Lauren Wilkinson is the author of the novel American Spy, which was published by Random House in 2019 and subsequently named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, and BuzzFeed, among others.

If you like what you hear, you can leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. But for now, we're recording remotely to maintain physical distancing. And we look forward to being that show again one day. Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work. (voiceover) From the University of Notre Dame, this is With a Side of Knowledge. That said, if you want to quote from one of our episodes, particularly the words of our guests, please listen to the audio whenever possible. *Note: We do our best to make these transcripts as accurate as we can. With a Side of Knowledge episode 2.1 with Marilynne Robinson: “On Writing and Saying Something True”.We guess you could say we believe that, if you can’t go to coffee, you bring the iconic TV sitcom coffee shop to you. Lastly, and on a completely unrelated note, at the very end of the interview, you might catch Lauren’s subtle nod to the New York City diner of Seinfeld fame that is Ted’s go-to background on Zoom. That story involves a surprising connection between her novel and one of those by one of our past guests, Pulitzer-winner Marilynne Robinson. Her writing has appeared in publications like Granta, The Believer, New York magazine, and The New York Times, and she also writes for television.ĭuring this conversation, Lauren and host Ted Fox talked about some of the big themes in American Spy, including how we understand the term “American,” as well as the seven-year process she went through to write the book. In addition to penning a critically acclaimed novel, Lauren has taught writing at Columbia University and the Fashion Institute of Technology and was a 2013 Center for Fiction Emerging Writers Fellow. Including it on his summer reading list, former President Barack Obama described it as “a whole lot more than just a spy thriller, wrapping together the ties of family, of love, and of country.”

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American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson