Research Guides (LibGuides): Visiting Writers' Series LibGuide: Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel's Website

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INTERVIEWS

Interview With Emily St. John Mandel, 2014 National Book Award Finalist, Fiction
Emily St. John Mandel is interviewed about her novel Station Eleven, which was a National Book Award Fiction Finalist in 2014.
"I Want it All" - A Conversation with Emily St. John Mandel
Another interview about Station Eleven, with Tor.com, a website about science fiction, fantasy, the universe, and related subjects.
The PEN Ten with Emily St. John Mandel
Yet another interview following the release of Station Eleven. This interview is with PEN America, an organization about literature and freedom of expression.

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 our copy is currently checked out, you probably can still get a copy through PALShare or interlibrary loan! Learn more.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
"Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed." - Amazon description
The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel
"Gavin Sasaki was a promising young journalist in New York City until the day he was fired for plagiarism. The last thing he wants is to sell foreclosed real estate for his sister Eilo’s company in their Florida hometown, but he’s in no position to refuse her job offer. Plus, there’s another reason to go home: Eilo recently met a ten-year-old girl who looks very much like Gavin and has the same last name as his high-school girlfriend, Anna, who left town abruptly after graduation.

Determined to find out if this little girl might be his daughter, Gavin sets off to track down Anna, starting with the three friends they shared back when he was part of a jazz group called “The Lola Quartet.” As Gavin pieces together their stories, he learns that Anna has been on the run for good reason, and soon his investigation into her sudden disappearance all those years ago takes a seriously dangerous turn." - Amazon description
The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
"Everyone Anton Waker grew up with is corrupt. His parents dealt in stolen goods, and he was a successful purveyor of forged documents until he abandoned it all in his early twenties, determined to live a normal life, complete with career, apartment, and a fiancée who knows nothing of his criminal beginnings. He’s on the verge of finally getting married when Aria—his cousin and former partner in crime—blackmails him into helping her with one last job.

Anton considers the task a small price for future freedom. But as he sets off for an Italian honeymoon, it soon becomes clear that the ghosts of his past can't be left behind so easily, and that the task Aria requires will cost him more than he could ever imagine." - Amazon description
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
"When Lilia Albert was a child, her father appeared on the doorstep of her mother's house and took her away. Now, haunted by an inability to remember much about her early childhood, Lilia moves restlessly from city to city, abandoning lovers and eluding the private detective who has dedicated a career to following close behind.

Then comes Eli. When Lilia goes out for a paper and fails to return to their Brooklyn apartment, he follows her to Montreal, not knowing whether he wants to disappear, too, or help her find her way home. But what he discovers is a deeper mystery, one that will set past and present spinning toward collision." - Amazon description

"Emily St. John Mandel was born in British Columbia, Canada, and studied dance at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. She had a long-standing habit of writing developed when, as a homeschooled child, her parents had her write a story or poem each day. Eventually, her writing became more important to her than her dancing. Mandel lived in Montreal briefly before moving to the United States and taking up residence in Brooklyn, New York. Her first novel, Last Night in Montreal, includes settings in both Brooklyn and Montreal.

In an interview with Carrie Runnals for the Web site Words to Mouth, the author stated: "Writers inevitably leave traces of themselves in the characters they invent and I'm sure there are elements of my personality in several of the characters in this book." She added, however: "The book is emphatically not autobiographical, and I tried to keep myself out of it as much as possible." Reviewing the book for the Web site Herald de Paris, Amy Steele called it "an exquisite debut novel filled with fragile characters holding on to situations that may or may not define them. It is about being lost and not wanting to be found; being adrift in a city dominated by a completely different culture and trying to remain centered; and finding out whether you are happier in motion or in one place."

"Mandel's vision is not only achingly beautiful but also startlingly plausible, exposing the fragile beauty of the world we inhabit" Kristine Huntley declared in her effusive Booklist appraisal of Station Eleven. "The author's lack of interest in eliciting conventional responses helps explain her National Book Award nomination, but this is not one of the year's bolder or more soul-plumbing books," according to Janet Maslin in her New York Times Book Review assessment of Station Eleven. She added wryly: "Pandemics ought to be a little less pleasant." On balance, however, more reviewers seemed to agree with Justine Jordan, who wrote in her Guardian review: "Station Eleven is not so much about apocalypse as about memory and loss, nostalgia and yearning; the effort of art to deepen our fleeting impressions of the world and bolster our solitude."

Source: "Emily St. John Mandel." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2016. Biography in Context. Web. 31 October 2016.

Literary Sources This link opens in a new window
Use the author's name or one of her primary texts in the search box to find reviews and criticism 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.
Library Journal Reviews
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

Visiting Writers' Series LibGuide: Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel

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