Marie-Helene Bertino Breaks the Laws of Physics

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Marie-Helene Bertino discusses the importance of disrupting realism in her fiction and opting to explore the fantastical to get closer to the truth.
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James Hannaham Takes on the Many Faces of Fernando Pessoa

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James Hannaham recounts his experience reading the poetry of Fernando Pessoa, a Portuguese poet who wrote under 75 different names throughout his career.
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Colson Whitehead’s Voice Is Here to Stay

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Colson Whitehead shares how he found his voice for his newest novel, Harlem Shuffle, and how it has evolved over time.
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Yiyun Li and the Extraordinary World of ‘War and Peace’

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Yiyun Li revisits Tolstoy's War and Peace and reflects on the many ways it continues to resonate throughout generations.
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Lauren Groff Ponders the Bewilderment of Human Attachment

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Lauren Groff discusses the existential issues within her latest novel, Matrix, which explores the life and struggles of Marie de France.
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Accessing Your Inner Childhood Spy with Qian Julie Wang

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Qian Julie Wang discusses her memoir, Beautiful Country, a story of immigration and discovery seen through the eyes of an undocumented child.
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Between Grief and Fighting for Survival with Kat Chow

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Kat Chow discusses Seeing Ghosts, her memoir that examines grief and sorrow through the lens of three generations of her Chinese-American family.
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Transforming Thought Problems into Cultures with Ursula K. Le Guin

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Matt Bell reads the works of Ursula K. Le Guin to examine the joy and skill woven into her prose, particularly her worldbuilding.
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Vinod Busjeet on the Importance of Whimsy

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Vinod Busjeet discusses his book, Silent Winds, Dry Seas, an autobiographical novel that balances brutal conflicts with moments of whimsy.
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E.J. Koh Writes Toward Uncomfortable Truths

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E.J. Kohn discusses her memoir, The Magical Language of Others, and shares why the collective memory plays a big role in how she writes about loss and trauma.
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Julia Alvarez Returns to Poetry to Find Herself

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Julia Alvarez discusses why poetry, rather than fiction, gives her access to a better understanding of herself.
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Seeking Comfort in the Bittersweet

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Molly Templeton dissects what exactly makes up a comfort read, noting that it's not always the books with feel-good endings that we return to the most.
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Caleb Azuma Nelson Wants Readers to Get Vulnerable

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Caleb Azuma Nelson discusses his debut novel, Open Water, and the role its second person narrator plays in drawing out readers' vulnerability.
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Ross Gay on the Importance of Wonder

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Poet Ross Gay examines the ways playfulness and imagination steer his work and remind him of the joy in writing.
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Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi Seeks Inescapable Landscapes

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Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi discusses her latest novel, Savage Tongues, and how its evocative descriptions of landscapes shaped her characters' existences.
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Standing in the Doorway with Sally Rooney

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Sally Rooney discusses her hotly anticipated new novel and the books that provided a basis for her observational, haunting prose.
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Mona Awad’s Three Essential Writing Tools

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Mona Awad shares the writing process behind her latest novel, All's Well, and her desired conditions for diving into storytelling.
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Kate Zambreno and the Art of Protecting Yourself as a Writer

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Kate Zambreno examines the path that led her to write her recent book, as well as the importance of guarding one's time as a writer.
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