Novel Dialogue

Novel Dialogue

episodes

Novel Dialogue: where unlikely conversation partners come together to discuss the making of novels and what to make of them. What makes us special? Critics and novelists in conversation. Breaking down the boundaries between critical, creative, and just plain quirky, Novel Dialogue’s approach is wide-ranging and unconventional. Ever wondered what Jennifer Egan thinks of TikTok, how Ruth Ozeki honed her craft working on the movie Mutant Hunt, or if Colm Tóibín will ever write a novel about an openly gay novelist? Join us for lively conversations hosted by scholars who admire and write about the novelists that help shape our literary culture.

Overtaken by Awe: Sheila Heti speaks with Sunny Yudkoff

December 14, 2023

Overtaken by Awe

Sheila Heti and Sunny Yudkoff
Hosted by Novel Dialogue

Sheila Heti sits down with Sunny Yudkoff and ND host John Plotz to discuss her incredibly varied oeuvre. She does it all: stories, novels, alphabetize…

Attention is Love: A Discussion with Lauren Groff and Laura McGrath (SW)

November 30, 2023

Attention is Love

Lauren Groff and Laura McGrath
Hosted by Novel Dialogue
Listen:

Just days before the release of her latest novel, The Vaster Wilds (Riverhead Books, 2023), three-time National Book Award Finalist and The New York T…

“We All Relate to Each Other’s Dystopias”

November 16, 2023

“We All Relate to Each Other’s Dystopias”

Shehan Karunatilaka and Sangeeta Ray
Hosted by Novel Dialogue
Listen:

Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Norton, 2022), which won the Booker Prize in 2022, is a thriller that begins in the afterlife,…

Narrative, Database, Archive: Tom Comitta and Deidre Lynch (AV)

November 2, 2023

Narrative, Database, Archive

Tom Comitta and Deidre Lynch
Hosted by Novel Dialogue
Listen:

12 tables; 300 novels, 1500 pages of nature description: This is how Tom Comitta created The Nature Book, a one-of-a-kind novel cut from 300 years of…

What Would Undo the Maxim Gun? Magic: P. Djèlí Clark and andré carrington

October 19, 2023

What Would Undo the Maxim Gun? Magic

P. Djèlí Clark and andré carrington
Hosted by Novel Dialogue
Listen:

Locus- and Nebula- award-winning author P. Djèlí Clark joins critic andré carrington (UC Riverside) and host Rebecca Ballard for a conversation about …

Desolation Tries to Colonize You: Jeff VanderMeer and Alison Sperling (CH)

October 5, 2023

Desolation Tries to Colonize You

Jeff VanderMeer and Alison Sperling
Hosted by Novel Dialogue
Listen:

Our season of the weird starts off with a conversation between the writer The New Yorker called “the weird Thoreau”, Jeff VanderMeer, and a scholar of…

Weirding Out with Kate Marshall: Novel Dialogue Season 6 Preview

September 21, 2023

Weirding Out with Kate Marshall

Kate Marshall
Hosted by Novel Dialogue
Listen:

We kick off Season 6 with Kate Marshall, friend of the show and author of the forthcoming book Novels by Aliens: Weird Tales and the Twenty-First Cent…

A Forensic Level of Honesty: Aminatta Forna and Nicole Rizzuto (AV)

June 15, 2023

A Forensic Level of Honesty

Aminatta Forna and Nicole Rizzuto
Hosted by Novel Dialogue
Listen:

Aminatta Forna, author of Ancestor Stones (2006), Happiness (2018), and most recently The Window Seat (2021) joins Georgetown prof. Nicole Rizzuto and…

They’re Not Metaphorical Demons: Mariana Enriquez and Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra

June 1, 2023

They’re Not Metaphorical Demons

Mariana Enriquez and Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra
Hosted by Chris Holmes
Listen:

Booker Prize shortlister Mariana Enriquez, author of Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, joins Penn State professor Magalí A…

The Meat and Bones of Life

May 18, 2023

The Meat and Bones of Life

Erika T. Wurth, Leif Sorensen, and Rebecca Evans
Hosted by Novel Dialogue
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With the publication of her most recent novel, White Horse (Flatiron Books, 2022), Erika T. Wurth breaks from the realism that characterized her earli…

“It’s on the Illabus”: A Discussion with Jean-Christophe Cloutier and John Jennings

May 4, 2023

“It’s on the Illabus”

Jean-Christophe Cloutier and John Jennings
Hosted by Novel Dialogue

John Jennings—Hugo Award winner, New York Times bestselling author, curator, scholar, and Artist—is keenly aware that in adapting novels for the graph…

Writing the Counter-Book: Joshua Cohen with Eugene Sheppard (JP)

April 20, 2023

Writing the Counter-Book

Joshua Cohen
Hosted by Novel Dialogue

Eugene Sheppard joins his Brandeis colleague John Plotz to speak with Joshua Cohen about The Netanyahus. Is the 2021 novel a Pulitzer-winning bravura …

We Have This-ness, Y’all! Ocean Vuong and Amy E. Elkins

April 6, 2023

We Have This-ness, Y’all!

Ocean Vuong and Amy E. Elkins
Hosted by Novel Dialogue

Season 5 of Novel Dialogue opens with an impassioned refresher course in literary theory brought to you by Ocean Vuong, poet and author of the bestsel…

Translation is the Closest Way to Read: Ann Goldstein and Saskia Ziolkowski

November 17, 2022

Translation is the Closest Way to Read

Ann Goldstein and Saskia Ziolkowski
Hosted by Novel Dialogue

In our season finale, Ann Goldstein, renowned translator of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, gives a master class in the art and business of transl…

The Best Error You Can Make: Brent Hayes Edwards and Jean-Baptiste Naudy on Claude McKay

November 3, 2022

The Best Error You Can Make

Brent Hayes Edwards and Jean-Baptiste Naudy
Hosted by Novel Dialogue

What can a French translator do with a novelist who writes brilliantly about the “confrontation between Englishes?” How can such a confrontation be ma…

“A short, sharp punch to the face”: José Revueltas’ The Hole (El Apando) with Alia Trabucco Zerán and Sophie Hughes

October 20, 2022

“A short, sharp punch to the face”

Alia Trabucco Zerán and Sophie Hughes
Hosted by Novel Dialogue

Alia Trabucco Zerán, award-winning author of The Remainder (La Resta), and Women Who Kill (Las Homicidas), and Sophie Hughes, Alia’s translator and fi…

Strange Beasts of Translation: Yan Ge and Jeremy Tiang in Conversation

October 6, 2022

Strange Beasts of Translation

Yan Ge and Jeremy Tiang
Hosted by Novel Dialogue

Yan Ge and Jeremy Tiang are both writers who accumulate languages. Sitting down with host Emily Hyde, they discuss their work in and across Chinese an…

Light and Sound: Boubacar Boris Diop with Sarah Quesada

September 22, 2022

Light and Sound: Boubacar Boris Diop with Sarah Quesada

Boubacar Boris Diop and Sarah Quesada
Hosted by Novel Dialogue

Boubacar Boris Diop is the author of Murambi: The Book of Bones, (Indiana UP, 2016; translated by Fiona McLaughlin), an unforgettable novel of the Rwa…

“Sometimes I’m just a little disappointed in English”

September 8, 2022

“Sometimes I’m just a little disappointed in English”

Alejandro Zambra, Megan McDowell, and Kate Briggs
Hosted by Novel Dialogue

A novelist, a translator and a theorist of translation walk into a Zoom Room......Alejandro Zambra, Megan McDowell, and Kate Briggs provide the perfec…

Novel Dialogue Season 4: Transitions and Translations

September 1, 2022

Novel Dialogue Season 4

Hosted by Novel Dialogue

Introducing Season 4.0 of Novel Dialogue! Hosts John Plotz and Aarthi Vadde welcome new lead hosts Emily Hyde and Chris Holmes. This will be Novel Dia…