Christie Hodgen

In this interview before an audience at the Kansas City Public Library, Christie Hodgen talks about her novels, Hello, I Must Be Going and Elegies for the Brokenhearted, which are populated by heartbreaking yet funny characters. Both books began as short stories so Hodgen discusses the craft of writing short and long-form fiction and why, despite her own happy childhood, her work often deals with dysfunctional families, handled with her trademark humor. She also talks about commonalities she shares with her father, poet John Hodgen.