Lorrie Moore discusses her ‘weird’ new novel

RHINECLIFF —  At a gathering of about 25 people on Saturday, June 24, at Morton Memorial Library, Oblong Books hosted author Lorrie Morgan in a discussion about her new novel, “I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home.”

Moore’s new novel was published on June 20 of this year, straying from her usual style of sarcastic, witty short stories. “I Am Homeless if This is Not My Home” leans more into Moore’s grim and dark side of writing.

“I didn’t think of it as a particularly funny book. It’s not a funny book. It’s in favor of my dark humor, whatever that means,” Moore explained, “and it’s weird.”

Her new novel takes place in two different centuries, portraying lovers, siblings, and how people struggle with mental illness, death and suicide.

“The thing about this book, other than it being totally extraordinary, is it is a book that is extremely powerful and one you may have to read two or three times,” Moore’s editor, Victoria Wilson, said.

Moore is currently the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She started her professing career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the Delmore Schwartz Professor in the Humanities, when she was only 27 years old, and taught creative writing for 30 years. “I wasn’t much older than my students when I started,” she said.

Moore discussed how her teaching has changed over the course of the years: “The students have changed, their issues are different, their lives are different, so you have to keep up with your students a little bit.”

The book conveys Moore’s creativity while conveying a different writing style. “You have to get to the end to realize how many different connections there are; it’s a weird book,” she explained.