Lit Hub Asks: 5 Authors, 7 Questions, No Wrong Answers

The Lit Hub Author Questionnaire is a monthly interview featuring seven questions for five authors with new books. This month we talk to: * Hala Alyan ( The Moon That Turns You Back ) Steven Kurutz ( American Flannel: How a Band of Entrepreneurs Are Bringing the Art and Business of Making Clothes Back Home ) Nam Le ( 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem ) Jacob Rubin ( Piggy Bank ) Adelle Waldman ( Help Wanted ) * Without summarizing it in any way, what would you say your book is about? Adelle Waldman : Work. Hala Alyan : Longing. Beirut. Codependency. February. IVF clinics. Lucid dreaming. Palestine. Pregnancy tests. Daughtering. Jacob Rubin : Trying to connect with people who are gone and / or can't hear you. Nam Le : I reckon the title about almost covers it. Steven Kurutz : American makers. Resilience. The tragedy of deindustrialization. Survivors. Hope. A well-worn flannel shirt. Asking who we want to be as a country—consumers and marketers, or makers? * Without explaining why and without naming other authors or books, can you discuss the various influences on your book? Hala Alyan : Archives. Maps. The first few weeks of a new season. Carving a heart on a rubber stamp next to two initials. Sonogram heartbeats. Anesthesia. Walks through Cooper Park. Calling a friend breathlessly. Finding the water at the end of a humid night. Rhyme schemes. Steven Kurutz : A vintage Carhartt jacket found in a resale shop. My childhood in the rust belt. Family road trips to Woolrich, Pennsylvania. Picanol high-speed looms and ANGE sock knitting machines at furious work. American style especially the holy trinity of jeans, white tees and flannels. Nam Le: Red, general; green, food & garden organics; purple, glass; yellow, mixed recycling. PET code 1 bottles, yes; food containers, jars, berry punnets, no; HDPE code 2 detergent, milk & juice bottles, yes; grocery bags, no; PP code 5 ice-cream, butter & yoghurt containers, yes; PVC code 3, LDPE code 4, PS code 6 and PC code 7, no, no are you dense?, no. […]