Yiyun Li is the author of several works of fiction and nonfiction and a professor of Creative Writing at Princeton University. She holds two MFA’s from Iowa in both fiction and nonfiction. Her books include the story collection A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, the novels Where Reasons End and The Book of Goose, and the memoirs Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life and Things in Nature Merely Grow, which won the Pulitzer prize this year and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her work frequently appears in the New Yorker, the Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Prize Stories, and elsewhere.
She joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest novel, Music Against the Night. It is the first in a trilogy. Yiyun talks about structure, particularly when writing a trilogy. She shares her research process and why she relies on primary texts. She discusses why she works on multiple projects at once, her cure for writer’s block, her approach to dialogue, and so much more.
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(Recorded on October 16, 2026)
Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, etc.)