Agata Popęda here. I have been a fan of writer Susan Orlean for a long time. In my 20s, before I moved from Poland to the U.S., I spent many times trying to read The New Yorker, and often ended up reading Orlean’s short entries on animals. I knew the names of the animals in English and that seemed like a good place to start. Also, it was a friendly place, because Orlean’s description of the animal world has always been so tender and so funny.
Orlean is an institution. There has been so much written about her, as well as dozens and dozens of interviews with her, including recorded live events available to watch on YouTube. Nonetheless, for this week’s cover story in the Weekly, I decided to ask Orlean for a conversation because she is coming to the Sunset Center’s Carpenter Hall in Carmel courtesy of the Carmel Public Library Foundation. “A Life in Words” with Orlean will take place 8pm Tuesday, April 22 (6:30pm VIP reception; 7pm doors open).
Listening to Orlean’s interviews and events and reading her work, I tried to come up with the questions I haven’t heard or read answered. It was pretty hard, if not impossible.
The article goes over Orlean’s long career as a magazine writer, especially for The New Yorker, and a bestselling author of nonfiction books, such as The Orchid Thief and The Library Book. Now—finally—she is about to publish a memoir titled Joyride; you will have to wait until Oct.14.
“I’m proud to report that Joyride didn’t need major surgery, that the little edit boxes floating in the margins once I toggled on ‘reveal change’ were few and far between,” she wrote on her Substack on April 7. “What interested me, though, was how many of them called out the same bad habit. For whatever reason, I littered my book with the same two words: ‘still’ and ‘just.’ Oh lord. Shame on me.”
I hope you will have as much fun reading the interview as I had writing it. Better yet, come see Susan Orlean live at the Sunset Center; there are still some tickets left.