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The job of an interviewer is difficult: how to extract humanity from a person who spends hours being asked the same questions by dozens of people? How to get them to share something they wouldn’t share with any of these other people?

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Gee, this should help you kill some time at work. Two weeks ago I received a promotional email about a New Yorker event: a reading by Joshua Ferris and Karen Russell. I was excited. But I was also surprised to see that they were touted in the ad as “20 under 40 writers.”