Author Jen Michalski is intrigued by the spaces where empathy and imperfection coexist. Her latest novel All This Can Be True is a stunning result of this fascination – an emotionally resonant sapphic drama that delves into love, betrayal, and the contradictions – the secrets – with which we all live.
There’s a particular challenge that comes from writing a book in the world of another artistic discipline. Why? The usual challenges that apply to writing fiction apply, but so does the task of accurately depicting a very different creative word. In the case of Martha Anne Toll‘s new novel Duet for One, that world is classical music. Set in the wake of the death of an acclaimed pianist, Toll’s novel explores how her loved ones grieve and reflect on their own artistic triumphs and frustrations. I talked with Toll to learn more about book’s origin and the difficulties she faced while writing it.
Bill Kroyer‘s detailed memoir Mr. In-Between scales the many rocky paths in animation from hand drawn to computer. Hear it from the guy who’s seen it all: a Midwestern animator who shot to Hollywood like a comet and to Disney Studios and abroad, finally landing back in Wisconsin where he serves as Professor Emeritus at Chapman University. An Oscar-nominated Director of films, commercials, and movie titles (including those dear to my heart, Labyrinth and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation!), he’s a pioneer in his field. Tron, Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, and Animalympics are just a few of his acclaimed projects. When I quietly asked to interview him he responded, “Sure, I’ll do the show. I’d love to do the show.”
The guiding principle of Six Ridiculous Questions is that life is filled with ridiculousness. And questions. That only by giving in to these truths may we hope to slip the surly bonds of reality and attain the higher consciousness we all crave. (Eh, not really, but it sounded good there for a minute.) It’s just. Who knows? The ridiculousness and question bits, I guess. Why six? Assonance, baby, assonance.
I first came to Katharine Coldiron’s work on the pages of LARB, where I quickly fell in love with her critical eye. She is the kind of analytical writer I wish I could be: searingly sharp in observation, deeply persuasive in an inconspicuous way, and also incredibly funny. It was only sometime later I came to her fiction and began to understand that these techniques are the foundation of all her work. Coldiron writes about human failure and human strangeness and human longing in ways that ask us to pay closer attention. Her critical-creative oeuvre disturbs the status quo not just through unconventional plot turns and lines of argumentation, but also through exquisitely rendered detail that estranges us to what we thought we already knew and understood.
I’m a longtime reader and admirer of Jeanne Thornton‘s work, so I was thrilled to be able to talk with her about her new novel A/S/L. It’s a book about a lot of things: online communities, creative collaborations, fraught friendships, and video game design among them. Before the book’s debut, we met up at a Midtown bar to discuss, well, everything.
The idea for Ali Fitzgerald’s new graphic novel, Squeak Chatter Bark, came to her in a dream. In the middle of the night, at an artist residency in France, Fitzgerald imagined a young girl in a biosphere whose parents had gone missing. To track them down, the girl would have to collaborate and communicate with a fantastic array of critter pals.
Paula Bomer is a writer who takes risks. Inspired by the likes of Anais Nin, serial killer documentaries, and the literary oeuvre that fearlessly documents evil-doing men, she doesn’t want you to read her brilliant new book The Stalker in your fuzzy socks, hot cocoa in hand, right before you dip into your nightly snooze. Like any captivating thriller, The Stalker is sure to keep you riveted; balancing the comedic with sheer horror, Paula’s latest novel follows a skillful, handsome young criminal with golden locks and a chipped tooth as he cons women in The Big Apple.