Stephanie Danler

Stephanie Danler's new novel is Sweetbitter.

From the transcript of her interview with NPR's Rachel Martin:

MARTIN: So let's talk about sex.

DANLER: Yeah, I'd love to.

MARTIN: Let's (laughter).

DANLER: I love to write about it, I love to talk about it.

MARTIN: So talk to me about how you figured out technically how to write a good literary sex scene.

DANLER: Oh my God, I love that question. So yes, sex is the undercurrent of the whole book because what we're really investigating are Tess' appetites across the board and also her becoming more of a woman, this transition from girlhood to womanhood. And sex is a big part of that - or figuring out lust and desire.

So I knew I wanted - it was essential to the novel that I write a sex scene. And you have all of these technical choices as a writer, which is, am I going to fade to black? What kind of language am I going to use? Like, how far am I going to go with this? And there were drafts in which I went much further.

MARTIN: Where are those?

DANLER: Oh, God.

(LAUGHTER)

DANLER: There'll be another novel down the line. You'll know. You'll know when you see them. And then I went back and I thought, what is true of Tess' voice? This entire book is in the first person. You have this 22-year-old girl. And what is true of her voice? What matches her experience? Sometimes...[read on]

Visit Stephanie Danler's website.

--Marshal Zeringue