What elements of yourself do you see in Rosalie? In Abdullah? In Faisal? In Miriam? TMR: When asked about his famous character, Emma Bovary, Flaubert said “Madame Bovary, she is me.” I’m sure you get lots of questions about how autobiographical your characters are. Between flying around the country to give readings and celebrate her book publication with her family and friends, she took the time to sit down and answer a few questions for TMR about her new novel. Calling her a local writer is only half-accurate: she’s lived in Saudi Arabia, Texas, New Jersey, Iowa, and now, right here in Columbia where, among other things, she runs the Quarry Heights Workshop. Keija has just released her deubt novel, The Ruins of Us, on Harper Perennial. And it is also really wonderful to know that there is a writer here in Columbia not immediately connected to the university, and thriving with her own work. I can’t remember how the conversation started, but we talked for a solid half-hour about … well, a little bit of everything, with that effortless rhythm that happens when I speak to someone genuinely interesting. I first met Keija Parnissen last summer when she and her husband Michael stopped by The Missouri Review’s summer launch party.
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