BEST AUTHOR BEST : BRENDA WINEAPPLE

 

'' I never thought I liked historical fiction,'' says the author of '' Keeping the Faith : God, Democracy and the Trial That Riveted a Nation, '' a nonfiction account of the Scopes Case. '' But my list is long .''

.-  What books are currently on your night stand?

Jan Morris's '' Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere.'' It's about the city she first visited as a soldier after World War II - and about the weirdness of time and history. Also Fernanda Eherstadt's nervy '' Bite Your Friends,'' stories of artists and activists who use their bodies to defy the status quo.

And Caoilinn Hughes's '' The Alternatives '' and  Jenny Erpenback's '' Kairos,'' both up next, that is after I finish '' War and Peace.''

.-  What book would people be surprised to find on your shelves?

"Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter,'' by Dale Messick.

.-  What's the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?

That May Anning, a young self-taught fossil hunter was the first to discover and excavate large dinosaur skeleton fossils near her home in Lyme Regis, England, and became one of the foremost contributors to paleontology.

.-  What do you read to relax?

Relax? Well, often poetry : the strangely consoling Wallace Stevens, W.H. Auden, Gerard Manley Hopkins, the witty Emily Dickinson and, recently, Louise Gluck.

Whitman, too, never fails, even when he's annoying. Plus, I've discovered the addictive mystery writer Tana French.

.-  What's the secret to compelling history writing?

No secret but narrative : a dramatic plot, characters, momentum, very strong sentences and, of course, conflict.

.-  What's the last book you read that made you laugh?

Deborah Eisenberg's darkly antic '' Your Duck Is My Duck,'' with her pinpoint observations. [ Close to my heart : '' It's beginning to look like a photo finish - me first, or the world.

It's not so hard to figure out why I'm not sleeping. What I can't figure out is why is everybody else sleeping.'']

.-  What's the best book you've ever received as a gift?

Lewis Carroll's '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,'' when I was 9. When I was 11 and down with the flu, my uncle gave me for some reason, '' The Education of Henry Adams '' and Edmund Wilson's '' The Scrolls From the Dead Sea.''

I still have the books, which I didn't read until years later.

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.