Hi, everyone, and welcome to a new episode of Women Who Travel, a podcast from Connie Nass Traveler.

I'm Meredith Carey, and with me, as always, is my co-host, Lalea Aricoglu.

Hello.

We are both back from vacation and joined by a very special guest whose latest book Matrix

traveled with each of us on our recent trips.

To chat all things, travel, books and more, we have Lauren Graff, author of Fates and Furies

and Florida, an amazing short story collection. We've talked about her books many times on the podcast

and are so excited to be finally sitting down with her. Thank you so much for joining us.

I am delighted to be here. Thank you. So, Riverhead's

lovely, lovely Gin Dilling Martin gave us a glimpse of what to expect from Matrix on a recent

episode. But now that it's officially out, we want to ask, what is this book about and what do you

hope readers take away from it?

Starting with a small question.

So Matrix is about a 12th century abyss, who becomes Marie de France, who is an actual historical figure.

She wrote a bunch of poems called Le,

which are really exciting.

I would say fantasy, like short stories in poetry form.

And we don't know much about her, right?

Because women at the time were not necessarily

all that interesting unless they birthed kings or they were married to kings

or they were the daughters of kings and we don't know who Marie de France actually was.

So it was my way of grappling with some contemporary issues but also being able to do it slant.

...