the washington post
wednesday, august
28
,
2019
EZ
(^4) FICTION
HEATHER WESTON
10-10:45: Rebecca Makkai is the
Chicago-based author of the novel “The
Great Believers” (Penguin), a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award,
winner of the American Library
Association’s 2019 Carnegie Medal and the
Chicago Review of Books Award and a pick
for the New York Public Library’s 2018 Best
Books. It appeared in 21 best-of-the-year
lists. She is also the author of the novels
“The Borrower” and “The Hundred-Year
House,” as well as the collection “Music for
Wartime” — stories that appeared in four
consecutive editions of “The Best American
Short Stories.” Makkai is the recipient of an
NEA fellowship and has taught at the Tin
House writers’ conference and the Iowa
Writers’ Workshop, and she is on the MFA
faculties of Sierra Nevada College and
Northwestern University. Signing 11:30-
12:30.
11-11:50: Conversation: Novels Based on
Real People. Louis Bayard has been
nominated for both the Edgar and Dagger
awards, and his story “Banana Triangle
Six” was chosen for “The Best American
Mystery Stories 2018.” He is also a
nationally recognized essayist and critic
whose articles have appeared in The
Washington Post, the New York Times, the
Los Angeles Times and Salon. His novels
include “The Pale Blue Eye,” “Mr.
Timothy,” “Fool’s Errand” and
“Endangered Species.” An instructor at
George Washington University, Bayard is
on the board of the PEN/Faulkner
Foundation. His new novel is “Courting
Mr. Lincoln” (Algonquin). Roxana
Robinson has received fellowships from
the Guggenheim Foundation, the National
Endowment for the Arts and the
MacDowell Colony. Her novels and short
stories have received critical acclaim, and
her essays, criticism and op-ed articles
have appeared in publications including
the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper’s and
“Best American Short Stories.” Her
biography “Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life” was
nominated for the National Book Critics
Circle Award and named a New York
Times Notable Book of the Year.
Robinson’s new book is “Dawson’s Fall”
(Sarah Crichton), a novel based on the
lives of her great-grandparents. Signing
12:30-1:30.
12-12:45: Sigrid Nunez’s latest novel,
“The Friend” (Riverhead), won the 2018
National Book Award for Fiction. She is
the author of novels including “Salvation
City,” “The Last of Her Kind,” “A Feather
on the Breath of God” and “For Rouenna.”
She is also the author of “Sempre Susan:
A Memoir of Susan Sontag.” Nunez has
received a Whiting Award, the Rome Prize
for literature, four Pushcart Prizes and a
Berlin Prize fellowship. Signing 1:30-2:30.
1-1:45: Thomas Mallon’s 10 books of
fiction include “Henry and Clara,” “Fellow
Travelers,” “Watergate” (a finalist for the
PEN/Faulkner Award), “Finale” and the
recently published “Landfall” (Pantheon).
He has also written nonfiction volumes
about plagiarism (“Stolen Words”); diaries
(“A Book of One’s Own”); letters (“Yours
Ever”); and the Kennedy assassination
(“Mrs. Paine’s Garage”), as well as two
books of essays (“Rockets and Rodeos
and Other American Spectacles” and “In
Fact: Essays on Writers and Writing”). His
honors include Guggenheim and
Rockefeller fellowships and the National
Book Critics Circle citation for reviewing.
Mallon is a professor emeritus of English
at George Washington University in
Washington. Signing 2:30-3:30.
2-2:45: The work of Ann Beattie has been
published in four O. Henry Award
Collections, in John Updike’s “Best
American Short Stories of the Century” and
in Jennifer Egan’s “The Best American
Short Stories 2014.” Among many honors,
she has received the PEN/Malamud Award
for excellence in the short story form.
Beattie was the Edgar Allan Poe professor
of literature and creative writing at the
University of Virginia and is a member of
the American Academy of Arts and Letters
and the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. Her new novel is “A Wonderful
Stroke of Luck” (Viking). Signing 3:30-4:30.
5-5:45: Laila Lalami was born in Rabat,
Morocco, and educated in Morocco,
Britain and the United States. She is the
author of the novels “Hope and Other
Dangerous Pursuits,” a finalist for an
Oregon Book Award; “Secret Son,” which
was on the Orange Prize longlist; and
“The Moor’s Account,” which won the
American Book Award, the Arab American
Book Award and the Hurston/Wright
Legacy Award, as well as being a Pulitzer
Prize finalist. Her essays and opinion
pieces have appeared in many
publications, including The Washington
Post, the New York Times and the Nation.
Lalami is a professor of creative writing at
the University of California at Riverside.
Her new novel is “The Other Americans”
(Pantheon). Signing 6:30-7:30.
6-6:45: Barbara Kingsolver’s books of
fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction are
widely translated and have won
numerous literary awards. She is the
founder of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for
Socially engaged Fiction, and in 2000
was awarded the National Humanities
Medal, the country’s highest honor for
service through the arts. Before her
writing career, she studied and worked as
a biologist. She was raised in rural
Kentucky but lived with her parents in
Congo during her early years. “The
Poisonwood Bible,” one of her best-known
books, is the story of a missionary family
in Congo. “Unsheltered” is her new novel
(HarperCollins). Signing 4:30-5:30.
7-7:45: Joyce Carol Oates is the author of
more than 70 books, including novels,
short-story collections, poetry volumes,
plays, essays and criticism, including the
national bestsellers “We Were the
Mulvaneys” and “Blonde.” Among her many
honors are the PEN/Malamud Award for
Excellence in the Art of the Short Story and
the National Book Award for Fiction. Oates
is the Roger S. Berlind professor in the
humanities at Princeton University with the
program in creative writing. Her most recent
book is “My Life as a Rat” (Ecco). Signing
5:30-6:30.
3-3:45: Susan Choi is the author of the novels “My Education,” “A Person of
Interest” and “American Woman.” Her first novel, “The Foreign Student,” won
the Asian American Literary Award for fiction. Among other accolades and
awards, her work has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/
Faulkner Award and has won the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award. With David
Remnick, editor of the New Yorker magazine, she edited “Wonderful Town:
New York Stories from The New Yorker.” She is the recipient of National
Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim Foundation fellowships. Choi is a
lecturer in English at Yale, focusing on creative writing. Her latest book is
“Trust Exercise” (Henry Holt). Signing 4:30-5:30.
RICHARD POWERS4-4:45: Richard Powers’s new novel “The
Overstory” (Norton), won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize
for fiction. Powers thought his first novel, “Three
Farmers on Their Way to a Dance,” would be his
last because he would not be able to support
himself as a writer. Instead, it was a huge
success. Powers described his second book,
“Prisoner’s Dilemma,” as his “most American”
work. It is about Disney and the logic of nuclear
warfare. “The Gold Bug Variations” followed,
focusing on music, genetics and computer
science. Signing 5:30-6:30.