An Interview with Julia Watts
by Eleanor J. Bader
Julia Watts and Eleanor J. Bader sit down to talk about Watts’s new novel, Needlework, Appalachian culture, queer visibility, and the changing South.
Eleanor J. Bader is an award-winning journalist who writes about domestic social issues, movements for social change, books and art. In addition to FWR, she writes for The Progressive, Lilith Magazine and blog, the LA Review of Books, Truthout, and other online and print publications.
Julia Watts and Eleanor J. Bader sit down to talk about Watts’s new novel, Needlework, Appalachian culture, queer visibility, and the changing South.
Eleanor J. Bader talks with Lee Zacharias about her new novel, the zeal of the 1960s and 70s, and the momentum that led some activists to embrace violence.
Eleanor J. Bader talks with Jon Sealy about his third novel, The Merciful, as well as morality, ethics, the state of Southern literature, the business of publishing, and the pandemic.
“Fiction is my first love, especially novels. While I also love history, my focus must be to tell stories about people, their lives, their loves, their struggles, and then I can tell how politics and political events impact them.” Eleanor J. Bader talks with Marisel Vera about her new novel, The Taste of Sugar, as well as Puerto Rican history, Hawaiian sugar plantations, the legacy of colonialism, and more.
“I think the South is worth fighting for, with all its issues. I think it’s worth fighting for change here.” Eleanor J. Bader interviews Kasey Thornton about her debut collection, Lord the One You Love Is Sick, the writing process, and life in the contemporary South.
Linda Kass talks with Eleanor J. Bader about her new book, A Ritchie Boy, the ways fact and fiction merge in the story, and the importance of remembering both our personal and political histories.
Carley Moore talks with Eleanor J. Bader about her first novel, The Not Wives, as well as about writing, revision, teaching, disability, and the possibility of progressive activism in Trumpian times.
In her review of All My Puny Sorrows, Eleanor J. Bader calls this new novel by Miriam Toews “a love story writ large.” She goes on to say, “It also serves as a potent rebuttal to one of Western culture’s most cherished delusions—that if we have love, nothing else matters.”
Eleanor J. Bader calls Lynn Kanter’s third novel, Her Own Vietnam, “a cogent rebuttal to politicians who wax poetic about the glory and honor of war and militarism.”
