OPB: “Why I think fiction matters”

Fiction is there to let us know we’re not alone. Whatever we’ve thought and felt has probably been thought and felt before.

As part of their ongoing series Literary Arts: The Archive Project, Oregon Public Broadcasting will be airing a talk of mine tonight, originally given in January 2011 at the Portland Arts & Lectures series in Portland, Oregon. It will also be posted to their website for future listening.

The Archive Project - Jan. 7, 2015
OPB | Jan. 07, 2015 9 p.m.

Episode 10 of Literary Arts: The Archive Project features author Elizabeth Strout. In her lecture “Why I think fiction matters,” Strout explores how reading magnifies our understanding of the human experience. 

Enjoy! And thank you, OBP and Portland Arts & Lectures.

IMPAC Dublin: 142 titles nominated for the 2015 International DUBLIN Literary Award

Honored! Thank you, IMPAC Dublin.

142 books have been nominated by libraries worldwide for the €100,000 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award, the world’s most valuable annual literary prize for a single work of fiction published in English.
— IMPAC Dublin

The Diane Rehm Show: Readers’ Review: “Olive Kitteridge” (rebroadcast)

Honored to be back (in absentia) on The Diane Rehm Show! A discussion of Olive Kitteridge.

Author Elizabeth Strout describes Olive as “ferocious and complicated and kindly and sometimes cruel. In essence … a little bit of each of us.” Today the book has gained renewed attention with a recent HBO miniseries adaptation, starring Frances McDormand. For this Readers’ Review: we listen back to our discussion of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Olive Kitteridge.
— The Diane Rehm Show: Readers’ Review: “Olive Kitteridge”