The Lit Hub Author Questionnaire is a monthly interview featuring seven questions for five authors with new books. This month we talk to:
Julie Buntin (Famous Men)
Nathaniel Rich (Cloudthief)
Lucy Schiller (Aging Out: An Exploration of Caregiving, Community, and How Americans Grow Old)
Parini Shroff (Some People)
Elizabeth Winthrop (Conviction)
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Without summarizing it in any way, what would you say your book is about?
Julie Buntin: The ways secrets warp families. The air in northern Michigan. The magic of encountering a book that talks to your secret self, or better yet, reminds you that you have one. Feeling watched when alone. Bad workshops. The question not just of who gets to tell their own story, but who decides how they tell it. Money, and fathers literary and literal. Ambition. A friend described it as a horror novel about being young—I liked that a lot.
Nathaniel Rich: How to pull off the heist of a data center. But also: the euphoric joys of Manhattan Mini-Storage; climate nihilism; weaponized genetic engineering; the erotic power of wigs; Oklahoma’s Irregular Plains; fatherhood.
Lucy Schiller: Future fear, money, wandering, solitude, aging, grandmothers, social services, privatization, friendship, Instagram.
Parini Shroff: Intergenerational shenanigans, complete with emotional baggage and snark.
Elizabeth Winthrop: Faith—in religion, in people, and in love.
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Without explaining why and without naming other authors or books, can you discuss the various influences on your book?
Nathaniel Rich: Certain ubiquitous and deceitful phrases: “Data is the new oil”; “Do well by doing good”; “Information wants to be free”; and “Everything is connected.”
Lucy Schiller: Pittsburgh’s lush greenery, rodents, oysters solitary on Christmas, dogs, eccentric neighbors, Covid, online friends, the Pittsburgh Banjo Club, gerontology, aging advocates long gone, Swedish cuisine.
Parini Shroff: This work emerges when a lonely child whose companions are mostly book and TV characters grows up and gains sass.
Elizabeth Winthrop: Geopolitics, puzzles, the ISIS-dynasty’s children, weather, landscapes, seasons, and the heavy shadow of history.
Julie Buntin: Breast pumps and medical bills. Ego death. The moment a writer told me women write like cats and men like dogs, and that I should imitate the latter.
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Without using complete sentences, can you describe what was going on in your life as you wrote this book?
Lucy Schiller: A tectonic shift that pulled me from solitude toward more social engagement, frequent relocations, European crime dramas, and a gradual loss of reading stamina.
Parini Shroff: More voices clamoring inside my head than usual.
Elizabeth Winthrop: A pandemic, my forties, teaching, writing in the car, audiobooks, running, my child entering adolescence, learning to say “yes.”
Julie Buntin: A move from New York to Michigan. Drive-through PCR tests and the invasive swab. Teaching via Zoom and in person. Pregnancy insomnia, NICU stay, triple feeding, a postpartum brain that felt jolted, and my firstborn’s laughter at snow. A two-year wait for daycare openings. Dozens upon dozens of manuscripts in progress. Annual reviews. Another pregnancy. Retained products of conception and a fever that could have become sepsis but didn’t. Daycare bills for two that dwarfed our mortgage. My daughter’s striking blue eyes.
Nathaniel Rich: Desperately trying to figure out how to market monosodium glutamate as a tabletop condiment. Tagline: “It’s actually not bad for you!”
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What are some words you despise that have been used to describe your writing by readers and/or reviewers?
Parini Shroff: “Despise” is strong, but I dislike “frothy.” I understand praising humor, yet “frothy” feels like it minimizes the substance supporting the humor.
Elizabeth Winthrop: Boring. Heavy. Depressing. Flat.
Julie Buntin: Quiet, which seems to imply that the plot is lacking.
Nathaniel Rich: The only terms I truly hate are “enormity” when used wrongly to mean vastness, “issue” for “problem,” and “That’s So Raven.”
Lucy Schiller: I loathe being labeled “whimsical,” though thankfully it hasn’t really applied to my work. Hm… “witty?”
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If you could choose a profession other than writing (disregarding education or talent requirements), what would you pursue?
Elizabeth Winthrop: I’d become a nurse. It might still be possible.
Julie Buntin: Honestly, a folk singer.
Nathaniel Rich: Owning a shop that sells books and hot sauce.
Lucy Schiller: A musician.
Parini Shroff: A librarian.
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What craft aspects do you consider your strengths, and where would you like to improve?
Julie Buntin: In this novel I’m fairly content with how I toyed with time, yet if I could revisit it, there would be quite a few tweaks. And that list shifts as I evolve, which to me signals the work isn’t truly finished. For my next endeavor, I want to do everything I’ve done but louder, and I hope to discover new ways to articulate my writing.
Lucy Schiller: I excel at digression, connections, and imagery; I struggle with conveying the plain, necessary clarity.
Nathaniel Rich: I think I handle plot and dialogue well, but I’d like to strengthen those—and everything else as well.
Parini Shroff: Dialogue comes easily to me; it lets characters’ humor unfold. I’m awful at describing nature and architecture, especially in a specific time and place. Early drafts often say, There perched a bird or She looked out the window above the door, which is embarrassing.
Elizabeth Winthrop: I’m strong at description but terrible at dialogue. Plot is my nemesis.
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How do you deal with the arrogance of assuming anyone would care about your thoughts on anything?
Nathaniel Rich: No one needs to be interested in how to steal the world’s most valuable commodity without getting caught and becoming ludicrously rich. But if that subject intrigues you, you might want to read Cloudthief.
Parini Shroff: We live in an era where there’s apparent value in sharing opinions on everything from historical subtleties to what you had for lunch. This helps me justify pouring real time into a novel. Readers seek entertainment, but if I can also offer insight and commentary, that’s a plus. I suppose that makes me the literary equivalent of broccoli covered in cheese.
Elizabeth Winthrop: A dose of hubris can be helpful—both in writing and in teaching. As things stand, I wrestle with impostor syndrome.
Lucy Schiller: By slipping through other facets of life as if unseen.
Julie Buntin: Nine years on, my answer hasn’t changed. I’m riveted by what nearly everyone has to say about almost anything. I love reading comments, overhearing everyday conversations, and hearing what kids of all ages think—if everyone is interesting, perhaps I am, at least to someone.
