Helen Phillips is the author of six books, including, most recently, the novel Hum, a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Her novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat, a New York Times Notable Book, was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her debut collection, And Yet They Were Happy, was named a notable collection by The Story Prize and was re-released in 2023. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and the New York Times, and on Selected Shorts. She is a professor at Brooklyn College.
What are you working/currently trying to work on these days?
I’m in the early exciting confusing stages of a new novel that’s set in an even more distant future than my most recent novel Hum.
What’s your workshop style, and what can people expect at Lit Fest?
My workshop style is very student-centered and collaborative; creating a supportive and rigorous community is always a high priority for me. At Lit Fest, my workshop will be generative, and oriented toward exploring and experimenting with different narrative structures.
If you could only bring three books with you on a deserted island, which ones would you choose, and why?
As of today, I’d bring The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert, The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, and Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, all of which I’m reading as research for my new novel. And all of which might help provide perspective on the situation of being stuck on a deserted island.
What’s one artist or writer more people should know about?
At Lit Fest this summer, Helen Phillips will be teaching her Advanced Weeklong Fiction Workshop: Experiments in Structure. Interested in working with her? Apply today!
To learn more about Lit Fest, tuition, fellowships, and advanced class admittance, click here.
