Thalia Book Club: Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

The author of An Invisible Sign of My Own, whose work has been presented at Selected Shorts performances, discusses her second novel, a lush and moving story of a girl whose magical gift is really a devastating curse.  She is interviewed by Heidi Julavits (novelist and co-editor of The Believer).  A selection ise performed by Lillo Way.

"A writer who makes you grateful for the very existence of language" - San Francisco Chronicle

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Aimee Bender is the author of four books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, which was a New York Times notable book; An Invisible Sign of My Own, and LA Times pick of the year in 2000; Willful Creatures, which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of 2005; and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper’s, Tin House, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, Electric Literature and many more places, as well as heard on PRI’s This American Life and Selected Shorts. Ms. Bender has received two Pushcart Prizes, and was nominated for the TipTree award in 2005 and the Shirley Jackson Short Story Award in 2010. Her fiction has been translated into ten languages. She lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches creative writing at USC.

Heidi Julavits, a founding editor of the Believer, is the author of the novels The Mineral Palace, The Effect of Living Backwards, and The Uses of Enchantment; as well as a collaborative book, Hotel Andromeda, with the artist Jenny Gage. She is a contributor to State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America. Her writing has appeared in Esquire, Time, The New York Times, and McSweeney’s, among other publications. She lives in Manhattan and Maine.

Lillo Way is a regular reader with Selected Shorts, and has performed with the series in Washington, DC; Austin, Dallas; Seattle; and Salt Lake City. Her other spoken word performances and narrations include Alan Bennett’s Bed Among the Lentils, and, with orchestra, Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire du Soldat,” Beetheven’s “The Ruins of Athens,” “Egmont” (with soprano Judith Blegen), and Hindemith’s “Herodiade.” She has appeared in classical and contemporary plays on New York and regional stages.