#15: Zadie Smith 2016

Episode #15 of Rewrite Radio features Zadie Smith, interviewed by Jane Zwart at the 2016 Festival of Faith & Writing. Their wide-ranging conversation includes Smith’s love of C. S. Lewis, the challenges of literature about and for the working class, and the varieties of religious experience.

Zadie Smith is the award-winning author of 5 novels including White Teeth, On Beauty, and, Swing Time. Her essays and book reviews are frequently published in The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, and many of those are collected in her book Changing My Mind. She is currently a professor of creative writing at New York University.

A short conversation with Bekah Waalkes, a member of the 2016 Festival Student Committee and Zadie’s student host while she was on the campus of Calvin College for the event, introduces the recording. Student involvement is a hallmark of the Festival of Faith & Writing—members of our student committee help with everything from registration to shuttles to social media—and one of the fun perks of the job is spending time with our speakers while they’re on campus. Bekah, who has since graduated, was an indispensable member of the 2016 team.

Many thanks to Bekah Waalkes. We’re excited to see what cool things are in store for her in the coming years. Thanks also to Zadie Smith and to John Wilson, who published an edited version of this interview by Jane Zwart in the Sept/Oct 2016 issue of Books and Culture.