meet the author: katie kitamura
One of America’s most brilliant novelists, recently shortlisted for the Booker Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, in an exclusive conversation in Brussels.
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Katie Kitamura is an American journalist, writer and critic of Japanese origin. She holds a PhD in American literature, teaches creative writing at New York University and lives in Brooklyn with the writer Hari Kunzru (The Illusionist).
After the publication of her first two novels (The Longshot and Gone to the Forest), Kitamura’s international career took off in 2017 with A Separation, a fascinating psychological thriller set in the Peloponnese. It was followed by Intimacies, which delved into the mind of an interpreter at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. With her fifth novel, Audition – shortlisted for the Booker Prize, longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize – Kitamura has cemented her status as a leading American writer, admired by Barack Obama as well as by fellow writers Samantha Harvey, Hernan Diaz and Lauren Groff.
Audition
Audition opens in New York with a glimpse into the daily life of an accomplished actress. Married to a man she loves, she is enjoying a string of successful theatre productions. But a young stranger throws her life into turmoil when he announces that he is her son. Who are they to one another? It is with this question that Katie Kitamura, at the height of her artistry, sets in motion a game of deception. Blurring the lines between reality and performance, Audition is a multilayered book that questions the roles we all play, more or less consciously, in our lives. Readers are kept on their toes. Loosely inspired by Rosemary’s Baby, Audition is a brilliant, unsettling and fascinating book.
Don’t miss this unique chance to meet the American writer during her visit to Brussels. She will be in conversation with author Saskia De Coster.
About Audition
‘A lightning bolt of a novel.’
‘Katie Kitamura is one of our most brilliant writers, saying far more in her silences, blank spaces, and disruptions than most novelists can say in a hundred thousand words. Audition is eerie, a book so cold it feels hot.’
about the interviewer
Saskia De Coster (b. 1976) is the author of a unique body of work. Her books have been translated into more than ten languages. Her novel Nachtouders (2019) was shortlisted for the Libris Literature Award. In 2025 she released Pink Lady in the Terloops series published by Uitgeverij Van Oorschot. Her latest novel, De laatste sessie, was released by Borgerhoff & Lamberigts.
portraits: © clayton cubbit, saskia de coster @ johan jacobs
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