SUN, FEB 19, 2023
11:00 AM ET | FLOOR 1

Why Do I Have This Yearning?

A literary conversation with Chris Beha, writer, and editor of Harper’s Magazine, and Ron Hansen, novelist, moderated by Greg Wolfe, writer and Slant Books managing director

Throughout history, we have looked to literature to help us understand who we are, to delve deeply into the mysteries of the heart. The classic idea behind all great literary storytelling is the author’s exploration of a protagonist’s motivation—what does he or she yearn for? In this session, two of America’s leading novelists will discuss how their stories address the nature of desire. After all, if so many literary works depict the way desire gets us into trouble, perhaps desire itself is the problem. But there is another possibility: when it comes to desire, fiction may be uniquely suited to tell us about what is irreducible—original, true, enduring—in the restless pilgrim we call the human heart.