Lisa Robertson : Riverwork

Lisa Robertson : Riverwork

From Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry by David Naimon, Milkweed Editions

June 8, 2026 · 2h 26m

About this episode

Lisa Robertson discusses her novel Riverwork, exploring themes of memory and history through the lens of a protagonist searching for her missing aunt.

Lisa Robertson’s Riverwork twins the mysterious disappearance of the great aunt of our protagonist, Lucy Frost, and that same aunt’s interest in a long-disappeared river, buried under the streets of Paris. As Lucy searches for traces of her aunt, by attempting to inhabit and complete her work on this long-forgotten river, erased histories about both come to the surface. Today’s unforgettable conversation—whether when talking about laundry or linguistics, text or textile, dust or menses, archivists or troubadours—floods designation, spills over with newly daylighted significations. For the bonus audio archive Lisa introduces us to and reads her translation of “Hags,” the long poem by Charles Baudelaire that is a germ for both of her novels, The Baudelaire Fractal and Riverwork . This joins many contributions from past guests including Dionne Brand, Christina Sharpe, Canisia Lubrin, Sheila Heti, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Bhanu Kapil, Kate Zambreno, Sofia Samatar and many more. To learn how to subscribe to the bonus audio and about the many other potential benefits and rewards of joining the Between the Covers community as a listener support, head…

People in this episode

Host: David Naimon

Guest: Lisa Robertson

Topics covered

  • literature
  • poetry
  • history
  • translation
  • memory
  • identity

Keywords

  • Riverwork
  • Lucy Frost
  • Charles Baudelaire
  • poetry
  • translation
  • memory
  • history
  • literature

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Between the Covers, Milkweed Editions

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