Writing Matters Podcast
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Louisa Hall is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Iowa, and the author of four critically acclaimed novels, including her most recent, Reproduction, which was published by Ecco in 2023. Her previous novel, Trinity was shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Award and the winner of the Langum Prize for historical fiction. Before that, her novel Speak was a Best Book of the Year in NPR, Slate, and the Washington Post. Reproduction is a work of autofiction, in which a character with some close parallels to Louisa attempts to write a book about Mary Shelly, the author of Frankenstein, while struggling with her own painful experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and the moral questions surrounding genetic modification. We talk about the genre of autofiction, being a secretive child writer, and what is means to feel like an animal.
Links
Reproduction:
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/reproduction-louisa-hall?variant=40844425691170
Louisa Hall’s personal website:
https://louisahall.net
The Writing University: https://writinguniversity.org
The Department of English https://english.uiowa.edu
Music: The Typewriter, performed by Marcus Staub, free for use under a Creative Commons license.