Quarantine Session #80: Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi + Eileen Myles

Summary

PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of literati darlings Call Me Zebra and Fra Keeler took to Greenlight’s virtual stage to launch her third novel, Savage Tongues—a personal and political exploration of desire, power, domination, and human connection that’s equal parts Marguerite Duras and Shirley Jackson, Rachel Cusk and Clarice Lispector, tracing a young woman’s search for healing in the fall-out of an affair with a much older man. Joined by the inimitable poet Eileen Myles, Oloomi discussed the kaleidoscopic thinking propelling her book, the power of women’s retelling, the practice of transcribing life, and how life eludes transcription. (Recorded October 12, 2021)