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Quixote at 400
Actually, Don Quixote was published in the same year as the story of that other mad old man, King Lear, so it was a great year for mad old… More
The Way We Love Now
As I was thinking about this, I began, as one obviously would, to think about the Pope. I have the TV on in my writing room and there was… More
Natsuo Kirino: International Noir
"International Noir: Breaking Out of Crime Time" appears in PEN America 7: World Voices. This talk was presented, in slightly different form, at the 2005 PEN World Voices Festival of… More
International Noir
Noir is commonly thought of as an American genre, if it’s in fact a genre. The films “noir” was first used to describe back in the 1940s were American;… More
Quixote at 400
Becoming, not being, is what the novel as an art form is all about. And that is why we regard Don Quixote as the first modern fictional hero. More
The Way We Love Now: Wayne Koestenbaum
This panel’s title pays oblique homage to the late Susan Sontag, whose 1986 short story “The Way We Live Now” itself honored Anthony Trollope’s 1875 novel, The Way We… More
Quixote at 400
You may imagine the boss as the President, the General Secretary, the Chief of Army, the boss of your marriage or of your building, whatever you think. You immediately… More
Africa and the World: Writers at Home and Away
TSITSI DANGAREMBGA: When I think of myself, I don’t think of myself as an African writer. I think of myself as Tsitsi Dangarembga. The place I live that people… More
International Noir
The first thing I ever knew about Simenon was that he’d written an entire novel while enclosed in a glass booth in full view of the public. I heard… More
The Power of the Pen: Jonathan Franzen
JONATHAN FRANZEN: To the extent that the written word is a word of political utterance, it obviously can change something. Probably at least 50 percent of the time for… More
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