George Saunders

Asked in an interview if his book Tenth of December felt different from his previous three collections, George Saunders replied, “So in this book—although there’s still a lot of cruelty and darkness and all of that—I found my eye being drawn to the moments when things don’t go totally down the shitter, and asking, well, how does that happen?” He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and has taught in Syracuse University’s MFA creative-writing program since 1996.