Not many authors come to a literary festival to talk about why they plan never to write again, but bestselling crime novelist Don Winslow is doing just that. On a Saturday afternoon in Santa Fe, the author of more than 20 books — including The Border, Savages and his latest, City on Fire — calmly explains to an audience why he decided to put down the pen.
“Our times right now are extremely perilous,” he says, “and we don’t get to choose the times we live in. I’m not a political person… but now I think now is the time to devote my resources elsewhere.” When he says “elsewhere,” Winslow means toward activism. As he sees it, “we can no longer bring spoons to a knife fight” when far-right politicians and judges are working to take away Americans’ rights.
