A mini-masterclass on character, point of view, narrative time and ‘weight in fiction’ with the acclaimed American writer, Joan Silber.

Joan was raised in New Jersey and received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied with the renowned teacher and writer Grace Paley. Joan has published nine books of fiction. Her new novel, Secrets of Happiness, has just been released in Australia. Her previous book, Improvement, won The National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award. She also received the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Joan’s other works of fiction include Fools, The Size of the World, Ideas of Heaven, Lucky Us, In My Other Life,  In the City, and Household Words, which have almost all won or been finalists for many prestigious awards.

Joan has taught fiction writing for many years, in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program, Sarah Lawrence College, also Boston University, the 92nd Street Y and New York University as well as writers’ conferences at places like Bread Loaf and Aspen.

I met Joan at Adelaide Writers’ Week in 2020, days before the pandemic cancellations and closures began in Australia, and kept in touch periodically throughout the strange year that followed. As soon as I began reading Improvement I knew I was in the company of one of those artists whose every work I now needed to read. I ordered all the books I could get my hands on, and loved them all.

This recording took place over Zoom, in a conversation joined by some of my writer friends – a kind of mini-masterclass. Joan spoke to us from her apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where she lives with her dog Lucille.