S9 Ep. 12: Matthew Pearl on What We’ll Do For the Prize

Bestselling and award-winning writer Matthew Pearl joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new novel The Award. Pearl explores the relationship between cultural prizes and ideas of nationhood, as well as imposter syndrome and external validation, like MFAs, literary awards, and being seen writing in coffeeshops by and with other writers. He reflects on developing the character of David Trent, an aspiring young writer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Pearl himself formerly lived and participated in cafe culture. He talks about the ethical lines David is willing to cross to achieve success and how he rationalizes these choices to himself. He also explains the larger-than-life character of Silas Hale, the famous and mercurial novelist who lives downstairs from David, controls their shared thermostat, and has no interest in mentoring his young neighbor. Pearl considers how David’s life changes when he publishes a book and wins a prize. He reads from The Award.

This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

Matthew Pearl

● The Award

● Save Our Souls: The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder

● The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America

● The Poe Shadow

● The Dante Club

Others:

● Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 19: Jacinda Townsend and James Bernard Short on American Fiction

● Erasure by Percival Everett

● Rabbit, Run by John Updike

● The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

● The Wife by Meg Wolitzer

● Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

● The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

● Young Lions Fiction Award | The New York Public Library

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