Interview: Lydia Davis

Lydia Davis is the author of six books of fiction, including the story collections Almost No Memory, Varieties of Disturbance, and Collected Stories, and a novel, The End of the Story; she has also published a number of chapbooks and a large body of French translations, most notably Proust's Swann's Way and, just this year, Flaubert's Madame Bovary. She is a Macarthur Fellow, has won a Whiting Award, and was nominated for the National Book Award and Pen/Hemingway Award. She teaches writing at SUNY Albany, where she is also Writer-In-Residence.

Davis read from her work on September 30, 2010, in Cornell's Goldwin Smith Hall. This interview took place earlier the same day.

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Interview: Bonnie McEneaney

Nonfiction writer Bonnie McEneaney holds a BA from Brown University and an MPS from Cornell. She had a long, successful career as a senior executive in the financial services industry and, more recently, has changed her focus to writing. After losing her husband, Eamon, on 9/11, she published A Bend in the Road, which is a compilation of his poetry. Her new book is Messages: Signs, Visits, and Premonitions from Loved Ones Lost on 9/11. McEneaney lives with her four children in New England and is a board member of Voices of September 11th, a group dedicated to serving the needs of 9/11 families, survivors, and rescue and recovery workers.

McEneaney read from her work on September 16, 2010, in Cornell's Goldwin Smith Hall. This interview took place earlier the same day.

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Interview: Julia Alvarez

Poet, novelist, and essayist Julia Alvarez was born in New York, then spent the first ten years of her childhood in the Dominican Republic, until her father's involvement in a political rebellion forced her family to flee the country. Her novels include How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, and ¡Yo!; she is also author of the poetry collections The Housekeeping Book, The Woman I Kept to Myself, The Other Side, and Homecoming. Her many other books include essays and fiction for young people. Many commentators regard her to be one of the most significant Latina writers; Alvarez is the current writer-in-residence at Middlebury College.

Alvarez read from her work on September 9, 2010, in Cornell's Goldwin Smith Hall. This interview took place earlier the same day.

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