Julia Brown (’13) Interview Andrea Lee for GULF COAST

(Note: KIMBILIO thanks Julia for her ongoing service to our community.  Since 2014, she has graciously volunteered to prepare manuscript material for our retreat.)

Andrea Lee writes the kind of dazzling, lyrical prose that delights with its boldness—over three acclaimed novels, a New York Times Notable short story collection, and many essays and articles in publications like Time,The New Yorker, and Vogue, she explores matters of race, class, and culture with an erudition that is as playful as it is sophisticated. It was an honor and a pleasure to talk with her about her life and work, and collect some additional thoughts on her essay “Notes for a Speech Never Given (The Nile Swim Club),” which appears in Gulf Coast 28.2.

Julia Brown: Where in the world are you right now? What’s on your mind these days? What’s absorbing your attention?

Andrea Lee: I have just spent a month of work and play in Bangkok, Thailand, but where I am right now is in my house in Turin, Italy. It’s a 600-year-old villa in the country, and from my window I can see woods, a field with cows, the city in the distance, and the French Alps beyond that.

Read the rest here: Interview with Andrea Lee