Loneliness! Labial reconstruction! Some hostages!

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:02:00 +0000

Among the many sterling novels coming out this April, authors Allison Amend (“A Nearly Perfect Copy”), Amy Brill (“The Movement of Stars”), Jennifer Gilmore (“The Mothers”) and Fiona Maazel (“Woke Up Lonely”) have stood out.

I interviewed all four, limiting them primarily to incomplete sentences and indirect responses -- and asked them to pose questions to each other at the end.

Without summarizing the plot in any way, what would you say your novel is about?

FIONA MAAZEL: Loneliness! A city underneath the city of Cincinnati. North Korea. Labial reconstruction. Paths towards and away from estrangement. A cult. Some hostages. Cloud seeding.

ALLISON AMEND: "A Nearly Perfect Copy" challenges our presumptions about originality and authenticity, loss and replacement, and the perilous pursuit of perfection. OK, I copied that from the book jacket. But I wrote it the first time …

Halloween 2012: What’s scary?

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 22:11:00 +0000

Halloween is the strangest of holidays, the day we actually invite the creepy, the spooky, the downright scary into our lives — as if we aren't surrounded by enough horror, with many of us just now emerging from the very real, unwanted terror of Hurricane Sandy. But there is something strangely alluring about having control over your own fear, to make it into a fantasy, whether it involves walking through a haunted house, or dressing up for a costume party, or watching horror films, knowing that you can hide under your coat, run out of the theater, or hit STOP.

We've asked six of our favorite writers to open up and tell us what freaked them out when they were younger — and what scares them now.

The essays include (click on the title to read each piece):

"Real-Life Body-Snatchers," by Peter Trachtenberg

The author of "The Book of Calamities" sees body-snatchers. All the time.

"The Horrors of Aging," by Kate Christensen

The PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novelist used to love Halloween. But now every dangling skeleton and rotting pumpkin in the neighborhood is reminding her of her own mortality.

Salon.com > Jennifer Gilmore

Loneliness! Labial reconstruction! Some hostages!

Halloween 2012: What’s scary?