From the Archives: “By allowing the reader to hear these voices, their pravda, instead of her own, Alexievich can better give voice to the feelings of disenfranchisement many witnesses feel in the current, capitalist Russia.”
From the Archives: Brandon Bye on questions of influence, literary values, and more from Aleksandar Hemon’s 2012 visit to the Hopwood Room at the University of Michigan.
From the Archives: In 1990, Stephanie Vaughn published her debut collection of short fiction, Sweet Talk. Critical reception was overwhelmingly positive. A reviewer for Mother Jones Magazine wrote, “There is not a weak story in Sweet Talk and few are less than spectacular … Hers is a wise, touching, extraordinary voice—the sort rarely achieved at the end of a gifted career, let alone at the beginning.” To date, Vaughn’s first book has also been the only one her adoring fans have seen.
From the Archives: Ana Menéndez’s story collection Adios, Happy Homeland! shadows people on the run from their circumstances and themselves.
From the Archives: Jennifer Solheim reveals how language structure impacts emotional resonance in the narrative—and for the reader.
From the Archives: Philip Graham speaks with his former student Rosalie Morales Kearns about her debut collection, as well as how to enter different points of view, the legacy of colonialism in Caribbean history and Caribbean literature, and why the trickster answers so many questions.
From the Archives: We celebrate Valentine’s Day with an homage to the living dead: Colson Whitehead’s Zone One. Don’t fancy a date with scary slavering? No matter. Michael Rudin finds the novel reads like an existential valentine to New York City, and that’s something even a zombie can love.
From the Archives: Michael Byers on how to succeed—and fail—in the first person.
From the Archives: Why invent a dystopia when there are so many real dystopias out there in the world already?
From the Archives: Manil Suri gets into the nitty-gritty of novel writing—throwing out hundreds of pages, rewriting histories, and choosing between plot and character—with Nawaaz Ahmed.
