“Syllable for syllable, it’s stunning work — arguably better than the original.…
I have long and deeply admired all of Strout’s work, but Olive, Again transcends and triumphs. The naked pain, dignity, wit and courage these stories consistently embody fill us with a steady, wrought comfort.”
Joan Frank, “The cranky, bossy, sad, brave, beloved Olive Kitteridge is back in ‘Olive, Again’ — and better than ever,” Washington Post, October 8, 2019.A couple weeks ago, I climbed to the top of Mount David with the New Yorker Radio Hour, a place I visited almost every month when I was in school at Bates College.
It was like ancient history to be there and remember! I’d never talked about Mount David to anyone, but it was such an important part of who I became.
Kala Lea, "Elizabeth Strout’s View from the Top," The New Yorker Radio Hour, October 4, 2019.
“‘She honestly just showed up,’ Strout says. ‘I could see her in her car, nosing it into the marina.’ Olive had aged; she appeared to now be in her early 80s. ‘She was poking along with her cane. I just saw her so clearly that I thought, “OK, I guess I will have to write this down.’’””
I sat down for an interview with Mary Pols recently for the current issue of Maine Women Magazine.
Mary Pols, “Strout, Again,” Maine Women Magazine, July 31, 2019.
“I never intended to return to Olive Kitteridge. I really thought I was done with her, and she with me. But a few years ago I was in a European city, alone for a weekend, and I went to a café, and she just showed up. That’s all I can say. She showed up with a force, the way she did the very first time, and I could not ignore her.”
The current issue of The New Yorker includes an interview with me about my new book OLIVE, AGAIN and an excerpt from it, the short story “Motherless Child.”
Elizabeth Strout, “Motherless Child,” The New Yorker (August 5 & 12, 2019 Issue), July 29, 2019.Deborah Treisman, “Elizabeth Strout on Returning to Olive Kitteridge,” The New Yorker , July 29, 2019.Commencement / Graduation 2019. Saturday, May 11 2019 10:30am. Pulitzer-winning Maine author Elizabeth Strout was the keynote speaker and received an honorary degree at the University of Maine at Farmington's 2019 Commencement ceremony.
“I’m a writer and so I spend a great deal of my time alone. And every decision I ultimately make on that page, I make alone. And then the work goes out into the world.... What I do (I have come to realize this) is an act of faith. And whatever you all will do will also be acts of faith.
You don’t have to be a teacher or a writer to understand that we are all connected and that what we do every day will ripple out in ways that we will never know.... But we don’t have to know. We just have to trust that whatever we do in the world will find its way to a person who needs it.”
Address by Elizabeth Strout at 2019 Univ. Maine at Farmington Commencement, YouTube, published on May 14, 2019.Sign up for Elizabeth’s newsletter, with exclusive content from Elizabeth to her readers.