Q&A with Carlo Rotella

 

 

Carlo Rotella is the author of the new book What Can I Get Out of This?: Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics. His other books include The World Is Always Coming to an End. He is Professor of English at Boston College.

 

Q: What inspired you to write What Can I Get Out of This?

 

A: It's a book about what happens in the classroom, what it means, what value it has. In it I tell the story of one semester of one required freshman literature class. 

 

The semester is spring 2020, which started out as just another semester but was transformed by the covid pandemic in ways that obliged us to think hard about the value of school in general and face-to-face learning and teaching in the classroom in particular.

 

One of my main reasons for writing it is that the college classroom is a black box in our culture. There's no lack of strong opinions about what happens or doesn't happen there, but most of us tend to avoid the details. 

 

And yet many people who don't spend any time in classrooms are very sure that they know what's going on in there--from lowered standards to ideological indoctrination to failure to provide return on investment or equip young people for careers. 

 

So I thought it would be useful to open the black box and show some humans actually doing the humanities.

        

Also, I wanted to write about literature and about school in ways that do justice to the experience of people. Most writing about these subjects feels too abstract to me. But people's encounter with school and with literature is the opposite of that: it's immediate, full of feeling, often sweaty and uncomfortable. 

 

So I wanted to write a book about school and about the study of literature that was full of how humans feel. I did a lot of interviewing of my students to make sure that was possible.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: A significant proportion of students in a required literature course start the semester regarding the interpretation of literature as sorcery or bullshit. So part of my job as a teacher was to show my students that this kind of analysis is a craft you can learn and master, like building a cabinet or planting a garden. 

 

That was part of moving them from their initial reaction to having to take the course, which was often Can I get out of this?, to adding one more word to that question: What can I get out of this? 

 

Q: The author Reeves Wiedeman said of the book, “Carlo Rotella has written a book about the art of teaching that doubles as a guide to being part of any community.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Building classroom community has become much more important to me over the years. The cellphone and now AI have made college a lonelier experience than it used to be, and the pandemic accelerated the long-term waning of community on campus.  

 

While my students are generally more professional and accomplished than my generation of college students was, they are also more anxious and isolated. So I try to make the classroom a place where they feel not just free to speak but expected to speak, responsible for doing their part as a citizen. 

 

And the skills we're practicing in a discussion-based class--especially the delicate business of being a contributing member of the group without freeloading or taking over too much--are essential to belonging to all kinds of communities, from workplaces to families.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I hope that readers take away a fresh appreciation for just how much is going on in a classroom--not just between teacher and student or between student and student but in everyone's minds. 

 

One of the most important things to me in working on this book was to interview students in depth so that I could show a reader what's going on their heads. One of the many strange things about our national conversation about higher ed is that there aren't a lot of student voices in it, and I wanted to do something to put that right.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I'm writing a piece for The New York Times Magazine about teaching English in the age of AI. Then I have to decide what the next book is going to be about.  Maybe country music, maybe something else. Still thinking about that one.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Ben Yagoda

 

 

 

Ben Yagoda is the author of the new novel Alias O. Henry, which is based on the life of the writer O. Henry (1862-1910). Yagoda's many other books include O. Henry: 101 Stories. He lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

 

Q: As someone who has written about and studied O. Henry’s work, why did you decide to write a novel based on his life?

A: I started out with the idea of writing a biography of him, but in my initial research I discovered a biography from the 1950s, Alias O. Henry, by Gerald Langford, that was really good. Specifically, I didn’t feel that I could find out much more about O. Henry’s life than Langford had.

Meanwhile, I had started to read O. Henry short stories, and found I liked them, particularly the portrait they painted of New York City in the first decade of the 20th century.

The thought occurred to me to put the author—whose real name was William Sydney Porter—in that setting, use some of the facts of his life as tentpoles, try to work in variations on his actual stories, come up with answers for some of the questions that even Langford couldn’t answer, and see what came of it.

Along the way, I borrowed Langford’s title—I found I just couldn’t improve on it. 

Q: What did you see as the right balance between fiction and history as you wrote the novel?

A: It took a while to find the right one. I did a lot of research—both because that’s what I’m used to and enjoy doing, and as a way to procrastinate sitting down and making up stuff!—and when I finally did start to write, my challenge was to streamline the information about New York in this fascinating time to Goldilocks proportion: not too much, not too little, just right.

I hope and feel that in the final product, the characters complement the setting and vice versa.

Q: The Library Journal review of the book says, “O. Henry enthusiasts will get the literary references; however, intimate knowledge of his works isn't necessary to appreciate Yagoda’s clever irony, which pays homage to the master of the short story without attempting to overshadow him.” What do you think of that description?

A: What’s not to like?! It’s true that quite a few of O.Henry’s short stories show up in the novel, including his most famous one, and it was fun to come up with plausible origin stories for them.

As that review says, you don’t have to know the stories to enjoy the novel. But I hope the book sends readers back to the source, and possibly to an anthology I edited for the Library of America, O. Henry, 101 Stories.

Q: What do you see as O. Henry’s legacy today?

A: In his prime, he was probably the most popular short story writer in the country, but he fell out of favor not long after his death in 1910. Stories that relied on plot, not to mention the twist endings he specialized in, came across as old-fashioned, as did the sentimentality he sometimes displayed.

He’s still assigned in middle school and high school English classes, but that’s limited to a handful of his stories, notably “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Ransom of Red Chief.” But I hope the novel and the anthology will bring more readers to his work, which at its best is very sharp and often funny.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: A book about irony. No joke.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: I wish I could supply an O. Henry-esque twist at the end, but I think that about covers it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with William Holst

 

William Holst

 

William Holst is the son of the late Hinako Fujihara Hovhaness, author of the new biography Alan Hovhaness: Unveiling One of the Great Composers of the 20th Century. Alan Hovhaness was Holst's stepfather.  

 

Q: What was your role in creating this book about your stepfather, composer Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000)?

 

A: My mother wrote all the book content and had the stories in the order she wanted. Of course, my mother asked me about several incidents in the book to confirm the details.

 

After her passing, the book became our highest priority; we had to find a publisher that was onboard with what we needed in a publisher. My wife Coleen, my daughter Tracy and I edited the text to make the stories more readable but kept my mother’s writing style intact.

 

We wrote the Acknowledgement, Dedications, and Family History. We went through hundreds of family photos and organized the reviewers for content and accuracy.

 

We also managed the endorsers and the Foreword author and worked with the publisher to add all the book features such as book and book cover design, book cover and paper materials and special designs such as Alan’s music on the book sides and front/back pages. 

Hinako Fujihara Hovhaness

 

Q: For those who are unfamiliar with your stepfather’s work, what are some of the most important things they should know?

 

A: Alan Hovhaness was one of the most prolific classical composers with over 500 compositions, of those 67 being symphonies. His style was not popular during his early career, and he was ridiculed by classmates (including Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland) while at Tanglewood.

 

He remained true to his Armenian sound and was urged by a friend to study Indian, Japanese, and Korean cultures and incorporate their ancient music techniques into his compositions. His concept was to create beautiful and healing music, not just music du jour.

 

Due to his stubbornness to create his own sound and not submit to being a popularity lemming, Hovhaness did not fill auditoriums and was not well recognized by music enthusiasts. Now that young audiences are rediscovering the beauty of music, perhaps this is the reincarnation of Hovhaness music.  

 

Q: How would you describe the relationship between your mother and your stepfather?

 

A: Alan was 20 years older than my mother; however, they were obviously soul mates. There is a story about Alan visiting a psychic when he was younger and the psychic had visions of a young Japanese girl that Alan would meet and later marry.

 

My mother was very dedicated to Alan’s work and not only were they in love, but they created the perfect business partnership. Alan was the center of the organization, composing music that he heard in his head. My mother not only made sure that Alan was properly fed and cared for, but also managed the promotion, finances, and distribution of Alan’s music.

 

I lived with Alan and my mother for about two years after high school. They very rarely argued, however the one argument I do recall… during the argument my mother decided to become a nun and Alan a Buddhist monk and he walked out the door.

 

I spent the evening driving around the neighborhood searching for Alan; after convincing him to come home, he went straight to bed. In the morning my mother and Alan continued with their normal routines as if nothing occurred the night before.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I hope that the readers will be able to relate to the personal side of this great composer, that like any other human he had good days and bad, success and failure, and although he was a gentleman he had a great sense of humor. Alan was a severely ridiculed man who stuck by his beliefs and did not submit to the influence of fame and fortune.

 

This book was originally written to be a documentary but turned out to be a heartfelt love story. The book gives some insights to some of Alan’s other explorations; it is my wish that readers further investigate the life of Alan Hovhaness and learn more about the third most interesting man in the world, not just his music compositions.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Our highest priority currently is to organize, catalog, and promote Alan’s music. Of course, the purpose of the book was to aid his followers to better understand the personal side of the classical composer, but it is also used to reawaken and promote Hovhaness music.

 

In the process we have uncovered many additional astounding stories about Alan and his family that need to be told, which may include another book or documentary. In addition, both my mother and Alan have written hundreds of poems that can also be published.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Although we thought we knew Alan very well, since investigating his archives, my wife Coleen and I have learned so much more about Alan.

 

His involvement with the Bacon Society, Edgar Cayce, Reincarnation, Martha Graham, John Cage, Artie Shaw, Richie Havens, Carlos Santana, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney. His experience composing classical music and jazz music and how that influenced the early Rock and Roll sound.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Nov. 16

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Nov. 16, 1930: Chinua Achebe born.

Q&A with Cate Holahan

 

 

 

Cate Holahan is the author of the new novel The Kidnapping of Alice Ingold. Her other books include Her Three Lives. She has also worked as a journalist and a TV producer, and she lives in Tenafly, New Jersey. 

 

Q: How much was your new novel based on the 1970s kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst?

 

A: The kidnapping of Patty Hearst inspired a lot of this story. I see many similarities between the era in which she was taken and today.

 

Ms. Hearst was kidnapped on February 4, 1974. At that time, computers were entering the workforce. People could see the technological revolution on the horizon. There was significant concern, particularly among 20-somethings and recent college graduates, that they had been trained for employment which would no longer exist.

 

Such fears were stated most plainly in one of the famous missives from “Tania,” Patty Hearst’s nom de guerre, to her parents, written under the influence of her kidnappers: “Dad, you said you would see about getting more job opportunities for the people, but why haven’t you warned the people what is going to happen to them – that actually the few jobs they still have will be taken away… tell the people that the entire corporate state is, with the aid of this massive power supply, about to totally automate the entire industrial state, to the point that in the next five years all that will be needed will be a small class of button pushers; tell the people, Dad, that all of the lower class and at least half of the middle class will be unemployed in the next three years, and that the removal of expendable excess, the removal of unneeded people has already started.”

 

Like then, Americans find themselves on the cusp of another technological revolution and facing the same fears of massive job losses. The digital age is morphing into an era of artificial super intelligence.

 

Investment firm Goldman Sachs suggested over the summer that mass adoption of AI tech would result in displacement of 6 to 7 percent of the U.S. workforce in the coming decade. Moreover, it would create productivity gains without the need for increased labor participation.

 

While Goldman Sachs expects that new AI-influenced careers will develop to offset these job losses, it remains to be seen whether such employment opportunities will offer the security of prior industries.

 

The change from a manufacturing to a tech-driven economy created demand for higher-educated workers while also eliminating lower-skilled jobs that once were unionized and offered benefits such as pensions.

 

The lower-skilled jobs available today do not come with similar benefits and many of them are in the “gig economy” where work can be transient. Moreover, the jobs that many believe will be most immediately impacted are the entry-level positions that young people rely on to get a foot into their chosen industry.

 

The college grad kidnappers in my story share many of the anxieties that plagued young people in the mid-1970s. Those fears fuel them to take Alice Ingold, the daughter of an AI-tech genius whom they believe is stewarding a future that will leave them behind.

 

Q: How did you research the novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: It was important for me to capture the concerns of the kidnappers accurately. To do so, I read Jeffrey Toobin’s American Heiress about the Patty Hearst kidnapping and Patty Hearst: Her Own Story, written by Ms. Hearst and Alvin Moscow.

 

I also read many books on artificial intelligence including Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by MIT Professor Max Tegmark and The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI and former head of Deep Mind, as well as countless articles.

 

I also drew upon my knowledge as a former reporter for BusinessWeek and MSN Money, and a news producer at CNBC. During my journalism career, I had an opportunity to speak with Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Meg Whitman, and Jeff Bezos, among others.

 

I got a sense of the founder culture in Silicon Valley, the value put on innovation, and the attitude toward regulation and labor. From what I saw, there was an emphasis on building a better mousetrap without worrying so much about what else might be inadvertently caught or killed. And I think that perspective persists today.

 

Some of what I learned that surprised me is how much AI is already being used to automate the “knowledge economy.”

 

When I was a business reporter, algorithmic trading was confined to hedge funds like Renaissance Technologies, which was a leader in that space. Now every major investment firm and large bank employs algorithms to pick securities and trading strategies, and many are moving to AI-informed formulas.

 

AI is also extensively being used in the legal fields to automate work that was once the purview of paralegals. Lawyers are also using it to write arguments and briefs, enabling them to hire fewer associates.

 

Perhaps most concerning to me personally is the adoption of AI in the so-called creative fields. An AI actress recently made the rounds on social media. The human-looking artificial intelligence was trained on real performances without compensating the creators of that art.

 

Similarly, AI is being used to write books and screenplays without compensating the authors whose work it draws upon to inform its sentences.

 

Though we are starting to see a reckoning. A class action lawsuit against AI-firm Anthropic was just settled for $1.5 billion. The judgment is intended to compensate the authors whose books were used to train AI. Until that judgment, the sense was that AI firms would try to claim fair use as what the AI produced, drawing from all these sources, could not be considered direct plagiarism of any individual work.

 

All art is, to some extent, derivative. However, I think the adoption of AI to convey human emotions and struggles is not the same as a human being digesting existing art and creating something new, undoubtedly informed by their own life. It feels false to me. A photocopy of a photocopy. If this becomes a more dominant form of art, crowding out human creators, something essential will undoubtedly be lost.

Q: The writer Robert Dugoni called the book a “timely, twisty page turner of a parent’s worst nightmare and a future that should concern us all.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love that description because I think it gets to the heart of what I was trying to do, create a twisty page turner that referenced two of a parents’ worst fears. One, that your child would be taken by people who intend on harming them, and two that the world you’re bringing your child into will afford fewer opportunities than you enjoyed.

 

We all want our kids to achieve their dreams. And I think there’s parental guilt of handing over a world that threatens to make doing so more difficult.

 

My favorite character in the story is the mom, Catherine. She comes from a particular perspective as the product of generational wealth. She’s a snob, for sure. But she loves her daughter and wants her to be the best version of herself, and I think that’s relatable, even if her money is not.

 

Catherine needed to be wealthy to have created a daughter that would be a prime kidnapping target. But I also made her rich because I wanted to show, through Catherine, how having such resources separates a person from others and might blind them to the concerns not only of their fellow Americans but also of their own children.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I hope readers enjoy the thriller aspects of the story while also becoming engaged in the AI conversation that the kidnappers go to great lengths to have.

 

Like the AI-CEO in my story, I believe AI will undoubtedly create amazing opportunities for our society. It can crunch massive amounts of data enabling it to draw conclusions that are beyond most human beings. Undoubtedly, that will revolutionize medicine and healthcare. Maybe none of us suffer from cancer in the future.

 

However, like the kidnappers in my tale, I also believe we have to reckon with an AI future that threatens to dislocate workers faster than they can be retrained and make us more siloed because of the ability to have everything tailored to our individual tastes.

 

AI-created entertainment could deliver bespoke movies and literature based on user prompts. AI-influenced algorithms could further specialize our news sources so that we’re all living in eco-chambers.

 

At the same time, AI will make it more difficult for us to agree on what’s real and what’s not given how well it creates videos and images, often using real politicians and celebrities.

 

I think the challenge for everyone right now—though particularly for Americans since many AI companies are on our soil—is to decide what industries we should steer AI toward and which ones need us to protect human contributions. And I believe we must consider how the spoils of AI-fueled productivity gains will be divided. I hope this book encourages readers to become an active part of the conversation.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I just filed my latest book, Last Looks, which is an ‘80s-style thriller with a contemporary twist about a 20-something female stylist who travels to Paris along with her fiancé to work with a recent divorcee only to find that the client doesn’t just want a new look, she wants the stylist’s Instagram perfect life.

 

Of course, the story isn’t as simple as the logline. There are plenty of twists and turns, as well overarching themes concerning female competition and solidarity, and reproductive autonomy. That book comes out next year.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I love this book, and I hope readers love it, too. I think authors can write genre fiction that hits on higher concept themes without losing the thrills, and I’ve endeavored to do that here. Thank you for your time.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Cate Holahan. 

Q&A with Mason Donovan and Mark Kaplan

 

Mason Donovan

 

 

Mason Donovan and Mark Kaplan are the authors of the new book The Parenthood Advantage: Building Corporate Cultures That Value Working Parents. Their other books include The Inclusion Dividend. They are managing partners of The Dagoba Group, a global consulting firm.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Parenthood Advantage?

 

A: The idea grew out of personal experience. After the premature birth of our first child and four weeks in the NICU, our world changed overnight. Balancing long days at the hospital with work demands made it clear how unprepared most workplaces are for what new parents go through. We also heard story after story from others struggling to be both great parents and great employees.

 

Those experiences opened our eyes to a larger truth: the system wasn’t broken just for us—it was broken for millions of working parents. We wanted to write a book that reframes parenthood not as a career setback but as a source of strength. Because, in the end, becoming parents made us better at leading, collaborating, and prioritizing — the very skills organizations say they want most.

Mark Kaplan

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: We conducted more than 200 interviews with parents, managers, and executives across industries.

 

What surprised us most was how universal the experience was — the same emotional and professional transformations showed up everywhere. Parenthood seemed to fast-track emotional intelligence, resilience, and problem-solving in ways that formal leadership programs rarely do.

 

We also saw how fathers increasingly described the same identity shifts that mothers have voiced for years — realizing that caregiving changed their leadership style. That gave us hope that the language of empathy and balance at work is becoming gender-neutral.

 

Q: How did the two of you collaborate on the book? What was your writing process like?

 

A: We’ve worked together for decades, so collaboration was second nature. We divided interviews, swapped drafts, and built ideas through long early-morning calls—often before our toddlers woke up. 

 

We were living the subject while writing about it, so moments from our own parenting journeys naturally seeped into the work. It wasn’t just research—it was real life, playing out in real time.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: That parenthood isn’t a pause in one’s professional development — it’s an accelerator. The same skills parents use to survive sleepless nights and constant change — empathy, triage, adaptability — are the ones that make great leaders.

 

We also hope working parents see themselves differently: as assets, not liabilities. When organizations start to recognize that, they don’t just support parents — they strengthen the entire culture.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: We’re expanding The Parenthood Advantage into coaching and leadership programs for organizations — including a Parental Leave Coaching Program that guides both employees and managers through the phases we call Nesting, Fourth Trimester, and Returnship.

 

We’re also helping companies build cultures of ownership and belonging, where supporting working parents is seen as smart business, not just good policy.  There also might be another book in the near future.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: This project started as a professional study but quickly became personal. Writing it while raising young children gave us firsthand empathy for what working parents face. Hearing from readers who say the book made them feel seen has been the most rewarding part.

 

Ultimately, we hope The Parenthood Advantage sparks a new conversation — in boardrooms and at kitchen tables — about how parenthood can make us all better leaders, coworkers, and humans.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Hanna Diamond

 

 

 

Hanna Diamond is the author of the new book Josephine Baker's Secret War: The African American Star Who Fought for France and Freedom. She is a professor at Cardiff University in Wales.

 

Q: What inspired you to write about Josephine Baker’s experiences during World War II?

 

A: The truth is, I did not know much about Josephine Baker’s wartime contribution until, as a specialist historian of this period in France, I was commissioned to do some research on her activities during this period.

 

Once I started to delve into it and, in particular once I read Baker’s memoirs, I was amazed. I had no idea that she had agreed to work for the French secret services in 1939 and collected and transmitted intelligence not just during the phony war but throughout the war using her celebrity as a cover.

 

This was all a complete revelation to me and I determined that when I had the chance, I would follow up on all possible leads to find out more about it.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: After the initial project, I realised that there was a real gap in our knowledge about Josephine Baker’s activities during the war. This inspired me to apply for a fellowship to allow me to have the time to research the subject in more detail and to follow the archive trail in France, the US, and Britain.  

 

I took Baker’s memoir and that of her handler, Jacques Abtey, as a starting point and used these as a guide to follow up on any relevant material I could uncover relating to their activities. I looked through countless documents and also the personal archives of people they had spent time with.

 

The press also proved to be a valuable resource, especially the African American press which carried articles about Baker’s movements throughout the period. I was able to cross-check these various sources to map an accurate picture of where she was and when.

 

I was then able to drill down into a more detailed exploration of what she was doing at the various different stages of her wartime trajectory. She operated first in France (1939-1940) and then in North Africa (1941-1944) before returning to France in October 1944 and working there to raise funds for the resistance and entertain the troops until she was decommissioned in September 1945.

 

I was surprised by her deep commitment, and her courage. She took enormous risks, sometimes carrying out missions on her own. Remarkably, although her handler, Jacques Abtey, fell under suspicion, no one ever imagined that she could be doing this kind of undercover work.  

 

I was also particularly fascinated by my discoveries about her later activities after the Allied landings in North Africa. From 1943, she worked directly for the Gaullist Free French resistance movement engaged in propaganda activities as a cover for her ongoing espionage work, all of which has been completely overlooked until now.

 

Q: What would you say are some of the most common perceptions and misconceptions about Baker?

 

A: In France, Josephine Baker is best known as an exotic interwar music hall star, an image which is closely associated with her iconic banana skirt. In the US, she is probably better known as a somewhat eccentric postwar civil rights activist who adopted children from all over the world and spoke at the March on Washington in 1963.

 

While both of these images reflect key moments of Josephine Baker’s life, they are also very reductive. In reality, she was a fiercely intelligent multi-faceted individual who reinvented herself several times and adopted a series of different identities.

 

A consummate performer, she learnt how to use her celebrity to promote the causes she believed in and played on her eccentric image to achieve this.

 

During the war, when she worked as a spy, her celebrity persona enabled her to quite literally “hide in plain sight.” Her role as an international star afforded her access to people in the know who could help her acquire the intelligence she sought, and under cover of her concert tours, she was able to travel at a time when borders were shut, allowing her to pass on vital information to those who needed it. 

 

An African American woman, and a performer,  no one suspected that Josephine Baker could possibly be involved in the work she was actually doing. She may have been underestimated but she used this to her advantage and with remarkable effect.

 

She offered valuable wartime service and made a significant contribution to the cause of the Allies and the Gaullist Free French Resistance movement. 

Q: What do you see as Josephine Baker’s legacy today?

 

A: Josephine Baker came from a very deprived background and she was able to escape the confines of segregation, and make a career for herself, against the odds.

 

But rather than satisfy herself with fame and riches that she achieved when she was just 20 years old, she went on to better herself. She learnt to sing and to act, and later used her position to become a spy and a political activist.

 

Her example teaches us that we can have success whatever our origins and importantly, that we should make the most of the opportunities that come our way, and mobilise them to promote what we believe in.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: It is early days, and I don’t want to say too much, but my new project continues on the theme of women, France, war, and resistance. I’m working on the research now and hopefully will uncover exciting new material.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I think it is so important that we continue to work to uncover the untold stories of people who selflessly risked their lives during the war and whose contributions have been overlooked.

 

While much valuable work has already been done by historians and researchers to document the work of those who were engaged in less visible activities or who came from less traditional backgrounds including women and African Americans, more still needs to be done to populate the historical record with all their stories.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb