‘This week John Freeman spoke to Best Young American Novelist Elizabeth McCracken about her works-in-progress, a novel that broke up into six short stories, and her contribution to Granta’s latest issue.’
This week John Freeman spoke to Best Young American Novelist Elizabeth McCracken about her works-in-progress, a novel that broke up into six short stories, and her contribution to Granta’s latest issue, ‘Going Back’ – a story called ‘Property’. Click on the player below to hear their conversation.
Photograph by Larry D. Moore
‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
‘People think they’re interesting. That’s their first mistake.’
‘Some stories begin with an incident, or a set of enigmatic circumstances, or a scene indelibly witnessed, or the relationship of unlike temperaments, or even something as gossamer as a mood. And then there is the kind of story that is rooted in an idea.’
‘She has always wanted this: to slip beneath the surface, to dispossess herself.’
An extract from Sara Freeman’s forthcoming novel.
