The Artist's Statement

2023 National Book Award for Fiction winner Justin Torres joins us to discuss his novels We The Animals (2011, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and Blackouts (2023, Farrar, Straus and Giroux). We talk about what Torres considers success in his writing, the value of fiction that diverges from the realm of reality, and how he approached his award-winning new work...

Season 3, Episode 2, features K-Ming Chang. She is the author of debut novel Bestiary, short story collection Gods of Want, and her latest novel, Organ Meats, her third book in what she describes as mythic tryptich, published by One World/Random House.  Chang is a Kundiman fellow, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, and an O. Henry Prize Winner. In this conversation, we discuss her evolving view of books and the characters she gives agency to...

Season 3, Episode 1, features poet Denton Loving. He is the author of two poetry collections, Crimes Against Birds, published by Main Street Rag in 2014, and his new book, Tamp, published by Mercer University Press earlier this year. Set in Appalachia,Tamp's central theme focuses on the grief and sense of loss that followed the death of Loving’s father. He also explores ancestry, religion, and our interactions with both the natural and dream worlds...

Season 2, Episode 3 brings you poet and inaugural Granum Foundation Prize winner, Nicole Sealey. We begin the discussion with Sealey's earlier works, The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named (Northwestern University Press, 2016) and Ordinary Beast
(Ecco, 2017). Sealey recounts her editorial decisions in her first publications, and how they sparked ideas for new work...

Season 2, Episode 2 features Julie Otsuka, best-selling author of When the Emperor Was Divine, The Buddha in the Attic, and her latest novel, The Swimmers. We discuss the inspiration and evolution of The Swimmers, and some of the technical challenges associated with Otsuka's frequent use of the first person plural point of view. She discusses how she became a writer and her work routines, including how they have changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic...

Season 2 of The Artist's Statement opens with journalist, essayist, and novelist, Ben Ehrenreich, winner of a 2021 American Book Award for his non-fiction work Desert Notebooks: A Roadmap for the End of Time. Ehrenreich discusses the inspiration for this poignant book that followed his time in Palestine and his return to American society under the presidency of Donald Trump...

In Episode 10 of The Artist's Statement, we chat with Claire Vaye Watkins, author of three works of fiction, including her latest novel, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness (Riverhead, 2021). Watkins discusses the blurred boundaries between fiction and fact in her new work, and the story threads she brought together to complete it...

Episode 9 of The Artist's Statement features Marytza K. Rubio, author of Maria, Maria, and Other Stories (Liveright/W. W. Norton, 2022). Rubio discusses the inspiration and evolution of her debut collection, and how she shared her vision with her agent and editor. We chat about the occult, the significance and power behind the name "Maria," and the details behind the mystic setting of her centerpiece novella...

What happens during the translation process of a literary work from Japanese to English? In Episode 8 of The Artist's Statement, we speak with Michael Emmerich, author of more than a dozen literary works in translation, including those by authors such as Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabata, Banana Yoshimoto, Genichiro Takahashi, and Hiromi Kawakami...

In Episode 7 of The Artist's Statement, we're joined by Donika Kelly, poet and author of The Renunciations (2021) and Bestiary (2016), both published by Graywolf Press.

Kelly discusses the The Renunciations and the journey of self-exploration and therapy that led to its creation. She talks about the importance of having and nurturing a speaker and a safe space from which to create, along with the value of being protective of information, both for the writer and the reader...