Bonnie Garmus on Her Novel After Lessons in Chemistry

Bonnie Garmus joins Zibby Owens to talk about her new novel Peck & Peck, the story of recent graduate Batter Gray who struggles with what to do with his arts degree after college, only to find himself at a prestigious poetry quarterly in the midst of a secret war between two editors.

Bonnie discusses why poetry continues to evade extinction, the themes of theft and dishonesty explored in this book, the plagiarism of AI in writing, the importance of reading, and why she doesn't outline her stories.

She also talks about dealing with the weight of expectation after the phenomenal success of Lessons in Chemistry, the question of ownership in literature, her dream to complete an Arctic swim, and how she accepts “killing her darlings” during rewrites.

Learn more about Bonnie here https://www.bonniegarmus.com and follow her on Instagram @bonnie_garmus_author.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

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