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Rachel Cusk is a writer of considerable range and depth, and her most recent works — dubbed the Outline trilogy—embody a new, and distinctive style. The novels take the form of a succession of monologues delivered not by the protagonist, but by the people she encounters. Little is revealed about a central character who serves principally as a conduit for others. The themes and questions that arise from those stories are weighty, as is Cusk’s choice to subvert traditional positions and form.
This week, we’re re-broadcasting a conversation between Cusk and Steven Winn, in which the two talk about the ethics of writing from personal experience and the state of the contemporary novel. Originally recorded on April 8, 2019.
Rachel Cusk is a writer of considerable range and depth. She is the author of nine novels including David Agnes, The Lucky Ones, and The Bradshaw Variations, three nonfiction books including A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother and the memoir The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy, a play, and numerous essays. Her most recent trilogy — Outline, Transit, and Kudos — embodies a new, and distinctive style for Cusk. The books take the form of a succession of monologues delivered not by the protagonist, but by the people she encounters. Little is revealed about a central character who serves principally as a conduit for others’ experiences and reflections, but the themes and questions that arise from those stories are weighty, as is Cusk’s choice to subvert traditional positions and form. Cusk’s new collection, Coventry, encompasses memoir, cultural criticism, and writing about literature, with pieces on family life, gender, and politics, and on D. H. Lawrence, and Elena Ferrante.
Steven Winn is a fiction writer and award-winning arts journalist whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, Southern Poetry Review, and Sports Illustrated. Winn spent 28 years at the San Francisco Chronicle, and the last six as the Arts and Culture Critic. His past City Arts & Lectures interviews include Alonzo King, André Aciman, Susan Orlean, Frances McDormand, and Diane Keaton.
Photo Credit: Rii Schroer for The New Yorker