How does a novelist follow a critically acclaimed debut novel? Since publishing The Tiger’s Wife, Téa Obreht wrote and threw away two whole novels. Disconnected from the narratives, she didn’t feel they books answered any new questions. That all changed when she heard a history podcast about the American Camel Corps. From the moment she started writing Inland she felt connected to the story.
Rumaan Alam spoke with Emma Straub about his second novel That Kind of Mother, writing about the 1980s, and wanting to be a prolific author.
Ten years have passed since Sloane Crosley debuted I Was Told There Would be Cake, her best selling collection of essays. Three years ago she launched her first novel, The Clasp, and last month she was at Greenlight to celebrate her third essay collection, Look Alive Out There. She was joined in conversation by Heidi Julavits.
The New York City Reading Series Census is an ongoing project to catalogue the contemporary literary scene. Any reading series curator in the New York area can take the survey here.
What is the name of the series, and what is the significance or meaning of the series name?
The series is called Memoir Monday. It celebrates memoir and first-person writing and takes place on Mondays.
Nafkote Tamirat discusses The Parking Lot Attendant, wanting to be famous, and how Boston is often seen as a white city despite having many diverse communities.
Tayari Jones discussed her latest novel, An American Marriage, the origin of the title, and how she came up with the idea for the novel at Greenlight Bookstore.
Hermione Hoby discusses her debut novel Neon in Daylight, how she didn’t plan to write about New York City, and how fiction was a reprieve from the journalism she wrote for money.
Zack McDermott, author of Gorilla and the Bird, and Jaime Lowe, author of Mental, discuss bipolar disorder, writing memoirs, and lithium.