The interconnected stories in YOU MAY SEE A STRANGER took Paula Whyman over a decade to compile. She gives James some advice for writing sex scenes and explains how she writes with such honesty. Then, Daniel Menaker tells James about deciding to represent Paula’s book, editing Alice Munro’s stories, his career at Random House, and what made his time at The New Yorker so special. And somewhere a dog barks. Quite frequently.

 

Paula and James discuss:

Yaddo

THE BREAST by Philip Roth

PLOUGHSHARES

THE HUDSON REVIEW

American University

VIRGIN FICTION (anthology)

WORLD VIEW

Porter Square Books

Joanna Rakoff

Philip Roth

T.C. Boyle

Martin Amis

Jamie Quatro

Alyssa Nutting

OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout

McSWEENEY’S

Jane Austen

Oliver Sacks

Daniel Menaker

Sewanee Writers’ Conference

Mike Levine

ONE STORY

Hannah Tinti

Marie-Helene Bertino

Maribeth Batcha

Billy Goldstein

 

James and Daniel discuss: 

The New Yorker

Paula Whyman

Alice Munro

“Royal Beatings” by Alice Munro

Richard Avedon

Michael Chabon

LIVES OF MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS by Sheila Munro

Daniel Halpern

Tim Duggan

Roger Angell

Charles McGrath

William Maxwell

MY MISTAKE by Daniel Menaker

Matthew Klam

SUNY Stonybrook

Tina Brown

Harold Evans

Bill Buford

Robert Gottlieb

William Shawn

Michael Cunningham

Susan Minot

David Foster Wallace

Antonya Nelson

David Remnick

Alberto Vitale

“Wenlock Edge” by Alice Munro

After some negative pre-publication reviews, Jamie Quatro feared the worst. Then, critic James Wood and the NYTBR (among others) hailed her collection, I WANT TO SHOW YOU MORE, as a classic. Jamie and James talk about conflating writer and subject matter, depicting the female gaze and female sexuality, and writing novels vs short stories. Then, the agent Anna Stein joins the show to go over what an agent does, how to find one, and mistakes writers make along the way.

Jamie and James Discuss: 

David Gates
Amy Hempel
Bennington College Low Residency MFA
Princeton University
Pepperdine University
Sheila Kohler
E.M. Forster
Franz Kafka
Flannery O’Connor
Margot Livesey
Andre Dubus (II)
PROXIES: ESSAYS NEAR KNOWING by Brian Blanchfield
Sewanee Writers’ Conference
RUNNER’S WORLD
INFINITE JEST by David Foster Wallace
QUACK THIS WAY by David Foster Wallace
BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN by David Foster Wallace
BLUETS by Maggie Nelson
Tin House Summer Writer’s Workshop
THE FUN STUFF: AND OTHER ESSAYS by James Wood
Claire Messud
Wyatt Prunty
Ann Patchett
Urban Waite
Lincoln Michel
George Saunders
Lydia Davis
Alice Munro
INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri
OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout
P.J. Mark
Barry Hannah
Steven Milhauser
A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN by Adam Ross
Yaddo
Sylvia Plath
Ted Hughes
Zadie Smith
The Old Testament
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
Grove Atlantic
Anna and James Discuss: 
Hanya Yanagihara
Ben Lerner
Garth Greenwell
Maria Semple
NEVERHOME by Laird Hunt
THE MOTHER-IN-LAW CURE by Katherine Wilson
THE EVENING ROAD by Laird Hunt
THE STORY OF A BRIEF MARRIAGE by Anuk Aradpragasam
THE CLANCYS OF QUEENS by Tara Clancy
TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT by Maria Semple
THE PARIS REVIEW
Sewanee Writers’ Conference
A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Hanagihara
WHAT BELONGS TO YOU by Garth Greenwell

Jesse Donaldson tells James about the Oxycodone scourge, the effect it has had on his home state of Kentucky, and how it informed his debut novel, THE MORE THEY DISAPPEAR. He also recommends writing while gardening, and recalls the time he drove to New York with a tape-playing robot. Plus Lauren Cerand joins the show to discuss book publicity.