Paris Review: Darryl Pinckney on Nonfiction
The Paris Review features Darryl Pinckney's Art of Nonfiction interview, critiquing the overemphasis on biographies versus novels by Baldwin/Woolf [https://x.com/i/status/2032109688901325278].
Darryl Pinckney, a novelist and essayist, is a long-time contributor to *The New York Review of Books*. His works include the novels *High Cotton* and *Black Deutschland*, and the non-fiction books *Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature*, *Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy*, and *Busted in New York and Other Essays*. Pinckney's connection to *The Paris Review* runs deep, as he conducted the "Art of Fiction" interview with Elizabeth Hardwick in 1985. Hardwick, a critic and novelist, was a significant figure in Pinckney's life, serving as a mentor and friend. He attended her creative writing class at Barnard College in 1973. Pinckney's latest book, *Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan*, is a memoir detailing his experiences in the New York literary scene and his relationship with Hardwick. The memoir also features anecdotes about other prominent writers such as James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, and Mary McCarthy.
