A Conversation with Alison Lurie

As a member of the Cornell English Department, Professor Lurie has taught courses in literature as well as writing. These included treatment of such topics as children’s literature and children in literature that had not been appropriated by colleagues with advanced degrees, which she lacked. Several of her acclaimed novels have academic settings, reflecting her declared preference for writing about what she has experienced personally, but she debunks the notion that characters in her 'War Between the Tates' are based on Cornell faculty members. She speculates that if she had been ten years older than she is, she would never have been allowed to do any teaching in the Department, and if she had been ten years younger, she would have been allowed to do so much sooner.1_sfkj8un