Writer Hilton Als on Prince and ‘What Joan Didion Means’

Listen to this episode from Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso on Spotify. For the holiday week, we’re revisiting one of our favorite conversations with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and critic Hilton Als. At the top, we unpack his approach to writing profiles (5:50), inspired by the words of photographer Diane Arbus (6:10), and how he captured Prince in a new, two-part memoir entitled My Pinup (7:55). Then, Als reflects on his upbringing in Brownsville, Brooklyn (10:25), a timely passage from his 2020 essay "Homecoming" (14:40), and formative works by writers Adrienne Kennedy (20:58) and the late Joan Didion (27:05). On the back-half, we discuss the interplay of memory and writing (36:38), Hilton’s writing routine (40:55), his sources of hope today (44:30), and to close, a dialogue from Jean Rhys’ unfinished autobiography Smile Please (48:25). Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.