Episode 22 - Jane Alison
If you've been listening to ReadMore for a while, you know we primarily focus on literary fiction. But occasionally we step out of that and interview an author about a memoir or about a crime novel because variety is the spice of life.
In reading Jane Alison's Nine Island, I experienced a first. She describes her book as a nonfiction novel or a semi-imagined memoir. Confused? So was I. But, fortunately, Jane was very gracious about explaining it.
Nine Island is about a middle-aged woman, identified as J, who's living in a high-rise on Miami Beach called Nine Island. She's busy at work on a translation of Ovid's stories after spending a month with an old boyfriend she calls Sir Gold from out-of-state. While she had hoped this would rekindle their romance, it didn't work out that way. In the end, he rejected her. And now she's contemplating whether or not she should be done with love.
Jane has written three novels, a traditional memoir and a translation of Ovid's stories. And, she directs the MFA program at the University of Virginia.
Interview Highlights:
Jane reveals...
- how this book sprang from her growing tired of the conventions of fiction
- how Nine Island differs from The Sisters Antipodes, her traditional memoir
- why she chose to write very short chapters that are reminiscent of poetry
Click here to listen to the podcast.
We have a free, signed copy of Nine Island to give away. It will go to the first listener to tell us the popular novel that Jane couldn't finish. You can contact us through Facebook (just search for ReadMore podcast) or Twitter (@ReadMorePodcast) to provide the answer.
If you have won a ReadMore giveaway in the last 90 days, you're ineligible for this contest. Also if you and I ever ate lunch together at Lenoir you're probably ineligible. ReadMore does not have a friends and family plan! But we'll always have the memories of those crazy lines for chicken sandwiches.
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