Elizabeth Kostova on the lasting influence of Nicholas Delbanco, both in her work and in developing the habits of a writer. “We learned from him about the importance of persistence, as much as about prose style or character development.”
Johanna Skibsrud talks to Molly Antopol about Quartet for the End of Time‘s musical legacy and the political and personal histories at the heart of her latest novel.
John Dermot Woods talks with Kristen Iskandrian about his new book, The Baltimore Atrocities, and the way in which text and image intersects in his work, saying, “I wanted to draw pictures that would extend the stories, further complicate them, contribute an essential narrative element that the stories could not exist without.” They also discuss the pleasure of writing on trains, balancing disciplines, exploring issues of place, and more.
“Zambreno’s explicit referencing of not just film tropes in general, but Noh theater and French cinema and American plays in particular, immediately raises questions about agency, artifice, and images of women. And in the reflective process that follows, a reader might naturally find themselves asking: who is the director of our lives?”
Lara Zielin calls Sara Farizan’s new novel Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel “more than just a successful young-adult novel. It’s an intersection where a work of art meets a cultural shift at exactly the right moment.”
“So one of my goals was to explore the seemingly perverse pleasure to be had from constraints, or form”: Peter Turchi discusses his new book, A Muse and a Maze with long-time friend Robert Boswell.
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.”
Shelly Oria on journeying with her characters: “I follow the voice; I usually have no idea where the fuck we’re going. I’m a hitchhiker and often the driver is kind of an asshole. Or not really an asshole, just very preoccupied with someone or something that isn’t me.”
In Part II of Philip Graham’s interview with John Warner, Warner talks about living a literary life online: “I seem to be congenitally incapable of making plans. This is often to my benefit. . . but it also has meant an extremely ad hoc career.”
John Warner talks to Philip Graham about giving his characters an extra graceful breath: “I see mankind basically as a pestilence, bent on destroying each other and the Earth itself. . . And yet, sometimes we can break free of our monstrousness and be genuinely good and kind.”
