Novelist Michael Cunningham discusses writing during the pandemic, throwing away a novel, writing the middle of a novel, and getting the voice of children right.

Renowned authors Sigrid Nunez and Michael Cunningham discuss their novels tackling the pandemic. Nunez's novel follows a woman, a parrot, and a Gen Z college student in lockdown. Cunningham's novel chronicles three days over three years in a Brooklyn family's life. They explore themes of loneliness, companionship, and the challenges of being an artist during the pandemic.

Michael Cunningham is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours. He’s the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. The Hours was published in 1998, and in addition to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, it won the PEN/Faulkner Award. The book was later adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore. In this episode, Michael speaks to Susan Orlean about a passage concerning the suicide of Virginia Woolf, which comes at the end of the prologue. For more, visit bookexploder.com/episodes/michael-cunningham.