Whatever Comes: PW Talks with Barbara Becker
Interfaith minister Becker’s 'Heartwood' (Flatiron, May 11.) uses her experiences in hospice work to look deeply into what it means to be mortal.
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Interfaith minister Becker’s 'Heartwood' (Flatiron, May 11.) uses her experiences in hospice work to look deeply into what it means to be mortal.
What made you want to write a novel? This is a love story, and it is also an ode to the places that have formed a lot of who I am and the art that provided me with solace in times of loss and joy. With photography and music, there’s something sensual in that kind of work. You can look at a photo and have an immediate reaction, or you can hear music and feel something. I was trying to transcribe that kind of sensuality toward literature. Art in general almost becomes a third character to accompany your two leads. How did you decide which art to reference in the story?
In 'Reopening Muslim Minds' (St. Martin’s Essentials, Apr.), New York Times opinion writer Akyol argues for an Islamic universalism.
By Brooke Warner | Jan 08, 2021 It is not uncommon for authors of memoir to wrestle with whether to publish a book as memoir or fiction. “It’s all true,” an author I’m publishing in the spring told me on a phone call intended to sort out this very question, “but I took some liberties.” “So it’s fiction,” I concluded. “But it could be memoir,” she countered. “I could easily make those parts true.” She told me that she’d intended for the book to be autofiction, but she was arguing in circles—seeming to make a case for memoir, but then bristling whe...