor General’s Award for English fiction. In 2007 he won two gold National Magazine Awards for his essay “My Life with Tolstoy” which appeared in The Walrus magazine. Today Gilmour is a Professor of Literary Studies at Victoria College at the U of T where he has taught Creative Writing and Literature since 2006.

D​avid recently mentioned to me that he was a fan of Truman Capote. I suggested we get together to discuss one of his short stories. We settled on ‘Mojave’. Here’s our conversation. Warning: it gets a tad raunchy at times.