Erica Jong

Erica Jong's new novel is Fear of Dying.

From her Q & A with Jeff Baker for The Oregonian:

Do you do poetry readings?

I had won all the poetry prizes when I was a young poet. I won the Bess Hokin Prize, which W.S. Merwin and Sylvia Plath won, and then I wrote "Fear of Flying" and I was the Happy Hooker of literature. Poets disowned me. I didn't disown them. I would have happily stayed reading and teaching, and I have done a lot of teaching and writing seminars, but I was shunned because I had a bestseller.

You became too popular.

I became too famous. They were jealous. It's nothing but that. You can understand that in a world where writers are treated like (bad word). Can we say that in a family newspaper?

No.

They're treated like poo-poo or whatever. I think that in a country where writers are treated very poorly and then someone becomes famous the hostility is extreme. Women are not allowed in the door. It's envy.

You were showing me that button you're wearing and saying you thought everyone is a feminist, but everyone doesn't identify that way.

All I can tell you is I think Donald Trump is a godsend for Hillary because he's...[read on]

See: Erica Jong's six top books that deal with death.

--Marshal Zeringue