Stewart O’Nan II

n the second half of this conversation with Stewart O’Nan at the Kansas City Public Library, he discusses his study of character and human nature in his writing. The author of 20 plus books, including Emily, Alone and Last Night at the Lobster, O’Nan also talks about how reading feeds his writing, citing Saul Bellow, Joseph Conrad, Flannery O’Connor, Evan Connell, and his teacher Russell Banks. UMKC’s 2017 Cockefair Chair Writer-in-Residence reads from his recent novel, City of Secrets, and discusses what inspired him to fictionalize this account of the underground resistance and terrorism in Jerusalem after World War II. The show ends with a 2018 phone conversation with O’Nan in Pittsburgh to talk about his hometown and the aftermath of the Squirrel Hill mass shooting, and his forthcoming 2019 book, Henry, Himself. Part one of this conversation with Stewart O’Nan is also available in our audio archive.