Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry

“Sinclair crafts her stunning debut collection around the beauty & brutality of the word cannibal, whose origins derive from Columbus’s belief that the Carib people consumed human flesh. Attacking this dehumanizing judgment born from white entitlement & denouncing the idea that blackness is synonymous with savagery, Sinclair ponders such questions as, How does a poet get inside the head of Shakespeare’s Caliban? How would Caliban define blackness without the filter of a white man’s bias? . . . Through her visceral language Sinclair paints the institution of white supremacy as not just an individualized phenomenon, but as a ruthless & menacing force.”—Publisher’s Weekly, starred review The post Safiya Sinclair : Cannibal appeared first on Tin House.

Award-winning poet, Matthew Zapruder, challenges misconceptions about poetry, emphasizing focusing on words rather than hidden meanings. He discusses poetry's transformative power, the complexities of interpretation, and the intimate connection between reader and poet through language. The conversation highlights the interplay of chaos and order in poetry, exploring symbolism, politics, and personal experiences in poetic expression.

“As a descendent of Chantal Akerman and Unica Zürn—among others—Yanara Friedland reimagines the origin myth. Friedland’s permeable pages allow the reader entryway into a ‘mirror [that] becomes an open door,’ a door through which we hear the echo of Ana Mendieta telling us ‘There is no original past to redeem: there is the void.’ Uncountry is an invitation to that void, and Friedland serves as dream guide through this blend of the personal, political, and stunningly poetic”—Lily Hoang Uncountry: a Mythology is winner of the Noemi Press Fiction Prize The post Yanara Friedland : Uncountry appeared first on Tin House.

Poet Mary Ruefle discusses her creative process, labels on her work, menopause's transformative nature, language complexities, color pieces in 'My Private Property', and the interplay of happiness and sadness.

In the court of the King, everyone knows their place. But as the Artist wins hearts & egos with his ballads, uncomfortable truths emerge that shake the Kingdom to its core. Part surreal fable & part crime romance, this prize-winning novel from Yuri Herrera questions the price of keeping your integrity in a world ruled by patronage & power. “A powerful & memorable meditation on the social & economic value of art in a world ruled by the pursuit of power.”—Publisher’s Weekly “Yuri Herrera must be a 1000 years old. He must’ve traveled to hell, & heaven, & back again. He must’ve once been a girl, an animal, a rock, a boy, & a woman. Nothing else explains the vastness of his understanding”—Valeria Luiselli The post Yuri Herrera : Kingdom Cons appeared first on Tin House.

“[Gregory Pardlo] explores what is American, what is African American, what is the Other, what is city, what is suburban, what is personal & what is persona. Digest offers a changing, rich landscape of verse both haunting, funny, & rigorously intellectual—Jerry Magazine “[Pardlo] renders history just as clearly & palpably as he renders NYC or Copenhagen or his native New Jersey. But mostly what he renders is America with its intractable conundrums & clashing iconographies. With lines that balance poise & a jam-packed visceral music & images that glimmer & seethe together like a conflagration these poems are a showcase for Pardlo’s ample & agile mind, his courageous social conscience, & his mighty voice.”—Tracy K. Smith The post Gregory Pardlo : Digest appeared first on Tin House.

What are the forces that shape our most elemental bonds? How do we make lifelong commitments in the face of identities that are continuously shifting, and commit ourselves when the self is so often in flux? What happens to love in the face of the unexpected, in the face of disappointment and compromise—how do we wrest beauty from imperfection, find grace in the ordinary, desire what we have rather than what we lack? Drawing on literature, poetry, philosophy, and theology, Shapiro writes gloriously of the joys and challenges of matrimonial life, in a luminous narrative that unfurls with urgent immediacy and sharp intelligence. The post Dani Shapiro : Hourglass appeared first on Tin House.

“Here is the story about biotech that VanderMeer wants to tell, a vision of the nonhuman not as one fixed thing, one fixed destiny, but as either peaceful or catastrophic, by our side or out on a rampage as our behavior dictates—for these are our children, born of us and now to be borne in whatever shape or mess we have created. This coming-of-age story signals that eco-fiction has come of age as well: wilder, more reckless and more breathtaking than previously thought, a wager and a promise that what emerges from the twenty-first century will be as good as any from the twentieth, or the nineteenth.” —Wai Chee Dimock, The New York Times Book Review The post Jeff Vandermeer : Borne appeared first on Tin House.

“Thalia Field has now composed what very well might be her life’s work—a tragic, comical, & utterly fascinating tale of a marriage that vividly encapsulates not only the origins of experimental medicine, but an entire age that spirited experiments in literature, science, engineering, film, etc. It’s nothing less than a history—gorgeously fictional, purposefully essayistic–of how we got where we are.”—John D’Agata “Stemming from a through-line of marital discord in the household of the great French vivisector Claude Bernard . . . this compelling tale is made up largely of excerpts and quotations . . . a beautiful and thought-provoking collage of . . . rescued history & a sobering tribute to some of its victims.”—Karen Joy Fowler The post Thalia Field : Experimental Animals appeared first on Tin House.

“That Sallie Tisdale’s a treasure comes as no secret to lovers of the essay, and yet this happy gathering that spans the decades is revelatory, a fascinating look at the epic wanderings of a life mapped by curiosity. Here we get elephants and houseflies, diets and fires, birth and the debris of death, all the mixed and messy vitality of family life. We travel far and we travel wide, but in the end we circle home to Tisdale herself, vulnerable and available, intimate and encouraging, our guide and our friend, her questioning presence lighting the way and celebrating it all, every little step in life’s saga, one lovely sentence at a time.”—Charles D’Ambrosio The post Sallie Tisdale : Violation appeared first on Tin House.