NICOLE KRAUSS:Its funny you mention those because they were the first and last stories I wrote.
It was so striking and eerie to return to that.
And that last story, Amour, I wrote when the book was already finished.
Credit: Charles Aydlett; Simone Padovani/Awakening/Getty Images
Like, what is a short-story collection in 75 years going to look like?
Do you think thats a permanent loss?
[Laughs] Theres not all of this discussion and navel gazing of Why am I so stressed out?
Harper
So I watched them both, and there was only work.
You both use an interesting mix of first- and third-person.
And my editor was always like its not hokey, I promise!
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
So I started with this first-person narrative, and I still dont totally love it.
Whereas we as women had to really, really prove our seriousness first.
And so I find it quite incredible how much things have changed since I became a writer.
I mean, I hate to generalize but also its true.
Is there something about having these other spaces that maybe freed you up creatively?
PETERSEN:I mean, in a very different way, Montana can feel like a different country.
People would say to me, Nobody moves to Montana towork.
And it is a practice every day to remember that, because it has become so ingrained in us.
PETERSEN:Thats totally a myth, by the way.
But some people become incredibly motivated by times of isolation and some people feel paralyzed.
And I felt like my one way of resisting that was using my imagination in my work.
And then also a bunch of personal essays that Ill never publish.
We hear a lot, especially as parents, about over-scheduling our kids and all that.
Let me see it, wheres the value?"
Its one I might not have been able to teach them because I love them too much.
But life has taught it to them despite me.
How do we all not disintegrate?
What keeps you going every day?
Or maybe it isnt like that at all maybe the weights that hold life down suddenly lift.
I totally forgot about that line!
And so Im hopeful that we can make a run at cling to that.
