Editor’s Note: This exchange is part of a series of brief interviews with emerging writers of recent or forthcoming books. If you enjoyed it, please visit other interviews in the I’ve Got Questions feature.
- What’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?
My book is called Breakfast Wine: A Memoir of Chasing an Unconventional Life and Finding a Way Home. It’s a memoir-in-essay, to be published by Apprentice House Press on June 10, 2025.
- In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?
Braiding the geopolitical and intimately personal, Alex Poppe’s memoir, Breakfast Wine, plumbs the depths of yearning. As an English language instructor and humanitarian aid volunteer in Iraq, Poppe chases adventure, purpose, agency, and belonging while confronting America’s nebulous role in the world. In fierce yet lyrical language and inventive structure, Poppe captures the resilience of the human spirit and the search for identity amidst chaos. By turns laugh-out-loud hilarious and deeply tender, Breakfast Wine reflects Poppe’s thirst for living an authentic life while staying true to her nomadic nature.
- What’s the book’s genre (for fiction and nonfiction) or primary style (for poetry)?
Memoir-in-essay
- What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?
Booklist gave it a starred review, saying: “With machete sharpness and magical imagery, Poppe extols the allure and apprehension of Kurdistan’s people as she embraces their culture and attempts to prepare them and herself for an uncertain future. A joyous, sobering, and spirited memoir of place and the chance encounters that can shape a lifetime.”
- What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between? [Is your book like Moby Dick or maybe it’s more like Frankenstein meets Peter Pan?]
Breakfast Wine is comparable to Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures, by Andrew Thomson, Kenneth Cain, and Heidi Postlewait, which hugely inspired my pivot away from acting and into humanitarian aid. Suzy Hansen’s Notes on a Foreign Country was another influential book. A more recently published comparable title is Jenny Erpenbeck’s Not a Novel: A Memoir in Pieces.
- Why this book? Why now?
Breakfast Wine shows the resilience of women and youth post-conflict. As our country becomes increasingly polarized and the information ecosystem gets more and more polluted with mis/dis/malinformation, my hope is that reading Breakfast Wine will encourage curiosity and empathy for “folks over there,” especially those being vilified in our current political discourse. One of Breakfast Wine’s main themes is this concept of home; what ties us to a place? What unties us? How do you make sense of a war-interrupted life?
- Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?
I am really proud of and grateful for the opportunity to teach in Kurdistan, Iraq. I’ve taught in eight countries, and students are great everywhere. It’s the institutions around them that succeed or fail. Yet there’s a singular sweetness to students in the Middle East, be they Kurdish, Iraqi, Syrian, or Yazidi. Writer and theologian Frederick Buechner theorized that we find our true vocation where our deep gladness meets the world’s great need. I found deep gladness and joy in those classrooms.
- What do you want readers to take away from the book?
I hope readers gain a new perspective on Iraq, different from what is portrayed in cinema or even on mainstream media. Three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly has reviewed Breakfast Wine on Goodreads writing, “What can change people’s minds? What will make people refuse and resist wars? Alex believes in the power of stories. Her impassioned writing in Breakfast Wine will roil the waters, fueling concern, evoking laughter, and touching ‘the deep heart’s core.’ Readers will find, in Breakfast Wine, an unusual contribution to anti-war literature and a lively call to uphold human rights.”
- What food and/or music do you associate with the book?
Sia’s “Titanium” gave me the literal last paragraph of the book. I associate an alcoholic beverage called a latino with northern Iraq, oddly enough, because it is the only place I have ever had them. The are made with a shot of tequila drowned in a pilsner and topped off with a generous pour of fresh lemon juice. The glass can be rimmed with salt and/or sumac.
- What book(s) are you reading currently?
I am reading the gorgeously heartbreaking The Hollow Half by Sarah Aziza.
Learn more about Alex on her website.
Follow her on Instagram or LinkedIn
Buy the book from Amazon or Bookshop.org.
