Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

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Talking Volumes: Marlon James on his deeply personal novel ‘The Disappearers’

September 18, 2026

Marlon James new novel, “The Disappearers,” was published just 18 days ago, and already, this deeply personal novel about gay men in Jamaica has been declared “the novel of the decade, if not the century” by the New York Times. It has also been longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize National Book Award. James, a part-time Macalester College professor and full-time literary phenomenon, kicked off the 2026 season of Talking Volumes last week.He joined Kerri Miller on the stage of the O’Shaughness...

Author Edwidge Danticat examines what it means to live after trauma in 'Dèy'

September 11, 2026

In December of 2017, Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat was a mall in south Florida when a loud gunshot broke through the holiday shopping chatter. Believing that a mass shooting was underway, Danticat ran with her fellow shoppers in utter terror. Eventually, she learned the shooting was a hoax. But the trauma that experience provoked was very real. She works some of that trauma out in her new novel, "Dèy." Taken from the Creole word for “mourning,” the story follows a young mother, Mag...

A new coming-of-age novel by Chang-rae Lee examines how we become who we are

September 04, 2026

If you remember the first time you left your family to go to summer camp, you probably remember how that time marked you. You leave as a child, but after spending a week or two away from home and all that’s familiar, you return changed. Chang-rae Lee’s new novel, “A Tender Age,” follows a young boy, almost 11, as he begins the shift toward adolescence. A few tumultuous events make Jeon-Gi very aware of his new and growing personhood — and then he leaves for summer camp, where he experiments w...