[This article was originally published in UEA’s official student newspaper, Concrete, for arts supplement, Venue.]
In March, UEA Live hosted perhaps one of their biggest literary events yet with a talk from Hanya Yanagihara, author of bestsellers A Little Life and To Paradise. Being as obsessed with A Little Life as I am, I bought tickets as soon as I heard about the event.
The event took place in one of UEA’s lecture theatres, with Georgina Godwin, an independent broadcast journalist and presenter of the podcast Meet the Writers, interviewing Yanagihara. One of the first things Yanagihara said that struck me was that aside from a book signing at Piccadilly Waterstones, the UEA Live event was the only UK-based event she had agreed to. This said much about Yanagihara’s acknowledgement of UEA as a creative writing hub through which many authors and creatives have risen.
Initial questions surrounded Yanagihara’s latest release, To Paradise, a novel journeying through three centuries (1893, 1993, and 2093) in an alternate version of New York City. Yanagihara was keen to talk about the inspiration behind the novel, which linked back to the US’ annexation of Hawaii and its erasure of Hawaii’s identity and power as a result of that. Yanagihara grew up in Hawaii during the sovereignty movement, and spoke of her family’s ties to the state, having lived there for at least three generations.
Another part of the novel which took precedence was its discussion of pandemics. The final part of the novel called ‘Zone Eight’, is set in the 2090s whereby our narrator, Charlie, is a survivor of a zoonotic pandemic. Yanagihara spoke candidly about how the novel had been written long before the COVID-19 pandemic began, and yet how it became relevant during the pandemic with its depiction of state-control and secret police.
I was perhaps most excited to hear Yanagihara’s thoughts on A Little Life, a novel about four friends (JB, Willem, Malcolm and Jude), how their friendship adapts as they grow older, and whether Jude, who has such a traumatic past, will ever reach a point of self-compassion and security. Yanagihara spoke fondly of the cast for the play version of A Little Life, currently showing at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London, and how director Ivo van Hove has managed to create two versions of the book (English and Dutch) which contrast and compliment one another. Yanagihara praised the way James Norton was able to portray Jude in such an endearing manner, how Norton brought out Jude’s gentleness and brilliantly depicted Jude’s fierce loyalty to his friends.
The absence of female characters within Yanagihara’s novels was also brought up by Godwin, to which Yanagihara answered that it has never been intentional to exclude female figures from her books, more so that she has been drawn to writing male characters. She spoke of the way men express themselves differently to women and how she’s interested in writing about this and their inability to often communicate so directly in the way women do. Anna from A Little Life was flagged up as the only female character in the book, but an important one, for being the only character to remind Jude that he will always struggle as a result of his traumatic childhood, but that it is up to him to not let that define him.
In terms of her career outside novel-writing, Yanagihara spoke about her job as Editor in chief for T magazine, a publication dedicated to fashion, living, beauty, travel and design coverage. She encouraged audience members looking to pursue a career in writing or the arts to take on a day job, as she believed this helped her, as someone more introverted, to stay within the hustle and bustle of everyday life, observing the world and people around her.
Of course, I couldn’t leave without getting my copy of To Paradise signed by Yanagihara. While I only spoke with her a few moments since there was a very eager queue behind me, it was an experience I won’t be quick to forget. It’s not everyday one of your favourite writers comes to your university campus!
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