An Interview with 2017 Booker Prize Winner George Saunders | The Booker Prize Podcast, Episode 16

Описание: George Saunders is best known as a writer of short stories. In fact, he's often considered to one of the greatest living short story writers in the world. In 2017, however, he took home the Booker Prize for his first (and so far only) novel – the startlingly original Lincoln in the Bardo. The book follows Willie Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, as he succumbs to illness and ends up in the bardo, a limbo-like state between the living and the dead. This week, George Saunders joins James and Jo to tell us all about how winning the Booker Prize changed his life, his writing, and what makes a great writer.

In this episode Jo and James speak to George about:
What it was like to win the Booker Prize, and how winning affected his work
Why George decided to turn his hand to penning a novel – and whether he'll ever write another
The differences between novel writing and short story writing
How to write about historical figures without seeming trite
His popular Substack, which explores the art of writing (and analysing writing)
Liberation Day, his latest collection of short stories
Why channelling one's charm is an important aspect of great writing

Reading list:
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booke...
4321 by Paul Auster: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booke...
Autumn by Ali Smith: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booke...
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booke...
Elmet by Fiona Mozley: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booke...
History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booke...

Further reading:
George Saunders, The Art of Fiction by Benjamin Nugent for The Paris Review: https://www.theparisreview.org/interv...
My Writing Education: A Timeline by George Saunders for The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-...

A full transcript of the episode is available on our website:https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booke...

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The Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world, and has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction for over five decades. Each year, the prize is awarded to what is, in the opinion of the judges, the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK and Ireland.

Previous winners include The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, The Promise by Damon Galgut, Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Bone People by Keri Hulme and many more.

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