Poured Over: Alice Hoffman on The Book of Magic

And I had a great, great professor named Albert Guerard when I was starting out, and he said to me, “Some people will tell you to write what you know. But I’m going to tell you write what you can imagine.” And that was such a gift. Words are magic (and truth and love and power) in Alice Hoffman’s newest novel, The Book of Magic. It’s the fourth in a series that started with Practical Magic in 1995, and features three generations of the fabulous (and sometimes prickly) Owens family, as it cuts between Essex, Massachusetts and Essex, England. The Book of Magic delivers a truly satisfying, emotional read about familial love, and Alice Hoffman joins us on the show for a spoiler-free conversation about turning a beloved stand-alone novel into a series, writing about sisters and mothers and daughters, her favorite books of all time, Amelia Bassano (and those rumors), and more. Featured books: The Book of Magic, The Rules of Magic, Magic Lessons, Practical Magic, The Dove Keepers and The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.
Poured Over is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays.

An excerpt from this episode:
B&N: But who are you as a reader?
Alice Hoffman: You know, I think The Book of Magic really answers that because I have included I don’t know how many — I think about 20 books — that I completely loved throughout the text. And then at the end of the book, I have a list of them and I feel like it was my way of kind of like paying homage to books that I loved and I’m a very quirky reader, I like very different kinds of literature. So, I’m not tied into one particular kind of literature, but these are the books that made such a huge difference in my life as a reader, but also as a writer. I do have a list of books because the novel begins and ends in a library and within the pages I mentioned many book titles and these are some of my favorite books. And also if when you’re reading you look carefully you’ll find other references to other books that I love, but I really wanted to thank the authors of the books that changed my life. And, oh, just a few of them are Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, which is my favorite novel and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and all The Magic series, the children’s book, The Magic series by Edward Eager (Half Magic, Magic by the Lake) and of course, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and really all of Ray Bradbury’s books because he was a huge influence on me as a 12-year-old reader. I fell in love with his books and with his ability to write about everyday magic, magic that could be happening, you know, on the street where you lived, the street you walk down, and I was lucky enough to meet him before his death and he’s an amazing person. I think a lot of writers feel like he was kind of a godfather. And he writes about such a moral world. And he just really affected me and made me feel like I could write anything, I could write about anything. And I had a great, great professor named Albert Guerard when I was starting out, and he said to me, “Some people will tell you to write what you know. But I’m going to tell you write what you can imagine.” And that was such a gift.