Literature on Screen: "You" with Caroline Kepnes and Penn Badgley

I had roughly six weeks’ notice to prepare for the 90-minute discussion I moderated for the PEN/Faulkner Foundation on Sept. 23 between Caroline Kepnes, author of the bestselling thrillers You and Hidden Bodies, and Penn Badgley, who plays the homicidal narrator of those books on the Netflix series they spawned. Given that I had to read two 500ish-page novels and watch 20 hours of Netflix, that was a reasonable amount of time! But I was pleased with how the discussion turned out, and particularly that I managed to make my office/bedroom look enough like a recording booth to fool Mr. Badgley.

The PEN/Faulker people have now posted a video of the even, which you can watch here if you like.

IN EIGHT HOURS! It’s my first time conducting a live interview with the author of bestselling novels about a predator & the actor who plays that predator on TV so I left my keys in my door all night & did not discover this until a neighbor knocked at 8 AM to alert me. Good omen! https://t.co/iOn4iAvppB

— Chris Klimek (@ctklimek) September 23, 2020