This week on The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with with novelist Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven (Vintage Books; Penguin Random House), a National Book Award finalist and one of the New York Times’ “100 Best Books of the 21st Century.” Set in the eerie days following civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven charts the strange twists of fate that connect 5 people: A famous Hollywood actor who dies onstage during a production of King Lear, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region and caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet. First published in 2014, Station Eleven has awed its readers for 10 years, and I sat down to talk to Emily about her relationship to the book that catapulted her to fame—the book that, some say, predicted our very real COVID pandemic.
This conversation has been edited for time.
NOTE! Emily will be in Missoula, on campus, in the University Center Ballroom, as part of the President’s Lecture Series, on Tuesday, October 15th at 7PM. Fact & Fiction will be selling books at this event, which is free and open to the public.
About Emily:
Emily St. John Mandel is the author of six novels, most recently Sea of Tranquility, which has been translated into 25 languages and was selected by President Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of 2022. Her previous novels include The Glass Hotel, which was also on Obama’s list, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and has been translated into 26 languages; and Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award among other honors, has been translated into 36 languages, and aired as a limited series on HBO Max. She lives in New York City and Los Angeles.
Mentioned in this episode:
“The pandemic is a portal,” an article in the Financial Times by Arundhati Roy
Emily St. John Mandel recommends:
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Atlantic Monthly Press)
Lauren Korn recommends:
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (Vintage Books; Penguin Random House)
White Noise by Don DeLillo (Penguin Random House)
Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood (Vintage Books; Penguin Random House)
Severance by Ling Ma (Picador USA)
Blindness by José Saramago (Mariner Books)
The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi (Ecco Press)
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The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, co-producer, editor, and sound engineer. This episode is supported by Fact & Fiction, an independent bookstore located in the heart of downtown Missoula, Montana, providing books for all ages and supporting the literary community in Montana and beyond. More information can be found at factandfictionbooks.com.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
