Interviews about The Hundred-Year House at The Rumpus and The Millions
I’ve recently done interviews at both The Rumpus and The Millions about The Hundred-Year House, Olympian gods, galley slaves, and what’s next. Click through to read!
Interviews
New story in Harper’s; related interview at The Nervous Breakdown
I have a new story (a memoir/short story hybrid) called “Other Types of Poison” in the July issue of Harper’s Magazine. (Part is available online, though most is behind a pay wall.) The story is complicated — not just in the telling, but in the creation as well — and I break some of it down, nervously, on The Nervous Breakdown in an interview with Davis Schneiderman. The interview includes more historical detail about my grandparents (the subjects of the story), as well as photographs of both of them, and of me as a chubby baby and scrawny kid.
Podcast (and excerpt from the new novel) on All Write Already!
In early May, I spoke to Karen Shimmin and Willy Nast of All Write Already! about the new novel, dismemberment, The Borrower, and nine-year-olds with scissors. After the intro, you can hear me read a chapter of the new book (about which I’ll have news on this site in a few days)…
An ancient interview with the late Isaiah Sheffer
Isaiah Sheffer interviewed me over three years ago for the radio broadcast of my story “The Briefcase” on Selected Shorts. It was my first real interview as a writer, and I don’t think I fully understood at the time how lucky I was to be on the receiving end of questions that were so deeply insightful and patient. When he passed away in November, I realized I’d never linked to this here. The broadcast of the story itself, being read at Symphony Space by the amazing Victor Garber, is available as an MP3 download here.
Interview for The Short Form
I was thrilled to talk to the folks at The Short Form about short stories, dead raccoons, and serial adultery. And I get to be an illustration! How cool is that? Read the interview, complete with my short story recommendations, here.
Literary New England Radio
I talked with Literary new England Radio about all things Borrower and paperback tour. Listen here!
Fiction Judge and Interview for A River & Sound Review
This fall, I’ll be judging the Nisqually Prize for Fiction for A River & Sound Review. As part of all the hoopla (after the horn section, before the parade), I engaged in an interview that was probably way too fun. As a general rule: If you subject yourself to an interview, and then afterward you think “Wow, that was so fun,” you’ve probably said something you shouldn’t have said. This one’s largely about my superpowers. Writing stuff, too.
Interview in Trop
If you want to get canned answers from a writer, you email her a series of questions, and she answers them in a highly caffeinated state. If you want honest and somewhat ridiculous answers, you buy her a beer at AWP and record her on your phone. This is what the brilliant and stealthy Evan Allgood did for Trop Magazine this past March. I said some stuff I probably shouldn’t have said. And you can read it all here.
Makkai in Bookslut
This is an ancient interview that I somehow neglected to post when it first came up. The absolutely lovely Reese Kwon interviewed me for Bookslut about presumption, evasion, funny restaurant names, and Lois Lowry. Read it here!
A new interview at Authorlink
I have a new interview up here at Authorlink. All about what I’m working on now, historical research, and how writing a novel is like being a first-year teacher.
