BOMB 123/Spring 2013
Having just completed a biography of Jean Genet, Edmund White discusses jazz, sculpture, and “the art of the flaneur” with abstract sculptor Alain Kirili over dinner in Paris.
Novelist Stephen Wright does not simply tell a story. He takes the basic form of the novel and turns it inside out. His novels such as, Going Native, expose the strange and intriguing lives of characters that would normally fade into the background.
Murakami’s expert manipulation of the mundane into the magical has made him one of the most ubiquitous voices in contemporary fiction.
Campbell McGrath is a poet with a refreshing voice and a contemporary style. McGrath Considers poetry the most favorable medium through which he is able to voice his concerns and observations.
Francine Prose and Deborah Eisenberg have a candid chat about the roles animals play in her fiction, among other things. Prose’s new novel, My New American Life is available now.
With his distinctive sense of humor, Bernard Cooper reflects on moments of self-awareness from his growing up Jewish and gay to making the transition from an artist to writer.
Novelist Walter Mosley addresses the craft of his characters, the promise of the Clinton Presidency, and the undying importance of the Blues.
Novelist Melanie Rae Thon talks about the importance of teaching, the pursuit of truth and the dangerous lives of writers.
A woman recalls her own memories of femininity and sexuality and those written by Flaubert and Said, “The Hemisphere: Kuchuk Hanem” by Kimiko Hahn.
Bruce Wagner’s hyper-real stories of suburbia plunge deep into melodrama and the Californian landscape. Extreme as they maybe, his tales are something we can all relate to.
English author Jeanette Winterson speaks about the implications of a genderless body, the importance of reinventing style, and the impolite writers of lengthy novels.
Fae Myenne Ng’s novel, Bone, captures the experience of a Chinese immigrant family in San Francisco through language limited to the “absolutely necessary”.
Sarah Schulman, author of Empathy, speaks of the separation of activism from writing and the consequences of being assigned a marginal identity.
Lillian Lee writes columns, screenplays, and novels, all of which delve into the complexities of gender and sexuality. Many of her novels such as, Farewell to My Concubine and A Terracotta Warrior, have been successfully adapted for the screen.
College pals Donna Tartt and Jill Eisenstadt exchange campus lore and anecdotes about the novel-writing process while discussing Tartt’s The Secret History. A refreshing glance at two young writers who found early success.
A conversation with Derek Walcott, “the most important writer that the English-speaking Caribbean has ever produced,” according to Caryl Phillips. He speaks about his views of America and ideas of home.
Sheila Bosworth discusses her fear of sentimentality, the influence of the anonymous “person who stands behind her chair,” and the weaknesses and strengths embodied by the Southern women who pervade her novels.
Kim Wozencraft, convicted felon and author, talks to Jill Eisenstadt about her experiences in prison and as an undercover cop.
Emma Tennant is a self-described femenist author from Britain. Tennant is well known for using existing texts for inspiration and then adapting these stories, such as Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde, in a contemporary and relatable manner.
Toíbín’s new play The Testament of Mary opens April 22 at the Walker Kerr Theater.
Caryl Phillips speaks to his friend Graham Swift about the origins and writing of Cambridge, a novel which speaks to the “historic, primal, terrible” journey of the African slave trade.
Writers Louis Edwards and Ameena Meer discuss Edward’s book, Ten Seconds. What started as a short story developed into a novel on reconciling the present with the past as a process to express oneself fully.
Three poems, titled “A Visitation By John Belushi On The Isle Of Capri,” “The Tent Hath Grown,” and “Words When Bored,” by New York Poet Bob Holman.
Unfairly lumped in with the literary “brat pack” of the ‘80s, Jill Eisenstadt strayed from her peers’ chronicles of ‘80s decadence in her witty but unpretentious tales of working-class youth in her first novel, Far Rockaway.
Tom Bolt conducts an illuminating interview with James Merrill, one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, a few short years before his death in 1995.
Lynne Tillman talks about her novel Motion Sickness, and how it addresses certain human experiences—writing, identity, love—like palimpsests.
Argentinian writer Luisa Valenzuela combines political satire with erotica in her stories and novels. Here, she confesses to Linda Yablonsky, “when I write I become a vampire.”
Silverberg and Scholder discuss High Risk; An Anthology of Forbidden Writings and reflect on the concepts of censorship, otherness, and transgression within literature.
Author Jessica Hagedorn talks to Ameena Meer about incorporating Filipino traditions, taboos, and superstitions into a mixed media narrative in her novel, Dogeaters.
Vikram Seth discusses what it means to be an Indian writer, the art of translation, and living in China in the early ‘80s.
