New York Times: Elizabeth Strout: By the Book

Where and when do you like to read?

For years I did most of my reading on the F train between Brooklyn and Manhattan. … When I travel …  I read as soon as I sit down; it’s very helpful. There’s something about being in the private world of a book that is intensified by the bustle of the “real” world right next to it.

The author of “The Burgess Boys” and “Olive Kitteridge” thinks the president should read Barbara Pym to give him “a few minutes to completely relax.”

"Elizabeth Strout: By the Book"
New York Times Sunday Book Review
March 28, 2013

Honorary Degree from Bates College

On May 30, Elizabeth was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from her alma mater, Bates College, at the college’s 144th commencement ceremony.  

From the President’s Conferral:

Elizabeth Strout, your eye for the telling detail, your feel for the undercurrents of human relationships, and your ability to shape words into worlds that live vividly on the page have made you one of the outstanding novelists of our time. Therefore, by the authority vested in me by the Board of Trustees, I hereby confer upon you the degree Doctor of Letters, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities which here and everywhere pertain to this degree.

Read the full Citation and President’s Conferral ▸

A video of Elizabeth's remarks:

"The best part of what waits for you is that liberating prize of life, those remarkable moments when we understand that we are not the most important person in the world. The man on the side of the road is. The person on the airplane suffering is."

Read Elizabeth’s commencement speech ▸