Miranda July in Conversation with Lena Dunham

Last night I attended a wonderful event at BAM: a talk between Lena Dunham and Miranda July about July's new novel. I recently finished, and adored, The First Bad Man, and it was so exciting to hear the author discuss her work. She talked a lot about what the writing process was like for her, and her ideas and feelings about the characters and events in the novel. Lena Dunham asked great questions, and spoke about her own reactions to certain parts. This was very interesting, and made me question my own reactions. I read The First Bad Man so quickly, that maybe I didn't fully absorb what was happening. That's what made this conversation so valuable to me -- it deepened my experience of the work.

There were also lots of fun and humorous anecdotes, and lots of laughter. The two writers are friends IRL and I think this added to the fun.