Elizabeth Strout's Blog, page 6

The Guardian: 'Oh man, she's back': Elizabeth Strout on the return of Olive Kitteridge

“There is a moment in Olive, Again, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Olive Kitteridge , Elizabeth Strout’s best-seller of 2008, in which the novelist’s virtuosity is on full display. Kitteridge, an elderly widow by now and still living in Maine, spots a former pupil in a diner … and approaches her to revive the connection. In the exchange that follows, one becomes aware of Strout’s sympathetic range…. ‘That was the first story that I wrote for Olive, Again,’ says Strout, cheerfully. ‘She just showed up and I saw her nosing her car into the marina; and I thought: Oh man, she’s back.’ She laughs with pure joy.”

— Emma Brockes, The Guardian

Emma Brockes, "'Oh man, she's back': Elizabeth Strout on the return of Olive Kitteridge," The Guardian, October 19, 2019.

Entertainment Weekly: Master Class: EW puts Ann Patchett and Elizabeth Strout in conversation

 



























 

“They’re two of the most decorated women in modern American letters: Elizabeth Strout, the Pulitzer Prize-winning maestro of Maine … and Ann Patchett, whose lauded catalog includes the best-sellers Bel Canto and Commonwealth.

But on a bright fall morning in New York, they were just two old friends catching up to talk about their latest works — Olive, Againand The Dutch House, respectively — what they’re reading, and why you won’t find them on Instagram.”

— Leah Greenblatt, Yahoo! Entertainment

Leah Greenblatt, “Master Class: EW puts Ann Patchett and Elizabeth Strout in conversation,” Entertainment Weekly, October 15, 2019.

LA Review of Books: Aging Gently, Messily: On Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive, Again”

“The sense of community that pervades Strout’s writing feels even more expansive when her novels converge, when the various Maines she has depicted with exquisite specificity turn out to be the same. It’s as if Strout is telling her readers that her mission in writing these books has been singular: to portray in luminous detail the messy, secretive, consequential lives of people in a small town.”

— Jonathan Vatner, Los Angeles Review of Books

Jonathan Vatner, “Aging Gently, Messily: On Elizabeth Strout’s ‘Olive, Again’,” Los Angeles Review of Books, October 16, 2019.

Boston Globe: A magnificent achievement

“It is precisely the complicated mixture of emotions she inspires that makes Olive such an endlessly fascinating and irresistibly endearing heroine. “Olive, Again” is bleaker, sadder, more achingly beautiful than its predecessor, and a magnificent achievement on its own terms.”

— Priscilla Gilman, Boston Globe

Priscilla Gilman, “In ‘Olive, Again,’ Elizabeth Strout’s beloved character gets better with age,” Boston Globe, October 10, 2019.

Wall Street Journal: Life Without Illusions in Crosby, Maine

“[T]he raw power of Ms. Strout’s writing comes from these unvarnished exchanges, in which characters reveal themselves in all of their sadness and badness and confusion.… The great, terrible mess of living is spilled out across the pages of this moving book. Ms. Strout may not have any answers for it, but she isn’t afraid of it either.”

— Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

Sam Sacks, “Fiction: Life Without Illusions in Crosby, Maine,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 11, 2019.

Washington Post: Olive Kitteridge is back — and better than ever

“Lovers of literary treasure, rejoice. Elizabeth Strout’s new novel “Olive, Again” reprises beloved Olive Kitteridge, the aging, cranky, bossy, wry, flummoxed, sad, brave, lonely antiheroine of Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2008 novel and a television miniseries by the same name.

Syllable for syllable, it’s stunning work — arguably better than the original.”

— Joan Frank, Washington Post

Joan Frank, “The cranky, bossy, sad, brave, beloved Olive Kitteridge is back in ‘Olive, Again’ — and better than ever,” Washington Post, October 8, 2019.

New Yorker Radio Hour: Elizabeth Strout’s View from the Top

A couple weeks ago, I climbed to the top of Mount David with the New Yorker Radio Hour, a place I visited almost every month when I was in school at Bates College.

It was like ancient history to be there and remember! I’d never talked about Mount David to anyone, but it was such an important part of who I became.

Kala Lea, "Elizabeth Strout’s View from the Top," The New Yorker Radio Hour, October 4, 2019.

Maine Women Magazine: Strout, Again

“‘She honestly just showed up,’ Strout says. ‘I could see her in her car, nosing it into the marina.’ Olive had aged; she appeared to now be in her early 80s. ‘She was poking along with her cane. I just saw her so clearly that I thought, “OK, I guess I will have to write this down.’’””

— Mary Pols, Maine Women Magazine

I sat down for an interview with Mary Pols recently for the current issue of Maine Women Magazine.

Mary Pols, “Strout, Again,” Maine Women Magazine, July 31, 2019.

New Yorker Interview & Excerpt from Olive, Again

“I never intended to return to Olive Kitteridge. I really thought I was done with her, and she with me. But a few years ago I was in a European city, alone for a weekend, and I went to a café, and she just showed up. That’s all I can say. She showed up with a force, the way she did the very first time, and I could not ignore her.”

— "Elizabeth Strout on Returning to Olive Kitteridge"

The current issue of The New Yorker includes an interview with me about my new book OLIVE, AGAIN and an excerpt from it, the short story “Motherless Child.”

Elizabeth Strout, “Motherless Child,” The New Yorker (August 5 & 12, 2019 Issue), July 29, 2019.Deborah Treisman, “Elizabeth Strout on Returning to Olive Kitteridge,” The New Yorker , July 29, 2019.

2019 Commencement Address, University of Maine at Farmington

Commencement / Graduation 2019. Saturday, May 11 2019 10:30am. Pulitzer-winning Maine author Elizabeth Strout was the keynote speaker and received an honorary degree at the University of Maine at Farmington's 2019 Commencement ceremony.

“I’m a writer and so I spend a great deal of my time alone. And every decision I ultimately make on that page, I make alone. And then the work goes out into the world.... What I do (I have come to realize this) is an act of faith. And whatever you all will do will also be acts of faith.

You don’t have to be a teacher or a writer to understand that we are all connected and that what we do every day will ripple out in ways that we will never know.... But we don’t have to know. We just have to trust that whatever we do in the world will find its way to a person who needs it.”

— 2019 Commencement Address, Univeristy of Maine at Farmington

Address by Elizabeth Strout at 2019 Univ. Maine at Farmington Commencement, YouTube, published on May 14, 2019.