Fiction Interviews Roger Angell
On November 10, 2016, The New Yorker's Roger Angell sat down for an interview with Fiction editor Mark Jay Mirsky at the City College of New York. In the short clips below Angell talks about Donald Barthelme's penchant for inserting sharp cultural references into his writing and The New Yorker's controversial decision to publish Barthelme's short novel, Snow White, in its entirety.
Watch the video below for the full hour long discussion if you’re interested in hearing Roger Angell delve deeper into his relationship with Donald Barthelme and speak about his editorial career, the difficulties writers face putting word to paper, baseball, and more. A transcript of the entire conversation, complete with endnotes that contextualize and further elaborate on points of interest, was published in Fiction Number 63. Back issues remain available for purchase.
“Writing is so hard, I first saw this with my stepfather, E.B. White . . . he would write . . . the editorial page of The New Yorker, which when he read it seemed just a snap, a cinch, so easy to read, so unassuming, so flowing. But I heard him every day, on Monday or Tuesday, lock himself into his study and he’d be there all morning long . . . and then he would come out at lunch and not say anything and be pale. . .”
Max Frisch Lecture at the City College of New York
In 1981, Swiss playwright and novelist Max Frisch spoke at the City College of New York over the course of three days. The first lecture was partially transcribed in Fiction Vol. 7 Numbers 3 & Vol. 8 Number 1 and can now be read for free by visiting Lecture at CCNY, November 1981, by Max Frisch on our blog. The second day was transcribed in Fiction Vol. 9, Number 2 and an audio recording is now available on our YouTube channel (see video below). The third day involved an extensive question and answer period and was transcribed in Fiction Number 54. You can purchase all three back issues or check back later as we plan to make more of this material freely available on our website in the future.
“In my capacity as a professor of English, at The City College of New York, I regularly assign three of Max’s novels, ‘I’m Not Stiller,’ ‘Homo Faber,’ and ‘My Name is Gantebein’ ... to my graduate students, as models of intricate plotting.”