Tag: claire messud
Interior Lives
May 2013The award-winning novelist on the fluidity of sexuality, the intersections of art and selfishness, and her most recent book, The Woman Upstairs.
Never the Face
June 2011Claire Messud and novelist Ariel Sands (the alias for an internationally known nonfiction writer) discuss S&M in literature, the glorification of obsessive love, and whether there’s a feminist defense of submissiveness.
The Diversity Test
April 2010Why were there only 8 women on the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels of the Twentieth Century? Why is only 3% of the literature Americans read in translation?
Quality Street
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, guest-edited by Claire MessudFebruary 2010
Sochienne called her a fat bourgeois, a dilettante dancing while Nigeria was failing, as though she could somehow solve the country’s problems by depriving herself of a manicure.
Zalzala
By Lorraine Adams, guest-edited by Claire MessudFebruary 2010
His mother was about to say something, but all she could murmur was zalzala. Earthquake.
Suspension
By Holly Goddard Jones, guest-edited by Claire MessudFebruary 2010
The soft light of the flames made her face seem prettier than it really was. Younger. She was a fixture in his life, a neutral—at most, perhaps, a reflective surface.
The Norwegians
By Elliott Holt, guest-edited by Claire MessudFebruary 2010
The Norwegians were coming to dinner.
The Deer-Vehicle Collision Survivors Support Group
By Porochista Khakpour, guest-edited by Claire MessudFebruary 2010
This is the storm right before the calm, she is letting it all out now, because she knows it’s coming. She wants to go home, even if it is what she used to call hell sweet hell.
Surrender
By Hasanthika Sirisena guest-edited by Claire MessudFebruary 2010
As Sunil stood in his backyard staring at the carcass of the small unidentifiable animal—a cross between a rat and a Chihuahua—he realized he was missing something important.
Writers, Plain and Simple
February 2010Women make up 80% of the fiction reading audience in this country. So why, guest fiction editor Claire Messud asks, are women authors so frequently left off the best-of lists, and left out of prestigious book prizes?
