Elizabeth Strout and Elena Ferrante discuss writing in (how else) letters

It's easy to think of famous authors as being finished products, rather than works in progress like the rest of us.

But Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout pulls no punches in a recent Guardian feature: She opens a letter to Neapolitan quartet author Elena Ferrante with gratitude at how Ferrante's books have encouraged her to take risks in her own writing.

And Ferrante responds with equal enthusiasm for Strout's own work, in particular My Name Is Lucy Barton.

To read their conversation (via letters) about writing and Ferrante's upcoming essay collection, In the Margins, head to the Guardian.

Related posts 

• The trials of corresponding with Elena Ferrante 

• Podcast: Elizabeth Strout talks about bumping back into Olive Kitteridge