She Writes Press – Punctured Lines

It is our pleasure to present a conversation between Alina Adams, whose writing has been featured several times on Punctured Lines (here and here) and Irena Smith, whom we welcome for the first time. They happened to have crossed paths as newly arrived immigrant children in the U.S., and now they both have come out with new books. Alina Adams is the author of Go On Pretending (History Through Fiction, 2025; her essay about it is on the blog). Irena Smith is the author of Troika: Three Generations, Three Days, and a Very American Road Trip (She Writes Press, 2026). I met her earlier this year at her reading of Troika at LA’s beloved independent bookstore Book Soup; the reading was hosted by Prof. Lilya Kaganovsky, the chair of our department at UCLA, and as it turns out, Irena’s close friend from childhood. Alina and Irena conducted the conversation over Zoom and transcribed it, and it was edited for clarity and expanded in parts.