Novel & Place

When we talk about reading, we almost always talk about being transported. But where are we going? How does the place we are transported to become a character in itself? This panel, featuring New York Times bestselling authors Amor Towles (The Lincoln Highway), Tess Gunty (The Rabbit Hutch), Rebecca Makkai (I Have Some Questions for You), and Sarah Thankam Mathews (All This Could Be Different), will focus on the literary device of place and its role in mapping narratives. It will consider these authors’ books—which take us from the post-industrial Midwest to a New England boarding school to recession era Milwaukee to New York City—as part of a larger conversation regarding how the restrictions and freedoms of setting affect the shape and nature of characters.

Omari Weekes
Rebecca Makkai
Sarah Thankam Mathews
Tess Gunty
Amor Towles