Posts by Lion Guy
New York Times Op-Ed
The Long, Cruel History of the Anti-Abortion Crusade Amid the anti-abortion measures being pushed through state legislatures, consider the mazy history of abortion in the United States. Women, capable of determining and managing their reproductive rights, have been undermined by men in power before. Prior to the 1840s, abortion was widespread and not illegal in…
Read More‘Ending up here is a love story.’
In 2015, John Irving moved to Toronto permanently, after living part-time in Canada for over 30 years. In 2019, he became eligible to take the oath of citizenship. He is now a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada. Irving spoke with the Toronto Star, the CBC, and The Washington Post about his late-in-life decision to…
Read MoreA Third Act – “I’ve finished the second act of my new novel” by John Irving
Dear Readers, I’ve finished the second act of my new novel, Darkness as a Bride. It is a story told in three acts. First draft pages pile up as I progress through the novel – my desk is lined with stacks of paper. I took a photo of the last four hand-written chapters in Act…
Read MoreAwards Roundup
This May, John Irving was awarded the Medal of Honor for Literature by the National Arts Club. The Medal of Honor is a prestigious award presented to the most influential artists in their fields. In a press release issued by the NAC, Mr. Irving gave a nod to past recipients of the Gold Medal in…
Read MoreForty years later, The World According to Garp remains ‘a treasure beyond scope’
“The World According to Garp is, to me, the best-written example of whatever elusive literary quality makes a human being capable of sobbing and laughing simultaneously. Those are each extraordinarily difficult emotions to elicit; to do so in tandem is remarkable, but requires the kind of evocation that critics might call outright provocation instead. They…
Read MoreHere Come the Ghosts Again
I think the early signs of my interest in ghosts are the epilogues I’ve written to many of my novels — I love epilogues. They are a way to keep the dead alive. The first draft of the Epilogue to The World According to Garp was twice as long as any of the other chapters.…
Read MoreThe World According to Garp: A Note from John Irving
This year I’m celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of my novel, The World According to Garp. I remember thinking the title of my fourth novel would change; The World According to Garp was always just a working title until something better came along…
Read MoreWay to go, Bob!
I’ve been busy. I don’t always choose to be working on two things at once, but sometimes that’s how it turns out. I’m never writing more than one novel at a time, but it has happened before (and will happen again) that I’m writing a novel concurrently with either a screenplay or a teleplay. I…
Read MoreJohn Irving on NPR’s Morning Edition
John Irving talks to Lynn Neary about the origins of Avenue of Mysteries—from visiting child performers at Indian and Mexican circuses two decades ago, to a screenplay and eventually, a novel. Read the accompanying piece here.
Read MoreAvenue of Mysteries: Audiobook
Avenue of Mysteries is available as an audiobook, too. Hear an excerpt with reader Armando Durán. As Irving says of Durán, “My wife Janet and I loved his reading of Gabriel García Márquez’s ‘Love in the Time of Cholera.’ We love his voice, and the way he interprets the dialogue of characters in novels, especially.”…
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