The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Novelist Lauren Groff on the other Matrix

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Vox's Constance Grady talks with novelist Lauren Groff about her latest book, the National Book Award finalist Matrix, before a virtual audience for the Vox Book Club. They discuss the enigmatic historical figure at the center of the novel, the politics of women-led power structures, and the pros and cons of writing a good sex scene.

Host: Constance Grady (@constancegrady), staff writer, Vox

Guests: Lauren Groff (@legroff), author

References: 

  • Matrix by Lauren Groff (2021; Riverhead)
  • "In Lauren Groff's Matrix, medieval nuns build a feminist utopia" by Constance Grady (Oct. 15, 2021; Vox)
  • Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (2016; Riverhead)
  • The Lays of Marie de France (tr. Eugene Mason)
  • Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman (2019; Norton)
  • Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore (2014; Vintage)
  • Arcadia by Lauren Groff (2012; Voice)


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    This episode was made by: 

    • Producer: Erikk Geannikis
    • Editor: Amy Drozdowska
    • Engineer: Paul Robert Mounsey
    • Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: Amber Hall

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