Novelist Perrotta headlines LITFest
LITFest, Harvard’s celebration of the written word, returns this weekend with readings, panels, and workshops featuring literary voices in fiction, nonfiction, oral storytelling, poetry, and television. The festival begins Friday and ends Saturday in a conversation with novelist Tom Perrotta, author of “The Leftovers,” and Nick Cuse ’13, who writes for the adapted version of the work for HBO television with Perrotta. The talk will begin at 7 p.m. in Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall. The two authors, along with Bret Johnston, head of Harvard’s Creative Writing program, spoke with the Gazette about what goes on in a writers’ room, why writing isn’t a special-occasion activity, and what about the television show improves on the book. GAZETTE: How did you learn to write? PERROTTA: I’ve had much more of an old-school writing education. I took a lot of undergrad classes, and then got my M.F.A. at Syracuse in the mid-1980s with Tobias Wolff. I...