Of course, there were already many women like this, but people don’t know about them because we live in an age of sexism, unredeemed. I always believed that I wanted to be like a female John Updike or a female Philip Roth or a female Saul Bellow. I’ve published 10 novels and 10 books of nonfiction. What can you tell me about your creative practice as it relates to working between these different genres?

You’re a novelist, essayist, and poet with a new collection, The World Began with Yes, out this Spring. My experience has been the same with younger men-that they get very attached and I get bored. I turned the story upside down because I actually believe that the “older woman and the younger man” is a sexist story that came down through the ages. In my Sappho book, Sappho has an affair with a much younger man and he jumps off a cliff when she is bored with him. The classical idea is that Sappho committed suicide because she was in her 50s and she had an affair with a much younger man and he dumped her. However, she also brings people together who end in suicide because the Greeks believed that the gods were not always kind. The last thing he set was “Talking to Aphrodite,” a poem in which Aphrodite is talking about her tricky life and how she brings people together who fall in love. With classical music, I’ve been collaborating with Richard Danielpour, a distinguished classical composer. I’ve actually had these sorts of collaborations many times. I also appear on the record, but mostly, Vanessa and Peter set my poems to music, and they did beautiful work. Do with them what you want.” I gave them complete freedom. So, I gave them a book of my collected poems and I said, “Okay, kids. He’s extremely talented and he was married to one of my favorite people in the world, Vanessa. At the time that record was made, Vanessa Daou was married to my nephew Peter Daou, who is a musician and the second son of my elder sister. How does it feel to see your work exist in these different forms? Recently Vanessa Daou’s Zipless: Songs from the Works of Erica Jong was reissued for its 25th anniversary. Your work has been translated and interpreted in a variety of different ways.

Fear of dying erica jong