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“So much of my writing is supposed to fend off the autobiographical that I’ve managed to fend it off within myself as a personal practice.” Joshua Cohen, author of the novel Moving Kings (Random House, 2017) and one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists of 2017, talks about playing with the autobiographical impulse and writing as an existential practice.
“What makes life and fiction important and interesting and meaningful is for it to be examined...” Dina Nayeri talks to Bill Kenower of Author Magazine about researching her first book, A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea (Riverhead Books, 2013), and her beliefs about imagination and the writing process. Nayeri’s second novel, Refuge (Riverhead Books, 2017), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“I’m aware of the rules, but part of what makes you an artist is how you deviate from those rules, and that’s all about play.” Bao Phi, whose poetry collection Thousand Star Hotel (Coffee House Press, 2017) is in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, talks about the importance of reading, writing, drawing, and playing to engage the imagination.
“Books tend to get short shrift in the cultural world,” says Lisa Lucas, executive director of the National Book Foundation, in this interview with James Brown. Lucas speaks about the foundation’s goal to promote a love of writing and the BookUp program, which connects young people with published authors and provides free copies of books.
“You read so many versions of girlhood or what it’s supposed to look like and it can feel very alienating and untrue.” At the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco, author Emma Cline discusses her writing process and the inspiration for her debut novel, The Girls (Random House, 2016), with Ellen Sussman.
In this video, Challis Popkey speaks with author Sarah Gerard about her novel, Binary Star (Two Dollar Radio, 2015), and her first essay collection, Sunshine State (Harper Perennial, 2017). Gerard’s debut essay collection is featured in Page One of the May/June 2017 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“Stories are pretty much just confined not really to objective truth, but to points of view.” Joshua Ferris discusses his views on storytelling, narrative, and characterization at a party thrown by Sheepscot Creative. Ferris’s debut story collection, The Dinner Party (Little, Brown, 2017), is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“The things I say in my poems are things that I absolutely have to say.” Jive Poetic reads an original poem and shares his writing process for PBS NewsHour’s “Brief but Spectacular” series.
Yan Lianke talks about his writing life and issues around the censorship of literature in China. Yan’s novel The Explosion Chronicles (Chatto & Windus, 2017), translated from the Chinese by Carlos Rojas, is longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
“We have to imagine new futures, and I think what storytellers can do is begin to imagine new ways of being, and new places that we can all go to.” Mohsin Hamid discusses his latest novel, Exit West (Riverhead Books, 2017), and speaks about the importance of storytelling on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
