What a breath of fresh air to interact with author Briallen Hopper and discuss her wonderful new book, Hard To Love.  I love her perspective on love and the way she expanded the definition on what a loving relationship can be.  Briallen was also disarmingly open and authentic.  This one was a real joy for me.

In Her Own Words…

I grew up in Tacoma, went to Tacoma Community College and the University of Puget Sound, got a PhD in American literature from Princeton, and attended divinity school and taught writing at Yale. I’m now an assistant professor of creative nonfiction at Queens College, CUNY.

My first book, Hard to Love: Essays and Confessions (Bloomsbury, 2019), is a collection of essays on love and friendship.

My essays, reviews, op-eds, profiles, listicles, and sermons have appeared in Avidly, Beliefnet, Black Business Now, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Columbia Journal, Conversation, Crosscurrents, Document Journal, HuffPost, Killing the Buddha, Longreads, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Inquiry, the New Republic, Newsweek, New York Magazine/The Cut, Not Coming to a Theater Near You, the Paris Review, Religion & Politics, Sacred Matters, the Seattle Star, the Stranger, Take Part, Talking Points Memo, and the Washington Post.

My neighborhood subway stop is Jackson Heights—Roosevelt Avenue/74th St. My neighborhood haunts/recommendations/homes-away-from-home include Cannelle Patisserie, the Queensboro, Bistro Eloise, Kitchen 79, and Himalayan Yak.

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