Eat (Sandwiches), Drink & Be Literary: Rachel Kushner

Eat, Drink & Be Literary 2015, presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation, concludes this week with 2013 Guggenheim Fellow Rachel Kushner. With it comes a new batch of food, beverage, and book-related questions for our featured author. (Read responses from other EDBL writers here.)

What is your favorite sandwich?

I don’t eat sandwiches.

What is your go-to beverage?

I’m stumped by the concept of a go-to beverage.

What is your favorite Brooklyn-based novel?

While not a genre that I classify on my own, Paula Fox's Desperate Characters comes to mind. Also Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn, a beautiful book. And Hubert Selby Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn impressed me a lot when I was young, especially the section called "Strike," which has intense downward and forward propulsion.

When you write, do you write by hand or on the computer (…or typewriter)?

Combination of by hand and on a computer that is more like a word processor, because it's not connected to the internet.

When you read, are you an e-book or a paper book person?

Actual book, preferably hard-bound. Many awesome first editions now available for very little money are purchased, read, shelved, kept for later.

What is your favorite Brooklyn restaurant?

I don’t know Brooklyn restaurants any more, not since I lived on Plymouth by the Navy Yard almost 20 years ago. Junior’s? Why not Junior’s?

Junior's in Downtown Brooklyn.

What is the last live performance that really moved you?

Dawn Upshaw and Crash Ensemble performing Yeats poems in a beautiful church in Kilkenny Ireland. Incredible.

Rachel Kushner will read from her most recent novel, The Flamethrowers, and talk with moderator Lorin Stein at Eat, Drink & Be Literary on Wednesday, June 10.