I'm a Writer But: Recent Episodes
Alex Higley and Lindsay Hunter
We're writers, but...I'm a Writer But is a podcast from Lindsay Hunter and Alex Higley. We talk to writers with, you know, LIVES, about how they make it work, or not.
Eden Robins (Franny Stands Up) discusses her new novel, catharsis in comedy, how being a funny woman is STILL transgressive, the terror of writing the jokes for the book, the intermingling of trauma and pain and humor, Chicago history, and more! Eden Robins loves novels best, but they take forever so she also writes short stories and self-absorbed essays at places like Catapult, USA Today, LA Review of Books, Apex magazine, Shimmer, and others. Her debut novel When Franny Stands Up was named a best book of 2022 by the Chicago Reader, a best queer book of 2022 by Autostraddle, and Best Book of the Month by Bustle and Buzzfeed. She co-hosts a science podcast called No Such Thing As Boring with an actual scientist and produces a monthly live lit show in Chicago called Tuesday Funk. Previously, she sold sex toys, wrote jokes for Big Pharma, and once did a stand-up comedy set to an audience who didn't boo. She lives in Chicago, has been to the bottom of the ocean, and will never go to space. Find out more scintillating tidbits at monkeythumbs.com and on Twitter and Instagram @edenrobins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Daniel Hornsby discusses his new novel, Sucker, as well as the difficulty of editing a book’s opening, tech hubris, writing a character who inhabits the punk/DIY world and is full of shit, caves are great but spelunking is idiotic, Celine Dion is a time lord, and so much more! Plus: Alex has returned for one ep only! Keep up with all things Great Place Books and Alex's novel True Failure! Daniel Hornsby is the author of the novels Sucker and Via Negativa, and his stories and essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, The Missouri Review, and Joyland. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Isabel Kaplan discusses her bestselling novel, NSFW, writing an authentic codependent relationship, pushing past catharsis and resolution rather than crafting a traditional ending, her use of dialogue and conversation, querying agents at age 12, what it’s like to have a viral essay, and more! And: stay tuned at the end to hear excerpts from some exciting new small press releases from Grant Maierhofer and Shannon McLeod! Isabel Kaplan is the author of the national bestselling novel NSFW, which was a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and an Amazon “Best Book of 2022.” She is also the author of the viral Guardian essay “My boyfriend, a writer, broke up with me because I’m a writer” and the national bestselling young adult novel Hancock Park. She studied English at Harvard, holds an MFA in creative writing from NYU, and was born and raised in Los Angeles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Ben Hinshaw discusses his debut novel, Exactly What You Mean, as well as shaping this novel-in-stories, how parenthood changed his writing, locating and maintaining his authentic voice, his process, the weird feelings that accompany publication, and more! Ben Hinshaw’s writing has received an O. Henry Award and appeared in Granta, Harvard Review, Story, The Carolina Quarterly, The White Review and elsewhere. He earned his MA in creative writing at UC Davis and has received grants and scholarships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Bread Loaf, and the Community of Writers. Born on the island of Guernsey, Ben has lived in London, Nottingham and Northern California. He currently lives on Guernsey with his wife and daughters. Ben’s debut novel is Exactly What You Mean, published by Viking and selected for BBC Two's Between the Coversbook club. Exactly What You Mean was called "brilliant" and "remarkable" by The Sunday Times, "a notable debut from a smart and capable author" by Hilary Mantel, and "riveting and beautifully patterned" by Max Porter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Kathleen Hale talked about the extensive research and work that went into her new book, SLENDERMAN: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls, as well as how she rewrote its 680+ page manuscript, how being canceled brought her to the story, the Wisconsin justice system, and more. Kathleen Hale is a true crime author and TV writer based in Los Angeles. She is the author of four books. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, among other outlets. Hale’s article on Gabby Petito was Vanity Fair’s most read piece of 2022. It was optioned by FilmNation. Her fourth book, SLENDERMAN: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls, was optioned by Littleton Road Productions and sold to Peacock. SLENDERMAN was nominated for an Edgar Prize. It also won the 2022 Midland Writers Award for Non Fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Anne K. Yoder (The Enhancers) discusses her “poet’s novel”; writing a dystopian, cross-genre, fictional pharmaceutical packet; the long revision process; running the arts collective/press Meekling Press; and more! Anne K. Yoder is the author of the novel The Enhancers, which was selected as a must-read by Wired, Vulture, Nylon, and elsewhere. Her fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in Fence, BOMB, Tin House, NY Tyrant, and MAKE, among other publications, and has been recognized in Best American Nonrequired Reading. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks and is a member of the Chicago-based publishing and arts collective, Meekling Press. She writes, lives, and occasionally dispenses pharmaceuticals in Chicago. Amanda Goldblatt's novel is Hard Mouth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Tania James discusses her new romp of a novel, LOOT, and how it helped her re-find her way as a writer, staying in it over a long career, researching 18th century Mysore and Europe, working with Knopf, and more! Tania James is the author of the novels The Tusk That Did the Damage and Atlas of Unknowns and the short-story collection Aerogrammes. Her fiction has appeared in Freeman’s, Granta, The New Yorker, O, The Oprah Magazine, One Story, and A Public Space. Tania has been a fellow of Ragdale, MacDowell, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Fulbright Program. She teaches in the MFA program at George Mason University and lives in Washington, D.C. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Coco Picard talks to us about the decade she spent working on her new book, using constraints, locating the reader, opening her book with a "magical transformation," writing a funny book about dying, and more! Coco Picard is a writer, cartoonist, and curator. She is the author of The Healing Circle (August, 2022; Red Hen Press), which is the winner of the Red Hen Press Women's Prose Prize, and of two graphic novels, Meowsers (2022) and The Chronicles of Fortune (2017), which was nominated for a DiNKy Award. Art criticism and comics have otherwise appeared under the name Caroline Picard in Artforum, Hyperallergic, The Paris Review, and Seven Stories Press, among others. She started the Green Lantern Press in 2005, earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute and was a Bookends Fellow at Stony Brook University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Elisa Gabbert talks to us about conceptualizing her audience(s), the difference for her between writing prose and poetry, “borrowing greatness” from other authors as well as Reddit and Wikipedia, “pseudo-sequiturs,” titles, and more! Elisa Gabbert is the author of six collections of poetry, essays, and criticism: Normal Distance (Soft Skull); The Unreality of Memory & Other Essays, out now from FSG Originals and Atlantic UK; The Word Pretty (Black Ocean, 2018); L’Heure Bleue, or the Judy Poems (Black Ocean, 2016); The Self Unstable (Black Ocean, 2013); and The French Exit (Birds LLC, 2010). The Unreality of Memory and The Word Pretty were both named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and The Self Unstable was chosen by the New Yorker as one of the best books of 2013. She writes the On Poetry column for the New York Times, and her work has appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, The Believer, The New York Times Magazine and Book Review, the New York Review of Books, the Guardian Long Read, the London Review of Books, A Public Space, The Nation, the Paris Review Daily, American Poetry Review, and many other venues. Her next collection of nonfiction, Any Person Is the Only Self, will be out in 2023 from FSG. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Christina Cooke (BROUGHTUPSY, Jan. 2024) talks to us about spending 11 years writing her debut novel, working on it at the Iowa Writers Workshop and MacDowell, the stamina of being a writer, all the “life stuff,” the ego death of going on submission, and more! Christina Cooke’s writing has previously appeared in PRISM international, The Caribbean Writer, Prairie Schooner, Epiphany: A Literary Journal, and elsewhere. A MacDowell Fellow and 2022 Journey Prize winner, she holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Born in Jamaica, Christina is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today Steve Almond (All the Secrets of the World) talks to us about scorpions, taking three decades to finish his first novel, how he came to write a “social novel,” writing from the perspective of a teenaged Latina, Nancy Reagan, and a man who lusts after teenaged girls while maintaining the book’s authenticity, and more! Steve Almond is the author of eleven books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. His essays and reviews have been published in venues ranging from the New York Times Magazine to Ploughshares to Poets & Writers, and his short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Mysteries, and Best American Erotica. Almond is the recipient of grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. He cohosted the Dear Sugars podcast with his pal Cheryl Strayed for four years, and teaches Creative Writing at the Neiman Fellowship at Harvard and Wesleyan. He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts, with his family and his anxiety. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Andrew Bomback talks to us about using his experience as a formerly angry father to write a cultural history on modern parenting, moving from writing fiction to nonfiction, the pressure cooker of parenthood today, looking for answers in parenting books, and more! Andrew Bomback is Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the author of DOCTOR (2018) and LONG DAYS, SHORT YEARS (2022). His essays have appeared in the Atlantic, Los Angeles Review of Books, McSweeney's, and elsewhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today Deborah Shapiro (CONSOLATION) talks to us about her new novel, writing about grief, the journey to her decision to self-publish this amazing, gorgeous, “quiet” book, working with Bookmobile, the power of simple covers, and more! Deborah Shapiro is the author of the novels The Sun in Your Eyes (a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice), The Summer Demands, and Consolation. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Sight Unseen, Chicago Magazine, Literary Hub, Washington Square Review, and elsewhere. She lives with her husband and son in Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Sara Flemington (EGG ISLAND) talks to us about her debut novel, moving it from short story to longer narrative, its path to publication, the lit scene in Toronto, writing mantras, and more! Sara Flemington is the author of the novel, Egg Island. Her work has previously appeared in publications such as subTerrain, The Humber Literary Review, The Feathertale Review, and Paper Darts, among others. Sara lives in Toronto, Canada. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Luke Geddes (Heart of Junk) talks to us about his ideal relationship with his fans, how readings can go wrong, the unique way his book found a publisher, kitsch and pop culture, his record company, and more! Luke Geddes holds a PhD in comparative literature and creative writing from the University of Cincinnati. He lives in Milwaukee, WI. He is the author of the novel Heart of Junk, the short story collection I Am a Magical Teenage Princess, and his writing has appeared in Conjunctions, Mid-American Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Washington Square Review, The Comics Journal, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. SPECIAL SHOW NOTES: Sam Sweet! Hadley Lee Lightcap! All Night Menu! Luke's Halloween-themed TV project: TV GRIME Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Simon Jacobs (String Follow) joins us to talk about nailing the tone of his new novel, starting with a very tight draft and “blowing it out from the middle,” finding an agent, being the son of a successful writer, revising the book to make space for the reader, childhood haunted houses, and more! Simon Jacobs is from Dayton, Ohio, and lives in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of the novels String Follow (MCD/FSG, 2022) and Palaces (Two Dollar Radio, 2018), and of two collections of short fiction: Masterworks (Instar Books, 2019), and Saturn (Spork Press, 2016), a collection of David Bowie stories. His other fiction has appeared in Tin House, Black Warrior Review, Joyland, and Paper Darts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Tim Jones-Yelvington (Don't Make Me Do Something We'll Both Regret) talks to us about their new book, writing about sex, using existing language or text to create friction to rub up against, working toward accessing a more traditional narrative form, their work in social movement contribution, the influence of pop culture, their favorite camp authors, and more! Tim Jones-Yelvington is the author of the fiction volumes Don't Make Me Do Something We'll Both Regret (Texas Review Press), This is a Dance Movie! (Tiny Hardcore Press), Strike a Prose: Memoirs of a Lit Diva Extraordinaire (co•im•press), and Evan’s House and the Other Boys Who Live There (Rose Metal Press), and the poetry volumes Become on Yr Face (DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press) and Colton Behavioral Therapy (Gazing Grain Press). The stories in Don't Make Me Do Something We'll Both Regret are linked by their exploration of queer evil. The mystery of desire and sting of rejection drive a child to violence. Boys enter the forest, naive to what lurks within. A pack of pop stars-turned-lovers strike a terrible bargain to preserve their youth. Its characters are gnostics and mystics, ogres and queens whose defiance of the normative both liberates and confines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Chantal V. Johnson talks to us about capturing the traumatized mind of a brilliant woman, her unique writing process, her use of dialogue and argument, going to auction, retiring from the law, and more! Chantal V. Johnson is the author of the debut novel Post-Traumatic, published by Little, Brown in April of 2022. Post-Traumatic has been longlisted for the 2022 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, named a Best Debut Novel of 2022 by Debutiful, and hailed as a "sharp psychological novel" by The New Yorker. Chantal graduated from Stanford Law School and worked as a tenant lawyer for over seven years. She lives in New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, A.M. Homes (The Unfolding) joins us to talk about her new book, the current trash fire that is our democracy, releasing a timely book in such an intense time, writing and revising such a conversational novel, and more! A.M. Homes is the author of thirteen books, among them the bestselling memoir The Mistress’s Daughter; the novels This Book Will Save Your Life, The End of Alice, and Jack; and the short story collections Days of Awe, The Safety of Objects, and Things You Should Know. She also writes for film and television and teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today A. Natasha Joukovsky (The Portrait of a Mirror) joins us to talk about working in the corporate world while writing her novel, funding her own writing retreat to France, her favorite types of books, the world of management consulting, Proust, and more! A. Natasha Joukovsky holds a BA in English from the University of Virginia and an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business. She spent five years in the art world, working at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York before pivoting into management consulting. The Portrait of a Mirror is her debut novel. She lives in Washington, D.C. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Shane Kowalski talks to us about being funny, starting his writing career on Tumblr, working with Kevin Sampsell on Future Tense, formerly working for the post office, his favorite writers, and more! Shane Kowalski is the author of Small Moods (Future Tense). He lives in Pennsylvania. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Sandra Newman talks to us about bringing concept into form, considering how much power women have in the world, thinking deeply about gender, being non-binary, the controversy about her book, and more! Sandra Newman is the author of the novels The Heavens, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and The Country of Ice Cream Star, longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and NPR, as well as several other works of fiction and nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in Harper’s and Granta, among other publications. She lives in New York City. Her new novel is The Men, a dazzling, mind-bending novel in which all people with a Y chromosome mysteriously disappear from the face of the earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Leyna Krow joins us to talk about her special blend of historical fiction and magical realism, working with featherproof and Viking, having a short story optioned by Hollywood, doing research about the Spokane fire, Miriam Toews, and more! Leyna Krow is the author of the debut novel, Fire Season, and the story collection I’m Fine but You Appear to Be Sinking, a Believer Book Award finalist. Her next book, Sinkhole and Other Inexplicable Voids is forthcoming on Viking in 2023ish. She lives in Spokane, Washington with her husband, two kids, and an old dog. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today Justin Taylor joins us to talk about recording his own audio book, taking a frank, fair look at his father and himself as a son, finding a narrative in a personal/true story, how writing memoir helped re-teach him how to write a novel, what being a professor gives to him in his own practice, and more! Justin Taylor is the author, most recently, of the memoir Riding with the Ghost, as well as three books of fiction: Flings, The Gospel of Anarchy, and Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Bookforum, BOMB and The Baffler, among other journals. He has taught creative writing in every time zone in the contiguous United States, including (but not limited to) stints in New York, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Mississippi, Indiana, Oregon, and Montana. He lives in Portland, Oregon. His next novel, Reboot, is forthcoming from Pantheon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Andrew Lipstein (Last Resort) talks to us about using a pseudonym to sell his novel, writing in such a close first person headspace, pushing forward after books have failed, learning how to make a plot move, working without an outline, Patrick Somerville’s advice on writing a novel, rewriting the ending, wanting/not wanting to find yourself in someone else’s art, and more! Andrew Lipstein is a writer based in Brooklyn. His debut novel Last Resort is out now from Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the US, and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK. His second novel, The Vegan, will be published in July 2023, also by FSG and W&N. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Isle McElroy (THE ATMOSPHERIANS) about establishing tone in their debut novel, the close relationship between joy and horror, sculpting sentences, their love of simile and metaphor, finding shape and focus as they wrote this novel, finding the right first readers, being a child of divorce, and more! Isle McElroy is a nonbinary writer based in Brooklyn. Their debut novel, THE ATMOSPHERIANS, was published in May by Atria and was named a NY Times Editors' Choice. Other writing appears in The NY Times, NYT Magazine, The Guardian, The Cut, Vulture, GQ, Vogue, The Atlantic, Tin House, and elsewhere. Isle was named one of The Strand's 30 Writers to Watch. They have received fellowships from The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Tin House Summer Workshop, The Sewanee Writers Conference, The Inprint Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, and The National Parks Service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Sasha Fletcher (Be Here To Love Me at the End of the World) about finding inspiration in the structure of other forms of art, staying surprised as a writer, writing a novel that is actually a poem, writing the books he wants to read, and more!
Sasha Fletcher is the author of the novel Be Here to Love Me at the End of the World, a book of poems, several chapbooks of poetry, and a novella. His work can be found both online and in print. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Farah Jasmine Griffin (Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature) about telling her family's story alongside Black history and literature, bearing witness, her favorite contemporary works, her new book(s), and more! Farah Jasmine Griffin is the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University where she also served as the inaugural Chair of the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department. She is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow and an Andrew Mellon Foundation Scholar in Residence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we're joined by poet Christian J. Collier (The Gleaming of the Blade)! Christian talks with us about the influence of art and horror films on his writing, moving away from overwriting, the shapes of his poems, using race as a way of looking at intimacy and society and humanity as a whole, monsters, ghosts, and more! Christian J. Collier is a Black, Southern writer, arts organizer, and teaching artist who resides in Chattanooga, TN. He is the author of the chapbook The Gleaming of the Blade from Bull City Press. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in December, North American Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. A 2015 Loft Spoken Word Immersion Fellow, he is also the winner of the 2022 Porch Prize in Poetry and the 2020 ProForma Contest from Grist Journal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Erika Krouse (Tell Me Everything) about her debut true crime/searching/memoir, putting plot into nonfiction, her brilliant use of anecdote and metaphor, writing fast, the supportive response to the book, studying with Lucia Berlin, and more! Erika Krouse is the author of Come Up and See Me Sometime, a New York Times Notable Book, and Contenders, a finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Erika’s fiction has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Ploughshares, One Story, and more. She teaches creative writing at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop and lives in Colorado. Her debut memoir, Tell Me Everything, has been optioned for TV adaptation by Playground Entertainment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex and Lindsay talk with Linda LeGarde Grover (Gichigami Hearts: Stories and Histories from Misaabekong) about making a book that is fiction, memoir, myth, truth, and poetry; the many wonders of Duluth and Lake Superior; the “ghost presence” in her book; showing a sense of time and change in her work; and more! Linda LeGarde Grover is professor of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth and a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe. Her novel The Road Back to Sweetgrass (Minnesota, 2014) received the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers Fiction Award as well as the Native Writers Circle of the Americas First Book Award. The Dance Boots, a book of stories, received the Flannery O’Connor Award and the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and her poetry collection The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives received the Red Mountain Press Editor’s Award and the 2017 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for Poetry. Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojibwe Year (Minnesota, 2017) won the 2018 Minnesota Book Award for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction and the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex and Lindsay talk with Rachel Krantz (OPEN: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation, and Non-Monogamy) about immersion journalism, being funny, going from shorter form to longer form, her new podcast, and more! Rachel Krantz is the namer of Bustle, and one of its three founding editors. At Bustle, she served as Senior Features Editor for three years, and Senior News Editor before that. She also worked at The Daily Beast as Homepage Editor, and at the nonprofit Mercy For Animals as Lead Writer. She’s the recipient of the Peabody Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights International Radio Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Radio Award, and the Edward R. Murrow Award for her work as an investigative reporter with YR Media. She was the host of the Bustle podcast Honestly Though, a show about taboo topics recommended by The Guardian. Her work has been featured on New York Magazine’s The Cut, Vice, LitHub, Vox, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, NPR, The Daily Beast, Newsweek, High Times, Men’s Health, AFAR, USA Today, Buzzfeed Books, Publishers Weekly, Salon, Marie Claire, VegNews Magazine, and many other outlets. She is on the advisory board for Sentient Media and the board of directors of Our Hen House. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Rachel Signer (You Had Me at Pét-Nat) about writing so honestly about her personal life, plumbing her diaries for inspiration, deciding what kind of book she wanted to write, publishing her own magazine, her current inspirations, the drudgery of crafting with children, and more! Rachel is a writer originally from the U.S., now based in South Australia. She is the author of the memoir, You Had Me At Pét-Nat, and publisher and founder of Pipette Magazine. As well, Rachel is the maker of (a very small amount of) natural wine, under the label Persephone Wines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex and Lindsay talk with Jessamine Chan (The School for Good Mothers) about writing and rewriting her novel, her love of experimental fiction, Lydia Kiesling as our fave parent influencer, the silent scream inside gentle parenting, being an instant bestseller, and more! Jessamine Chan’s short stories have appeared in Tin House and Epoch. A former reviews editor at Publishers Weekly, she holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from Brown University. Her work has received support from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Wurlitzer Foundation, Jentel, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Anderson Center, VCCA, and Ragdale. She lives in Chicago with her husband and daughter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex and Lindsay talk with Suzanne Cope (POWER HUNGRY: Women of the Black Panther Movement and Freedom Summer and Their Fight to Feed a Movement) about deep research, using her voice to amplify others, how the pandemic changed everything, and more! Suzanne Cope, PhD is a narrative journalist and food studies scholar with a focus on food as a tool for social and political change. In addition to her book POWER HUNGRY, she has written about food, activism, and culture for the New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN, BBC, Washington Post among others. She also actively publishes, guest lectures, and presents in academic forums and teaches at New York University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Isaac Butler (THE METHOD: HOW THE TWENTIETH CENTURY LEARNED TO ACT) about how Jared Leto is not a Method actor!, something called "ekphrasis" that we pretended to understand, cutting his massive draft down, reading drafts out loud, the impulse to go into free indirect, tons of juicy details about Method and non-Method actors, the crossover between the Method and writing, the allure of research-heavy projects, and mooooooooore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex and Lindsay talk with Christian Tebordo (THE APOLOGY) about our mutual love of Gabe Habash’s STEPHEN FLORIDA; Nabokov always perched on his shoulder; Adam Levin’s theory of “optimal tension”; loving books without hooks; women as avenging angels as inspired by Knight Rider, yes, that Knight Rider; writing books that are unpublishable by the mainstream; feeling liberated by bad reviews; talking with his students about the possibilities of publishing; Chicago’s unique literary scene; and if you can believe it, more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Sara Lippmann (JERKS) about her great new collection, the annoying persistence of the Madonna/whore complex, rage, hope, motherhood, mosaic-y fiction (shoutout Kathy Fish), forgetting how to write a novel while writing stories and vice versa, her favorite story collections (Rebecca Schiff’s The Bed Moved; Nina McConigley’s Cowboys and East Indians; Danielle Lazarin’s Back Talk; Margaret Malone’s People Like You), taking breaks, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Mike Meginnis (DROWNING PRACTICE) about writing apocalyptic fiction without including the whole world, choosing the dumbest ideas, YMCA memories, writing about what scares you, writing from the perspectives of a 13-year-old girl and her mother, elf names, his great author photo holy shit did Alex and Lindsay start hitting on him??, his imaginary-gift-giving podcast he runs with his partner, Tracy Rae Bowling, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Joy Lanzendorfer (RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM) about her wonderful, very fun debut novel, big, complicated, bells 'n whistles books, unlikeable characters, ambition, women trying to make it, using a Ouija board as muse, and more. Most importantly, Joy tells us the insane, unbelievable story of how this book made it to publication. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex and Lindsay talk with Leigh Stein (What to Miss When) about her new poetry collection, writing fast and furiously in the early months of the pandemic, the joy in editing at the sentence level, Summer House and other reality television, is it okay to write fiction about the pandemic yet? and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Liv Stratman (CHEAT DAY) about writing about a subject that is so universal and also so personal, the expectations readers have for a book based on packaging, grappling with your intentions when writing versus what readers take from it, studying with Lorrie Moore! and Lynda Barry!, working on her second novel, messy books, working in the service industry, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Cara Blue Adams (You Never Get it Back) about her debut story collection, how she came to linking the stories, what it's like to put out a book that is so well received, workshops, submitting, terrible advice, good advice, impatient dogs, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we chat with JoAnna Novak (MEANINGFUL WORK; NEW LIFE) about putting out both a story collection AND a poetry collection in the same year, getting two (2!) MFAs, working every sort of job you can imagine, staying in the fight, and lots more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Mallory Smart (The Only Living Girl in Chicago) about her publishing house, Maudlin House, looking for authors that make her want to write, horror movies, Dmitry Samarov, free writing, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Ben H. Winters (THE QUIET BOY) about teaching himself to write a novel by adding sea monsters to a classic, embracing the randomness that builds a career, learning about power dynamics and dialogue by watching celebrity press junkets, working on multiple projects at once, lists/tasks versus word count, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex and Lindsay talk with Ted Flanagan (Every Hidden Thing) about finally deciding to take writing seriously, writing literary crime (or “tweener”) fiction, the long-ish journey to publication, rejection, writing a Worcester novel, his new historical fiction project, and somehow hockey sneaks in at the end there, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex and Lindsay talk with Brendan Mathews (The World of Tomorrow; This is Not a Love Song) about being a late bloomer, returning to the work after long stretches of life butting in, research, working with Deborah Eisenberg, what it's like to receive a blurb from John Irving, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex and Lindsay talk with Hilary Leichter (Temporary) about turning a short story into a novel, transmuting the emotions the writer feels while writing into what the reader will read, the submission process, working with Emily Books, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Alice Kaltman (DAWG TOWNE) about her new book, the fun of drafting and the torture of revision, working with a smaller press, trying something new, and so much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Chris Stuck (GIVE MY LOVE TO THE SAVAGES) about publishing 20 years after his MFA, sticking around, letting work go, trying to figure out, and re-figure out, and re-re-re-figure out the publishing industry, his favorite recent collections, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Frances Badalamenti (SALAD DAYS) about her new novel, autofiction, her work in creativity counseling, publishing with an indie press, and more!
Plus: ALEX IS GETTING A PELOTON Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Tyler Barton (ETERNAL NIGHT AT THE NATURE MUSEUM) about his new book, the evolution of his writing, submitting a story collection, his literary visual art, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we're joined by Dana Norris (THE STORYTELLING CODE), founder of the Story Club franchise! We talk what the pandemic hath wrought upon our families and writing, living with anxiety while also loving to perform, writing a book very fast, how to start telling your own stories, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We're back for season two and we've got Emily Adrian (THE SECOND SEASON) talking to us about what it was like to write a novel based on a real person; transitioning from writing YA to writing for adults; the notion of a writer's brand; and so much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Kyle Beachy (THE MOST FUN THING) about his new memoir/collection of essays, skateboarding, intimacy and selfhood in writing, finding permission in writing nonfiction that wasn't available in fiction, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Megan Stielstra (THE WRONG WAY TO SAVE YOUR LIFE) about compartmentalization, boundaries, revisiting old work in advance of reissue, writing from grief, giving yourself permission to change as a person and as a writer, and so much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we are joined by Ilana Masad (ALL MY MOTHER'S LOVERS) to talk about creating authentic relationships in fiction; trusting in fast first drafts; what it's like to be a debut author; reincorporating the "weird" in new work; experimental writing; and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today lone Buthead Lindsay is joined by Lacy Crawford (NOTES ON A SILENCING) for a powerful chat about agency in nonfiction, claiming your story, the difference between writing memoir and fiction, where the hell are all the menopausal-but-with-small-children books? and so much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Rachel Yoder (NIGHTBITCH) about her wild, incendiary, fun, important debut novel; coming back to yourself-as-artist after having a child; writing the screenplay adaptation; catharsis; and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Rachel Mans McKenny (THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT) about the hard work that goes in to effortlessness, realizing a project needs a different agent, Snickers salad (!), revising, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Julie Fine (THE UPSTAIRS HOUSE) about her dark, insistent, important new novel, the intersection of postpartum and horror, wedging in the time to write around the harvesting of snacks, what she's working on now, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Krys Malcolm Belc (THE NATURAL MOTHER OF THE CHILD) joins us to talk his new memoir, finding his way into the work using prompts, rejecting drafts that are "false versions of themselves," shaping a life that is only part writing, CrossFit, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
You know her, you love her, WE GOT SAMANTHA IRBY! The author of WOW, NO THANK YOU joins us to talk about everything BUT writing. Okay, some writing is discussed. Also: secret snacks, procrastinating, her TV work, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we're joined by Lisa Taddeo (ANIMAL) to talk about her sharp, wrenching, bold, feral new novel! We get into just how Lisa came up with this concept, writing unreliable narrators, allowing the wild to unfold, writing fiction vs nonfiction, and a lot more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Marream Krollos (STAN) joins to talk about her intense, voicey, bold, riveting novella, waiting years to find her audience, teaching in Saudi Arabia, maintaining the connection to her dream of being published, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zach Dodson (BATS OF THE REPUBLIC) joins us to discuss his novel-in-progress about a moon colony (!!!), designing while writing, starting over when a project needs reworking, the marketing/business side of publishing, and more, including a delightful thirty seconds in which he drags Alex and Lindsay STRAIGHT TO HELL. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we're joined by Nikki Dolson (LOVE AND OTHER CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR)! Nikki tells us how she taught herself to write by reading; the mental gymnastics of being a mom/worker who wants to write; the realness of writer's block; carving out her place in the world of crime fiction; and a lot more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Leah Carroll (DOWN CITY) is here! After she reads a relentless, hilarious, wild essay, we discuss horrible bosses; the filthy part of the filthy rich; finding work and community after being laid off; being a rabble rouser; writing hybrid true crime/memoir; the chips we all have on our shoulders; and! Alex and Lindsay give her a pep talk on writing a novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with our boyfriend J. Robert Lennon (SUBDIVISION, LET ME THINK, Graywolf '21) about the joy in writing/creating/describing physical spaces; how the HELL he came up with the idea for SUBDIVISION; releasing a collection at the same time as a novel; what advice he has for writers first starting out; the ups and downs of a writer's career; and a lot more, because he is wonderful! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Miranda Popkey (TOPICS OF CONVERSATION) joins us to chat about starting an MFA program having not written fiction before (!!!); working with form or idea over plot; the fear of writing sex scenes; working in the publishing industry; being mentored by Louise Gluck (!!!); and, more, but perhaps most importantly, Miranda's dog Dudley makes a special appearance! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Jennifer Berney (THE OTHER MOTHERS) about what it's like to have a memoir out in the world, leaving off a project during the pandemic and writing letters instead, "enjoying the turtle," how to be a shy writer, the historical novel she returns to again and again, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex and Lindsay chat with Elle Nash (NUDES) about writing through the "brain fog" of early parenthood; writing about the body; creating safe spaces in order to access vulnerability while writing; creating/accessing boundaries when writing; working with her agent on crafting a book that will sell; and more! PS: our kids are cute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Shannon McLeod (WHIMSY), author and high school teacher! Topics include: picking up a blueberry with your vagine; what is Shannon's submission process?; how do you pronounce "deluge"?!; Shannon's journey through two rounds of MFA rejections; her experience working with a shitty publisher; and more. Plus: Lindsay talks about her special nightstand box and Alex is an angel! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk to true luminary Catherine Nichols about her novel, which is based on Nijinsky's life and is an exploration of how someone could create something so powerful when they're not the one in power. If that hasn't blown your mind, then wait until you find out about all the research she did. Oh, still hemming and hawing? Get a load of this: Catherine wrote this book by writing every scene from every character who was part of it and then revising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this ravioli of an episode, we talk with queer literary icons Kristen Arnett and Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya! Do they show each other their WiP? Which writer talks to herself while writing? Did you know you could make your own writer's retreat in which you scare the shit out of yourself? Are there "trends" in queer writing right now? Most importantly, what cocktails go with their writing? And so much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we chat with Adam O'Fallon Price (THE HOTEL NEVERSINK) on topics including: reading is terrifying; is The Hotel Neversink a novel in stories or is it something else?; what's it like being a "late bloomer" in the writing world?; "walking on the cliff of taste"; and so, so much more. Seriously we had a blast.
Plus: Lindsay does a Robert Durst burp impression; Lindsay does a Micro Machines guy impression; and Adam uses the f word a lot but also says "mimetically" and "axiomatic" so,... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today our guest is Michael Zapata (THE LOST BOOK OF ADANA MOREAU). Topics include: socialist librarians; New Orleans; storytelling vs. writing; teaching: not for Alex; how serving your community feeds your writing and vice versa; Chicago's jewelers' row; guess how many times Lindsay says "Peloton"?; Alex watches the 1996 Stanley Cup and takes notes oh my God Alex is in crisis NONETHELESS he reads a poem from Elisa Gabbert (heart eyes); and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Erin Somers (STAY UP WITH HUGO BEST), author, mom, and industry scribe! Erin's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, American Short Fiction, Tin House, and elsewhere. She is a reporter for the publishing industry newsletter Publishers Lunch, and lives in Beacon, New York with her husband and daughter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk to Chelsea Martin (CACA DOLCE), writer, illustrator, and mother, about how reading is weird; writing before baby vs after baby; protecting new projects; PLUS: we invented the hottest new social media craze (it MIGHT be an MLM but it's fine!); showing stuff to spouses helps/sucks; Lindsay is an idiot!; we also invented a new section at bookstores calls "goes down easy"; and Chelsea is our first "wild card question" victim. Whew! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Butheads talk to artist and writer Dmitry Samarov (OLD STYLE) about self-publishing, how pig faces are the more human faces so they are less vegetarian, writing from life and making connections / composites, working in the service industry, fucking up your book in your own way, howling into the void without an agent, making books with art, being an artist/writer without social media, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Amber Sparks (AND I DO NOT FORGIVE YOU), author, employee, and mother, joins the Butheads to discuss what we thought writing while parenting would look like vs what it actually looks like, the endless pain of noveling, how loving your characters means you're doomed to see the thing through, why write a novel, and more!
Later, the Butheads talk about giving up on a book you don't like, post-pandemic pipe dreams, what's a "crazy quilt" structure?! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we talk with Matthew Salesses (CRAFT IN THE REAL WORLD), author, professor, and dad. Topics include: his amazing daughter, learning how to write what you want to write, the good news about these young bucks in today's workshops, how Matt gets work done as a single father, HOW MATT HAS SURVIVED THIS ENTIRE PANDEMIC ON ONE TANK OF GAS WE SH*T YOU NOT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Butheads talk to Rumaan Alam, author (LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND), critic, and father, about voice and cooking for children and POV and Willa Cather and Don DeLillo and Wigleaf and how writing short stories is cute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Butheads talk to Elissa Washuta, member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and nonfiction writer. She is the author of My Body Is a Book of Rules, Starvation Mode, and White Magic, forthcoming from Tin House Books. With Theresa Warburton, she is co-editor of the anthology Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, and more. Elissa is an assistant professor of creative writing at OSU. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chris L. Terry (BLACK CARD), author, screenwriter, runner, and dad joins the Butheads to talk about transforming his novel into a script, living in LA during the pandemic, rewarding himself by not writing, publishing with a smaller press, and more.
Later, Alex and Lindsay talk about agent relationships and how Lindsay biffed her shot at Hollywood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Meghan Phillips is a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, author (ABSTINENCE ONLY, Barrelhouse), public library employee, and mother. Alex and Lindsay chat with her about ghost sex, mothers-in-law reading their work, pregnancy, and what exactly is a preposition? Then: these three idiots write a children's book (only the title, but still)! Also: a giveaway!
Later, Alex and Lindsay read a little of their work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex and Lindsay talk with Juan Martinez, a writer, professor, and father about Chicago neighborhoods, Orlando chain businesses, and a groundhog that lives by the Taco Bell.
Later, Alex and Lindsay read some of their work and offer up writing prompts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lindsay reads you a newish holiday-themed story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chelsea Bieker is the author of GODSHOT (2020) and HEARTBROKE (2022), the mom of two little ones, AND she teaches writing. Lindsay and Alex talk to her about the revolutionary act of writing about nursing (and periods), keeping a "mean journal," how Goodreads is ruinous to an author, and more!
Plus: Lindsay reads something new, the holidays are weird, and cream cheese is discussed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lindsay and Alex talk to writers Juliet Escoria (Juliet the Maniac) and Scott McClanahan (The Sarah Book) about working and living in West Virginia. Topics discussed: diarrhea, Twitter, lying about buying books on Amazon, and more! Plus: Juliet and Scott read brand new work.
Later, Lindsay and Alex update each other on their lives and work. Who's heartbroken? Who wants to be funny? Listen and find out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kristen Iskandrian is the author of MOTHEREST, the owner of Thank You Books in Birmingham, AL, and the mother of two daughters. Get to know this amazing human better, hear how she does or does not get work done, and find out who called Joan Didion an ice cold bitch!
Plus: Alex and Lindsay read some new work, talk about life, and offer a new writing prompt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Join Lindsay and Alex, two published authors and parents, as they have every intention of introducing themselves and this pod, but get wrapped up in talking about how hard it is to get work done. Which, let's be honest, is as good an intro as anything else. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices