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Virginia Pye on Historical Fiction of the Recent Past & Infusing Joy into Tough Topics (E219)
Description
This week on Bookish Flights, I’m joined by Virginia Pye, author of Marriage and Other Monuments, to discuss writing stories set in what she calls “the recent past” and why she’s drawn to exploring moments of cultural and personal change through fiction. We talked about the emotional balance of writing difficult subjects while still leaving space for hope, the surprising role the river played while shaping the novel, and her path to becoming a novelist after raising young children. Virginia also shares a book flight featuring three recent reads she’s loved lately.
Episode Highlights:
- Why twists and surprises matter in her storytelling
- Her favorite character to write in Marriage and Other Monuments
- How setting can evolve into its own presence within a story
- The marathon-like reality of writing book-length fiction
- Balancing literary work with teaching, editing, and reading
- A reading life centered around curiosity and craft
Connect with Virginia:
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Books and authors mentioned in the episode:
- The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann by Virginia Pye
- Historical Fiction: Remarkable Women and the Rich History of the South with Katherine Scott Crawford (Ep. 203)
- Lad: a Dog by Albert Payson Terhune
- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
- Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
- I Felt My Life with Both My Hands by Jessica Treadway
- Kin by Tayari Jones
Book Flight
- Dream State by Eric Puchner
- This is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman
- Small Town Girls by Jayne Anne Phillips
✨ Find Your Next Great Read! We just hit 175 episodes of Bookish Flights, and to celebrate, I created the Bookish Flights Roadmap — a guide to all 175 podcast episodes, sorted by genre to help you find your next great read faster.
Explore it here → www.bookishflights.com/read/roadmap
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