Writing a fourth memoir is somewhat unheard of but for Peter Godwin it’s an even more personal note. Not a grief memoir so much as an exploration in memory of the passing of his mother, the end of his marriage and moving on, Peter shares the poignant moments of his life so far in ‘Exit Wounds’. He joins Georgina Godwin – his sibling – to discuss childhood memories of their mother, the process of his latest work and writing multiple autobiographies of his life so far. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello, this is Meet the Writers.
I'm Georgina Godwin.
My guest today was, like me, born and raised in Zimbabwe.
He's the author of six nonfiction books, including A White Boy in Africa, which received the George Orwell Prize and the Esquire Apple Waterstones Award, and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, which won the Borders Original Voices Award.
His book the Fear was selected by the New Yorker as a Best book of the Year.
He's taught writing at Wesleyan and Columbia and served as president of the PEN American Center.
He's an Orwell Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow.
He lives in New York City.
And his latest book is a memoir entitled Exit A Story of Love, Loss and Occasional wars.
Peter Godwin, welcome to Meet the Writers.
Thank you, Georgina.
Thank you.
Georgina Godwin, Yes, I expect the listeners have probably made that connection.
Peter Godwin is, in fact, my brother.
And it's really wonderful to have you here across the microphone from me.
I mean, if I were feeling particularly mean, this would be a chance to really, really grill you about our childhood and perhaps get my own back.
But actually, the way I normally start these interviews is talking about people's youth, where they were born, were they born in a literary household, what that was like.
But of course, I know all that to a degree.
You're a little older than me.
And so we had a kind of separate childhood in a way.