Eileen Myles, the Books in My Life: From Little Women to Angela Carter
The Author of Afterglow Shares a Few Thoughts on Favorite Writers
Eileen Myles’ Afterglow is available now from Grove Atlantic.
What was the first book you fell in love with?
Little Women: because there was both a female writer, Jo, in it and there was a rich boy, Laurie, I longed to be.
Name a classic you feel guilty about never having read?
I have no such guilt.
What’s the book you reread the most?
Love by Angela Carter. It’s a novella so it’s short and it’s exquisite, trippy, moody, erotic and dark.
Is there a book you wish you had written?
I don’t really wish I had written other people’s books.
What’s the new book you’re most looking forward to?
I mean I just heard about a newly translated novel by Halldor Laxness, Wayward Heroes, that came out in 2016 but I didn’t know it existed so it is new to me. I’ve ordered it.
Eileen Myles
Eileen Myles (they/them) came to New York from Boston in 1974 to be a poet. Their books include For Now, I Must Be Living Twice/new and selected poems, and Chelsea Girls. Pathetic Literature, which they edited, will be out from Grove in Fall 2022. Myles has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2021 was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters. They live in New York and Marfa, TX.
