Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and novelist, author of American Dervish and Homeland Elegies, joins host Tess Callahan to talk about his new novel, The Radiance. The book follows a writer (also named Ayad) who wakes from a hit-and-run accident into an unbidden state of heightened perception that unfolds over eight months as he navigates an academic scandal in a politically divided town.
Ayad talks about writing as “melding” with a register of experience rather than executing a plan; the idea of autofiction as “doing the truth, but better”; the influence of Montaigne, Rousseau, and Plato’s cave; and what it means to come back down the mountain after a genuine experience of grace. He asks the political meaning of grace. We also get into Falstaff, Ayad’s father, and what constitutes greatness in a person.
The Radiance was published September 29, 2026. Ayad is touring 28 cities this fall, dates available here: https://ayadakhtar.com/
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