Willy Vlautin on spotlighting working-class American life in his novels and music

Article excerpt

Novelist Willy Vlautin built his career writing about people on the edges of the American dream: working-class families, lonely alcoholics, and those struggling to make ends meet in the fast-changing American West. He's also a musician, telling his stories through song. Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown traveled to Portland, Oregon, for our arts and culture series, CANVAS.