Rachel Cusk is a renowned British-Canadian author celebrated for her distinctive and thought-provoking literary style. Born in 1967 in Saskatoon, Canada, and raised in the UK, Cusk's work often explores themes of identity, family, and the complexities of modern life.
Rachel Cusk will read at ilb on 10 September at Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
What books are on your bedside table?
A collected Penelope Fitzgerald, I Could Not Believe It by Sean DeLear, A Child of the Jago by Arthur Morrison and Within the Walls by my favourite novelist, Giorgio Bassani
Which book or author do you always return to?
Woolf, Sebald, Jarman.
What kind of reader were you as a child?
Obsessive. A true nose in a book kid, everywhere, all the time.
When working on a new project, how do you sift through competing ideas in order to move forward?
I don’t have competing ideas. They come along occasionally and I surf them for as long as I can.
What writing habit do you have that is impossible to shift? (e.g., a particular snack, writing hours, location, caffeine consumption, etc.)
A cup of tea at 4. But why would I want to shift that?
The internationales literaturfestival berlin (ilb) has become essential to Berlin’s literary calendar. What do you connect with the city?
Hooded crows, Stolpersteine and many ghosts.