“We’re Running the Risk of Equating Serious Literature with Unfunny Literature”: A Conversation with Ben Purkert About His Debut Novel

Ben Purkert

 

Ben Purkert makes the path from poet to novelist look easy with his debut The Men Can’t Be Saved, which is funny and sharp as hell. Purkert has managed to take a poet’s eye to the worlds of branding and labor, creating a hilarious book filled with beautiful sentences and profound ideas.

We caught up over the phone to discuss finding room for comedy in serious literature, the use of metaphor in the novel, and the original NC-17 B.C. shock poet himself, Catullus. 

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“I Let the Characters Develop Fully Before I Went Looking for Themes”: Raymond Strom on Writing “Northern Lights”

So much literary fiction feels like an attempt to pull us into a world and convince us of certain truths. Raymond Strom’s debut novel Northern Lights is that rare book that simply unfolds, letting the beauty of the language, the tension of the story and the completely realized skin and bones of every character come to life on the page. As a piece of writing deep into a career, it would be a triumph. The fact that this is Strom’s first novel makes it something of a revelation.

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“This Question Has Me Reeling into Existential Crisis”: Ben Purkert on Writing “For the Love of Endings”

  It can be difficult for non-poets to get excited about a poetry collection, but Ben Purkert’s For the Love of Endings is well worth your time. Purkert is a master at building tension between the playful and the dead serious. The poems in this collection display an incredible love of language and a generous curiosity about human nature. They are often funny as hell, too. I recently sat down with Purkert at Hungry Ghost on Fulton St. in Brooklyn […]

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“I Feel a Lot of Tenderness For Her”: Rachel Lyon on Writing “Self-Portrait with Boy”

Rachel Lyon’s debut novel Self-Portrait with Boy is a gorgeously written story about ambition and responsibility, set in the New York City art scene of the early 1990s. In advance of the book’s launch at Books Are Magic on February 5, I sat down with Lyon at Pel’s Pie in Brooklyn to discuss her novel, teaching and writing prompts.

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