George Saunders (Liberation Day) and Jess Walter (The Angel of Rome and Other Stories) in conversation, moderated by OPB’s Geoff Norcross.
Booker Prize winner George Saunders returns with Liberation Day, his first collection of short stories since the New York Times bestseller Tenth of December. The “best short-story writer in English” (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose—wickedly funny, unsentimental, and exquisitely tuned—Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: Here is a collection of prismatic, resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality. Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.
From Jess Walter, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions, comes a stunning collection about those moments when everything changes—for the better, for the worse, for the outrageous—as a diverse cast of characters bounces from Italy to Idaho, questioning their roles in life and finding inspiration in the unlikeliest places. Funny, poignant, and redemptive, this collection of short fiction offers a dazzling range of voices, backdrops, and situations. With his signature wit and bighearted approach to the darkest parts of humanity, Walter tackles the modern condition with a timeless touch, once again “solidifying his place in the contemporary canon as one of our most gifted builders of fictional worlds” (Esquire).
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George Saunders
George Saunders is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of eleven books, including A Swim in a Pond in the Rain; Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Booker Prize; Congratulations, by the Way; Tenth of December, a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the inaugural Folio Award; The Braindead Megaphone; and the critically acclaimed collections CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Pastoralia, and In Persuasion Nation. His most recent book is Liberation Day. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.
Jess Walter
Jess Walter is the author of ten books, most recently the short story collection The Angel of Rome. His other nine include the national bestseller The Cold Millions and the #1 New York Times bestseller, Beautiful Ruins; The Zero, the finalist for the National Book Award; and Citizen Vince, winner of the Edgar Award. His work has been published in 35 languages and his short fiction has appeared three times in Best American Short Stories.
Geoff Norcross
Geoff Norcross is the Morning Edition host at Oregon Public Broadcasting. Before coming to Oregon, he was the program director at the NPR-affiliate KNAU in Flagstaff, Arizona. A 25-year radio veteran, Geoff has been on air in New York, Florida, Missouri, Illinois, and West Virginia. He joined OPB in 2008. Geoff has received awards from the Public Radio News Directors Inc. for best interview, the Edward R. Murrow Award for best feature reporting, and the Florida Associated Press Award for the best newscast. Geoff graduated from Bradley University with a degree in communications. Geoff lives in Portland with his wife. When he’s not on the air, you can find him rowing on the Willamette River or running and biking around the southwest hills. If you get up early enough, you might catch him hiking the nearby mountains.
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