Rebecca Yarros on literary tropes, writing through chronic illness and 'Fourth Wing'

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2024

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rebecca Yarros is the author of The Empyrean series, a wildly popular collection of "romantasy" novels. In a conversation with NPR's Emily Kwong at this year's National Book Festival, Yarros said she wanted to plot an enemies-to-lovers story when she began writing Fourth Wing, the first book in this series. In today's episode, Yarros talks about the genre tropes she tries to embrace and avoid in her writing. She also discusses working through a chronic illness, how history and politics shape her stories, and the influence of her husband's military experience on how she approaches themes of violence in her work.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limon coming at you with a bonus Saturday episode.
0:07.1	Listen, we work very hard on the books podcast because we wanted to bring you this very special
0:12.7	conversation with NPR's Emily Kwong and Rebecca Yaros, author of The Fourth Wing. If that title
0:18.7	doesn't ring any bells, please take a look at the New York
0:21.8	Times bestsellers list. As of this recording, it's been on there for 65 weeks, and it is one of
0:29.2	the leading titles in the Romanticie genre, that is, romance plus fantasy. This conversation
0:36.3	was recorded with the Library Congress as part of their national book festival,
0:40.4	so shout out to them.
0:41.5	And they got into a really thoughtful discussion about tropes.
0:45.9	And it's interesting to hear an undisputed master of a genre talk about not subverting
0:50.8	tropes, but using them, leaning into them in smart ways.
0:55.0	That's ahead.
0:57.1	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
1:01.9	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.
1:08.5	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:12.2	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:16.0	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:21.6	I wanted to ask you, romance and fantasy as a genre, romanticity, equal parts, both important, fantasy and romance together.
1:32.2	What does the breakout success of not only your book, but Romanticy as a genre in this moment,
1:37.1	tell you about what people need in the world?
1:40.1	I don't know, do you guys want to tell me?
1:41.9	Like, what is it?
	...

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