Interview with Tatjana Soli

Tatjana Soli (fiction, ’06) discusses her second novel and the James Tait Black Prize at The Millions:

My interest in the clash and misunderstandings between cultures definitely comes from where I live, and it’s been a huge influence in both books. I think there is the same concern for how one lives in both books. How does one bear witness during war? How does one overcome tragedy in a very personal, private life? Those were issues that compelled the writing.

It’s hugely disconcerting that you work blinkered as a writer — thinking you are on to fresh material — only to realize after the fact that you’ve returned to the same themes. I tell my students that you cannot control what you write, but only how you write and communicate that vision. The vision is out of your control...[Read More]…

Tatjana is the author of The Forgetting Tree (2012, St. Martin’s Press) and The Lotus Eaters (2010, St. Martin’s).