“The Coffin of Honey has an internationalist point of view, and this playlist inevitably reflects that. But despite the eclecticism, there’s an emotional tenor many of these songs have in common: rapture, catharsis, yearning, the desire for transcendence or union.”
“The playlist features songs from seductive Haiti, sexy and spiritual 1950s New York City and festive and soulful Brazil, among other countries, most of them are featured in the novel. They helped me try to capture romantic ebb and furious flow of Caribbean, North and South American life and soccer.”
“I’ve always used music as a crowbar to access emotions that I usually hide from myself. As a teenager, I remember lying in the bathtub and listening to Radiohead while dribbling water down my cheeks pretending I was crying. When I was writing Femme Feral, I listened to a lot of furious music, mostly ’90s Riot Grrrl, while walking for hours around London.”
“Music is at the heart of my novel, Temporary Palaces. The book is full of songs playing in cafés and late-night bus stations, on tape decks in kitchens and living-room turntables, broadcast on pirate radio or performed by punk bands in sweaty, crowded rooms.”
“In 2017, when I was struggling daily with the growing desire to die, I made a playlist. The playlist was thirty-one songs, all by the Mountain Goats, titled simply: stay alive. “
“Music plays throughout my novel, Hidden River. While the forward story unfolds over the summer of 2008, its emotional heart is lodged squarely in the mid ‘80s to early ‘90s, when any Gen Xer could tell you: music was life.”
“What follows is an eclectic playlist that could make you cry or dance or say ‘what the fuck?’ As with all good things, it ends with Cher.”
“As soon as I started writing Immersions I knew the bad boy of the novel would be named Johnny. All bad boys are named Johnny: all drifters, no-good charmers, and sweet, shiftless men.”
“When I was writing my debut novel Frida Slattery As Herself, though, things were different. I was thinking about big beautiful pop music – the feelings of euphoria or heartbreak that a key change or a bridge can bestow on you, and the way the best pop music always takes you by surprise somehow.”
“Like a lot of writers, I’m distractable. Scare quotes “Attention Deficit.” Nothing is harder sometimes than just sitting down and writing the thing I am so desperately excited to write—especially when the world gets chaotic and nasty outside. Music is a tool I use to block out the metaphorical and literal noise.”