Burned By Books

An interview with Alexandra Kleeman, Something New Under the Sun (2021). Alexandra and I discuss the need for a more fecund climate imagination, the appeal of writing about California as a natural space under threat, Hollywood as a microcosm for America’s late capitalism, and her love for Robin Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Alexandra Kleeman, Something New Under the Sun

Alexandra Recommends:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Clare Sestanovich, author of Objects of Desire (2021).

Books Recommended in this episode:

Clare Recommends:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward (2021). Dana and I talk about how memory is stored in the architecture of cities, the unlikely villains of good novels, writing as a refuge, and the difficulty for women who step outside of expected roles.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Dana Recommends:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Eleanor Henderson, author of Everything I Have is Yours (2021). Eleanor and I discuss the unforgivable failures of the American medical establishment, trying to find truth and care in-between the healers and quacks, deciding to open the closed book of a marriage to the world, and finding solace in the extraordinary memoirs of writers seeking mental and physical wellness.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Eleanor recommends:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies (2021), longlisted for the National Book Award. Katie and I discuss the International Criminal Court, its biases and tireless fight for justice, the charisma of its translators, the attraction to violence in the novel, the inscrutability of marriages, and so much more.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Katie Kitamura, Intimacies

Katie recommends:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Brian Hall, author of The Stone Loves the World (2021). Brian and I talk about blending science and math into the narrative of his novels, coming from a family split between artists and scientists, writing the sequel to his cult favorite, The Saskiad (1996), and much more.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Brian recommends:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Hermione Hoby, author of Virtue (2021). Hermione and I discuss not needing her characters to be ethical, the mysteries of beautiful marriages, privilege and its trappings, and reading Adorno by the pool.

Books Recommended in this episode:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers (2018), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Rebecca and I discuss the impact of a plague novel in the age of Covid-19, the drama and intrigue of prize juries, her archival work into the Act Up protests in Chicago, and the pleasures and complications of outside of what you know.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Rebecca Recommends her all-time nostalgic summer read:

• Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Jack Wang, author of We Two Alone (2021). Jack and I discuss his debut story collection, We Two Alone, which Viet Thanh Nguyen calls “utterly remarkable,” the as-of-yet unwritten Great Hockey Novel, AAPI hate, and the new global novel.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Jack Recommends:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind (2020), a finalist for the National Book Award. Rumaan and I discuss how all fiction must now be climate fiction, being a promiscuous reader, the fallacy of writing from “your roots”, why there is no autofiction of black women’s experience, and the genius of J.M. Coetzee.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Rumaan’s novels: Rich and Pretty, That Kind of Mother, Leave the World Behind

Rumaan Alam Recommends:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.