Randa Abdel-Fattah’s new novel Discipline is set in Sydney, Australia in 2021 during Ramadan. Discipline follows two Palestinians there, one in media and one in academia, where each has to confront questions of silence and complicity in their respective fields. As Israel intensifies its bombardment of Gaza, and as an eighteen-year-old student at a loca ... Show More
Dec 6
Jazmina Barrera : The Queen of Swords
Jorge Luis Borges called her the “Tolstoy of Mexico” and César Aira the “greatest novelist of the 20th century,” so why is it likely that you haven’t read or even heard of Elena Garro before now? And given that Garro was, like her fantastical stories, not beholden to the truth wh ... Show More
1h 58m
Nov 22
Tin House Live : Caren Beilin : Sea Poison
<p>Caren Beilin’s first appearance on the show, in 2022 to discuss her book Revenge of the Scapegoat, was so unforgettable, and spurred so much enthusiasm and electrifying conversation in its wake, that I couldn’t say “no” to being in conversation with her again, this time live a ... Show More
1h 16m
Jan 2025
1266: Echo by Christina Rossetti
<p>Today’s poem is Echo by Christina Rossetti. </p><br/><p>The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem calls back to a deceased beloved, to return to this side of existence, to traverse the layers of time — an incantation that wishes to ... Show More
5m 3s
Mar 2021
Oana Aristide, Remembering Stevie Smith, and what is an NFT?
Novelist Oana Aristide discusses her debut novel Under the Blue, about a reclusive artist forced to abandon his home and follow two young sisters across a post-pandemic Europe in search of a safe place. It has been described as eco-fiction and it explores themes of environmental ... Show More
28m 23s
Nov 2024
1231: Gala Noise by Diane Mehta
<p>Today’s poem is Gala Noise by Diane Mehta. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. </p><br/><p>In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem invites us to contemplate how language is not just what is heard, but what is conveyed beneath the surface. Underneath, it sees that we ... Show More
5m 49s
Oct 2024
1219: from "Elegy for the Times" by Adonis, translated by Robyn Creswell
<p>Today’s poem is from "Elegy for the Times" by Adonis, translated by Robyn Creswell. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. </p><br/><p>In this episode, Major writes… “For stateless people, writing poems, taking pictures, composing songs is precarious, but making art happens ... Show More
6m 8s
