We were going to produce a show today on loneliness with British writer Olivia Laing. We still want to do that show with Olivia - but not today.
Instead, we decided to switch gears and talk with Olivia and other artists about the themes in Olivia's new novel because they mirror our own concerns: how to live life in this fast-moving world where the present is history in the blink of an eye and world leaders can end our world with one wrong tweet? How can we exist, create art, raise children, commit to a future in a world that could be ending?
Today, we talk with artists whose work reflects what is happening in this moment - as much as this moment can be defined before it has passed - and how this moment affects them personally. Can the act of creating both express uncertainty and inspire optimism?
GUESTS:
- Olivia Laing - Writer and critic and author of several books, including The Lonely City, The Trip To Echo Springs and most recently, Crudo: A Novel (@olivialanguage)
- Erin Belieu - Professor of creative writing and poetry at Florida State University. She is the author of four collections of poetry - Infanta, One Above & One Below, Black Box and Slant Six (@erinbelieu)
- Rachel Hadas - Professor of English at Rutgers University, the author of many books of poetry, prose, and translations, and a memoir, Strange Relation: A Memoir of Marriage, Dementia, and Poetry
- Lucy Gellman - Editor of The Arts Paper and host of WNHH radio’s Kitchen Sync in New Haven (@lsgellman)
Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on September 19, 2019.
