Research Guides (LibGuides): Visiting Writers' Series LibGuide: Hanya Yanagihara

Hanya Yanagihara

Face - Hanya Yanagihara by Greg Peverill-Conti. Used under CC BY-NC-SA

More Information

INTERVIEWS

Q & A With ... Hanya Yanagihara
Nando Pelusi interview from 2013, published in Psychology Today.
Hanya Yanagihara: the subject of love between men, often overlooked, is explored in the ambitious new novel by Hanya Yanagihara
Interview-based article from The Bookseller in May 2015.
Interview with Hanya Yanagihara
From the National Book Foundation. Yanagihara was a 2015 National Book Award Finalist.
Hanya Yanagihara and Gerry Howard
A 2015 conversation between Yanagihara and her editor, Gerry Howard.

PODCASTS

Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life
Recorded on March 31, 2016 by the Free Library of Philadelphia.
YWTG! Hanya Yanagihara
You Wrote the Book! podcast with Yanagihara. From August 2015.
Finding more podcasts ...

Many works by our Visiting Writers' Series authors are pulled from their normal places on the shelves and temporarily located in a special display in the Browsing Collection. This collection is located near the Information Commons service desk, next to the vending machines and newspapers.

When you look at an item's record in WorldCat Discovery, be sure to note whether the items is in the General Stacks (mostly 2nd floor) or the Browsing Collection (1st floor). If you have any questions about locating an item on the shelf, don't hesitate to ask us!

Remember - if we don't own it or the copy is currently checked out, you probably can still get a copy through PALShare or interlibrary loan! Learn more.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
"When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not only be unable to overcome -- but that will define his life forever."
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
"Joining an anthropologist's 1950 expedition to discover a lost tribe on a remote Micronesian island, a young doctor investigates and proves a theory that the tribe's considerable longevity is linked to a rare turtle, a finding that brings worldwide fame and unexpected consequence."

"Hanya Yanagihara is a New York-based writer and former editor of the Condé Nast Traveler. Inspired by the real-life story of D. Carleton Gajdusek, a Nobel Prize winner who uncovered the truth behind the New Guinean kuru disease, Yanagihara's debut novel takes similar turns....

In her next novel, A Little Life, Yanagihara presents a lengthy tale that follows four friends from their first meeting at a tony college through the pitfalls of middle age. Malcolm becomes an architect, and Willem, who wants to run his own ranch, ends up becoming a famous actor. JB is a talented painter who struggles to maintain relationships, while Jude is a successful attorney haunted by his abusive childhood. Each struggles to find peace despite their worldly success, and Yanagihara told London Observer correspondent Tim Adams: 'I'd had the characters in my head for a long time. I was writing every single night and all weekend and it is not something I necessarily recommend. Though it was an exhilarating experience it was also an alienating one. ... That process ... is absorbing and dangerous. It is probably one I will never have again, and one I never want again.'"

Source: "Hanya Yanagihara." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2016. Biography in Context. Web. 12 July 2016.

Hanya Yanagihara: 'I Wanted Everything Turned Up a Little Too High'
Tim Adam's July 2015 article published by The Guardian includes several biographical insights about the author.

Literary Sources This link opens in a new window
Literary Sources provides information in primary sources, critical articles, literary and cultural analysis, and biographies.

Library Journal Book Review
Click on the Library Journal link (use the one that has more full texts available) to access it through the Butler library. Use the author's name as your search term in the "search within the publication" box to find reviews of her work.
New York Times Book Review
This link will take you to the New York Times Book Review hosted on the Literature Resource Center database. It includes issues from 2001 to present. You can search within the entire publication (box at top of page) or you can select a specific year from the drop-down menu. Older issues are available via other databases - ask a librarian for help accessing these issues.

Campus Visit

A Little Life Instagram

An instagram account has been created to allow people to share scenes and moments inspired by A Little Life.

Visiting Writers' Series LibGuide: Hanya Yanagihara

Hanya Yanagihara

More Information

Campus Visit

A Little Life Instagram

CONTACT

QUICK LINKS