Tommy Orange and Kaveh Akbar Celebrate their Artistic Mind Meld

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

Have you ever felt so creatively connected to someone that it’s like you share the same brain? That’s how acclaimed writers Tommy Orange and Kaveh Akbar describe their relationship. They’re best friends who wrote their recent novels “Wandering Stars” and “Martyr” by sending each other “cheernotes” in which they “waved [their] pom poms with genuine excitement at what the other’d just wrought from the ether,” as Akbar puts it. The two are embarking on a Bay Area driving tour to celebrate their friendship and art, and they join us on Forum. Guests: Tommy Orange, novelist, his books include "Wandering Stars" and "There There," which was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. Kaveh Akbar, poet and novelist, his books include "Martyr!," a National Book Award finalist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, a wellness resort in Baja, California, just an hour from San Diego,
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1:09.5	From KQED. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Nina Kim. Coming up on forum, have you ever felt so creatively
1:31.0	connected to someone that it's like you share the same brain? That's how acclaimed writers Tommy
1:36.1	Orange and Kaveh Akbar describe their relationship, their best friends who wrote their recent novels,
1:42.3	Wondering Stars, and Martyr, by sending each other
1:45.5	cheer notes. Or as Akbar puts it, they wave their pom-poms with genuine excitement at what the
1:50.6	other just wrought from the ether. Akbar and Orange are about to embark on a driving tour to celebrate
1:55.6	their friendship and art, and they join us next on Forum. I'm Mina Kim. You may know writer Tommy Orange for his celebrated novels, Wondering Stars, and They're There, which was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize.
2:37.0	And you may know Kavei Akbar for his novel Martyr, a 2024 National Book Award finalist, or for his poetry collections.
2:45.1	What you may not know is that Akbar and Orange are best friends. And while writing their latest novels,
2:53.1	they exchanged pages of their work weekly and gave each other words of encouragement
	...

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