Benjamin Kunkel, a novelist and co-founder of n+1, joins Violet Lucca to discuss his review of Richard Zenith’s biography of Fernando Pessoa. Pessoa, a Portuguese author who was “too faithful to his imagination to spoil it by fraternizing with the actual world,” wrote poetry attributed to an array of heteronyms—elaborate, invented personalities who each possessed a singular background and point of view. Together Kunkel and Lucca examine Pessoa’s body of work, and how his method of writing (and living) oddly echoes contemporary life.

Read Kunkel’s review: https://harpers.org/archive/2021/11/i-multiplied-myself-fernando-pessoa/

This episode was produced by Violet Lucca and Andrew Blevins.

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