Memoir Meets Detective Story with Padma Viswanathan and Tracy O’Neill

The Center for Fiction welcomes two accomplished authors—Padma Viswanathan and Tracy O’Neill—to celebrate their new books which blend the detective genre with memoir. Viswanathan, a Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist, tells the tale of her friendship with Phillip, a kind, working-class queer man, in her book, Like Every Form of Love. Phillip shares with Viswanathan the story of his checkered childhood, his abusive father, and his illusive stepmother Del who happens to be a convicted bank robber. While Phillip allows Viswanathan to tell his story, she begins to fear the harm that retelling his traumas will do to both him and their friendship. O’Neill, an alum of The Center for Fiction / Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellowship program, also explores a tantalizing mystery through her memoir Woman of Interest. The book follows O’Neill as she becomes her own detective, investigating what happened to the mysterious mother she never met. Featuring a femme fatale and a former CIA operative, her search for her biological mother illuminates the kind of woman she is and wants to be. Viswanathan and O’Neill will discuss their memoirs and the ways by which they broke genre conventions to craft their stories. After the conversation, both authors will sign books.