The Long Black Veil author Jennifer Finney Boylan responds to Trump’s ban on transgender troops: “Even if trans issues don’t top the list of things you’re worried about, you should be appalled by the latest episode of kick-the-soldier, because it lays bare the fact that Mr. Trump is never motivated by policy, or research, or rationality. The only thing that matters to him is bigotry.”
Karen Russell, the author of the Pulitzer-nominated novel Swamplandia, has sold two books to Knopf: the story collection Orange World (the title story of which ran in the New Yorker) and the short novel Sleep Donation, in which a near-future America is ravaged by a deadly outbreak of insomnia.
Rebecca Traister discusses Good and Mad, her new book about women’s anger. She notes the travesty of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation. But she also warns against despair: “I think if we didn’t feel optimism at this juncture, it would be very deadening. And what are we going to do, if we’re not going to keep fighting? I believe that continuing to fight is a moral imperative for those who want to make the country a better and more just place.”
Angie Thomas—the author of The Hate U Give, the bestselling YA novel about Black Lives Matter—talks about the making of her book into a movie, and about her second novel, On the Come Up, which is due out in February.
Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin is happy to talk about where he buys his hats, his favorite TV shows, and beard-grooming methods, but he does not want to talk about the next installment of his wildly popular A Song of Ice and Fire series.