Entries from the writing life; an upcoming event
Entries from the writing life; an upcoming event
The writing life can be a slog or a hustle—or both—but not always! I serve on the PEN/Faulkner Board and was thrilled to help judge the PEN Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Last weekend we honored Edwidge Danticat, whose luminous writing has paved the way for a generation of new, exciting, diasporic writers. Raised in Haiti, Danticat comes from a family of story tellers and threads that tradition through her work.
I reviewed an eye-opening debut novel for NPR Books: ALL THE LITTLE BIRD-HEARTS by a British author who is autistic, Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow. I was captivated to inhabit the brain of the protagonist, a woman named Sunday, also autistic.
Here’s a new episode of the Make Meaning podcast with host Lynn Golodner. Lynn and I got to some deep places in our discussion of THREE MUSES.
If you’re in the DMV, please join me at 5 PM on Sunday January 7 at the Glen Echo Town Hall. I am going to interview Linda Ambrus Broenniman about her riveting memoir, THE POLITZER SAGA, tracing her unknown Hungarian Jewish ancestors after a house fire revealed the contents of a box containing family secrets.
ICYMI, here is last week’s newsletter: Still thinking about Thanksgiving.
ICYMI, here’s NPR’s 2023 Books We Love. I recommended four books:
Ilyon Woo’s MASTER SLAVE HUSBAND WIFE;
Marina Harss’s THE BOY FROM KIEV;
Benardine Watson’s TRANSPLANT; and
Sonora Jha’s THE LAUGHTER.
Onward!
Love,
Martha