One of the perks of being an MFA student at Butler is meeting renowned visiting writers like Margaret Atwood, Louise Gluck, Cheryl Strayed, and Jonathan Franzen. In addition to the public readings, students are invited to intimate Q & A’s and private dinners. Whenever possible, Booth: A Journal gives MFA students the opportunity to interview these writers.
Butler MFA’s literary magazine, Booth posted an interview with Jonathan Franzen by Butler MFA nonfiction student Susan Lerner on Friday, and within eight hours, the interview generated over 13,000 views and sparked an internet frenzy.
Sites like Salon, Jezebel, Vulture, Huffington Post, Gawker, and Flavorwire all responded to the intriguing interview. Susan’s interview even caused a Twitter trend.
Susan is notorious in the program for her preparation and hard work, which paid off in the interview. “I pretty much abandoned my family for the month before the interview, reading every other interview he’s done and dissecting his work,” Susan said. “I did my homework and felt really prepared, otherwise I wouldn’t have had enough confidence to poke him a bit.”
The students and faculty are extremely proud and impressed by Susan’s interview, but she throws the compliments back to Butler: “Nowhere else in the country would an MFA student get this opportunity! Andy [Levy, English Department Chair] and Hilene [Flanzbaum, MFA Program Chair] and the Vivian Delbrook Writers Series all get props. And Rob [Stapleton, Booth Editor-in-Chief], who had the chutzpah to ask Franzen for an interview (which I don’t think he grants very often), and gave me the gig.”
She even gives credit to Franzen. “He’s the best kind of interviewee,” she said. “He has strong opinions and doesn’t mind being provocative.”
Read the full Franzen interview at Booth.