First Draft: A Dialogue of Writing is a weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with fiction, nonfiction, essay writers, and poets, highlighting the voices of writers as they discuss their work, their craft, and the literary arts. Hosted by Mitzi Rapkin, First Draft celebrates creative writing and the individuals who are dedicated to bringing their carefully chosen words to print as well as the impact writers have on the world we live in.
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In this episode, Mitzi talks to Lorrie Moore about her new novel, I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home.
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From the episode:
Mitzi Rapkin: Do you think that there’s something about having to read something a few times that we’re mostly lacking these days?
Lorrie Moore: Oh, for sure. For sure. It’s a lot to ask of anyone. I would hope that you don’t actually have to read this particular book, a few times. But I think you’re going to really appreciate a book like Beloved, I think you have to read it a couple times. I think if you’re going to really appreciate Light in August, you’re going to have to read it a couple times. Ulysses, you’re going to have to read it 100 times. So, the weirder, the stranger the book is, and the freer the author has been with it, the harder it may be for the for the reader, but some readers will get it, and that’s who you’re writing for. And you don’t know who they will be, but you have to take a chance.
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Lorrie Moore is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, as well as the PEN/Malamud Award and the Rea Award for her achievement in the short story. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
