Erin Slaughter is the author of The Dead Dad Diaries (Autofocus Books, 2025). She is also the author of the short story collection A Manual for How to Love Us (Harper Perennial, 2023), and two books of poetry: The Sorrow Festival (CLASH Books, 2022) and I Will Tell This Story to the Sun Until You Remember That You Are the Sun (New Rivers Press, 2019). Her writing has appeared in Lit Hub, Electric Literature, CRAFT, The Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Originally from Texas, she holds an MFA from Western Kentucky University and a PhD from Florida State University. She is currently Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Coastal Carolina University.

Lena Ziegler is the author of A Revisionist History of Loving Men (Autofocus Books, 2025). Her writing has appeared in Split Lip Magazine, Indiana Review, Literary Orphans, Miracle Monocle, Duende, Dream Pop Press, Anti-Heroin Chic, Gambling the Aisle, and others, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is a co-founder of the literary journal and press The Hunger. She holds an MFA from Western Kentucky University and a PhD from Bowling Green State University. She is the host of the music and literature podcast Reading Michael Jackson, available on all major podcast platforms. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband. She believes in magic, the transformative power of language, and the resilience of the human heart. 

Both these books are available together as part of the Autofocus Fall 2025 box.

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Conversation topics include:

-- Becoming best friends and ideal readers a decade ago

-- Starting The Hunger journal and press after MFAs and going into PhDs

-- Their memoirs with Autofocus coming out a week apart

-- Non-judgement and trust as readers, audiences, and friends

-- Lena’s A Revisionist History of Loving Men, which deals with understanding sexual abuse in a context of normalized sexual violence

-- Erin’s The Dead Dad Diaries, which deals with the murder of her father by her stepmom when Erin was 16 (and its effects as she came of age in her twenties)

-- The dangers of memoir in creating a fixed narrative for the self

-- Navigating disclosure, dignity, and responsibility in memoirs about trauma

-- Memoir as the willingness to take up space 

-- The value in writing from personal experience

-- Capturing the messiness of your coming of age with compassion

-- The terminology victim and survivor and the complexity of human experience

-- Accepted or expected narratives of trauma / self-determining justice

-- Bringing compassion and humanity in writing to people who have harmed you

-- The emotional reality about publishing a personal book about family or that family may read

-- Bending form to tell these stories in memoir

-- Questioning the story you’re telling in memoir

-- The shifting nature of truth

-- More about the emotional reality about publishing a personal book about family or that family may read

-- Shame and healing (and not healing)

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Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

You can also listen to this episode, of course, straight from the source in the Reading around the Margins feed.

Brief readings: "Day 27" by Erin Dorney, "Stitched Part II" by Shayne Terry, and "A New Writing Friend" (excerpt) by Teresa Carmody.

Interview clips include answers to questions about life before and after writing their books, insights gained about their subjects through the process of writing their books, and thoughts on the craft and forms of artful autobiographical writing.

Support Autofocus Books by purchasing The Spring 2025 Box and/or The Autofocus Digital Pass.

Podcast theme: "Low Life" (instrumental) by Yeah Yeah Cool Cool (the musical project of Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac, from Autofocus Books). Find Nagel's books at autofocusbooks.com.

Andrew Bertaina is the author of the essay collection The Body Is A Temporary Gathering Place, out now from Autofocus Books, and the short story collection One Person Away From You (2021), which won the Moon City Short Fiction Award. 

Nick Rees Gardner is the author of the story collection Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts (Madrona Books, 2024).  He's also the author of the novella Hurricane Trinity, a book of poetry, So Marvelously Far (2019), and a chapbook Decomposed (2017). 

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Full conversation topics include:

-- buying a beer & wine store

-- morning vs evening writing

-- wanting to write

-- running

-- grandma as childhood poetry teacher

-- emo poetry in high school

-- drugs in college

--short stories

-- dropping out for rehab

-- the short story collection DELINQUENTS

-- from novel to story collection

-- time

-- knowing when a story is done

-- rewriting drafts

-- slowing down

-- process

-- reviewing books

-- influence

-- rhythm

-- subverting the narrative of rehab

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Podcast theme music also provided by Mike Nagel. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Tasha Coryell is the author of the debut novel Love Letters to A Serial Killer. Her forthcoming novel, Matchmaking for Psychopaths, is now available for preorder.

Jason McCall is the author of the essay collection Razed by TV Sets (Autofocus, 2024) and the poetry collections What Shot Did You Ever Take (co-written with Brian Oliu); A Man Ain’t Nothin’; Two-Face God; Mother, Less Child ; Dear Hero; I Can Explain; and Silver. He and P.J. Williams are the editors of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. 

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Conversation topics include:

--seasons / the cold

-- ambience videos

-- wanting to be a writer at eight

-- re-shifting priorities

-- moving into the thriller genre

-- learning to write novels

-- relaxing about publishing

-- running

-- unpublished novels

-- writing while succeeding

-- the debut novel Love Letters to a Serial Killer

-- the journey of the manuscript to publication

-- a very millennial character

-- academia

-- reading about serial killers / true crime

-- enjoying writing the character

-- writing an entertaining book

-- the forthcoming Matchmaking for Psychopaths

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Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Juan Carlos Reyes is the author of the story collection, Three Alarm Fire, which is out on October 22, and the novella  A Summer's Lynching. His stories, poems and essays have appeared in Florida Review, Waccamaw Journal, and Hawai’i Review, and more. He has been the recipient of the Gar LaSalle Artist Trust Storyteller Award, a PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellowship, and a Jack Straw Writers Fellowship, among others. 

Jason McCall is the author of the essay collection Razed by TV Sets (Autofocus, 2024) and the poetry collections What Shot Did You Ever Take (co-written with Brian Oliu); A Man Ain’t Nothin’; Two-Face God; Mother, Less Child ; Dear Hero; I Can Explain; and Silver. He and P.J. Williams are the editors of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. He holds an MFA from the University of Miami. He is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and he currently teaches at the University of North Alabama.

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Conversation topics include:

-- pre-pub ramp-up

-- reading as gateway to writing

-- the influence of children on reading habits

-- being born in Ecuador in the 1980's

-- moving to New Jersey as a kid

-- wanting to become a writer

-- owning it and changes majors

-- vicarious creativity

-- trying to get writing work

-- entering the world of writers

-- working temp jobs

-- from getting an MFA to tenure-track teaching

-- doing stuff in Seattle

-- working with Hinton Publishing

-- the new story collection Three Alarm Fire

-- overlapping voice

-- triptychs

-- (re)organizing the collection

-- fun in the nuances of craft

-- narrators as people

-- finishing a new draft

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Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Jami Attenberg is a New York Times bestselling author of  now eight books of fiction, including The Middlesteins and All Grown Up; a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You; and 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. She is the founder of the annual #1000WordsofSummer project, and maintains the popular Craft Talk newsletter year-round. Jami's new novel is A Reason to See You Again.

Drew Hawkins is a writer and journalist in New Orleans. He's the producer and host of Micro, a podcast for short but powerful writing. You can find his work on NPR, The Guardian, Scalawag Magazine, HAD, and elsewhere. His essay, "Bottom of the X," came out recently in the summer 2024 issue of Autofocus.

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Full conversation topics include:

--Jami's 10th book, A Reason to See You Again

-- ground rules for the new book

-- first lines

-- family games

-- loss

-- time in the novel

-- phones and social 

-- perspective and interiority

-- "screen time" for characters

-- New Orleans

-- a perfect writing day

-- 1,000 words

-- readings
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Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Kirsten Reneau is the author the debut full-length essay collection, Sensitive Creatures, which is out now with Belle Point Press.  of two chapbooks, and her work has been published in The Threepenny Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Reed Magazine, and others. 

Drew Hawkins is a writer and journalist in New Orleans. He's the producer and host of Micro, a podcast for short but powerful writing. You can find his work on NPR, The Guardian, Scalawag Magazine, HAD, and elsewhere. His essay, "Bottom of the X," came out recently in the summer 2024 issue of Autofocus.

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Full conversation topics include:

-- Kirsten's debut book Sensitive Creatures

-- three different selves in three different stages

-- sexual assault and gendered violence

-- writing the very personal

-- infusing nature in the writing

-- images and animals

-- younger self as ideal reader

-- ideal writing situations

-- post-writing situations

-- stages of the manuscript into final book

-- editing literary mags and writing

-- organizing a collection

-- cicada season 

-- turning the page with CNF

-- the thing that scares you

-- implicating others

-- reading magical realism

-- care
______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Kristine Langley Mahler is the author of three nonfiction books: A Calendar Is a Snakeskin  (Autofocus Books, 2023), Curing Season: Artifacts (West Virginia University Press, 2022), and the erasure essay collection Teen Queen Training (forthcoming with Autofocus Books in 2026). Kristine is the director and publisher of Split/Lip Press.

Dennis James Sweeney is a cross-genre writer. His first book, In the Antarctic Circle, won the Autumn House Rising Writer Prize and was a Debut Poetry Book of 2021 in Poets & Writers. You’re the Woods Too, his second book, was a Small Press Distribution bestseller and a finalist for the Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Prize. Most recently, The Rolodex Happenings won the Stillhouse Press Novella Prize.

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Full conversation topics include:

-- slowing production

-- reading before bed

-- Dennis's forthcoming book How to Submit

-- small presses

-- hybridity

-- Dennis's first books

-- Dennis's essay Ghost/Home

-- photographs

-- Crohn's

-- Dennis's new novella, The Rolodex Happenings

-- imaginings and inventions and experiments

-- performance art

-- the gaps in our writing

-- artmaking

-- the gong moment

-- meaning-making

-- the real in the fiction

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Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Kaycie Hall is the lead editor of our online journal Autofocus. She's also a writer and literary translator, whose work has appeared in Peach Mag, Neutral Spaces, Triangle House Review, and other journals. 

Puloma Ghosh is the author of the debut short story collection Mouth (Astra House, 2024). Her work has appeared previously in One Story, CRAFT Literary, Cutleaf, and other publications. 

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Full conversation topics include:

-- starting a new job after a layoff

-- balancing writing and illustration

-- elementary school notebooks

-- the short story collection MOUTH

-- putting together a collection after an MFA

-- being generous to a past self

-- Puloma's story "The Fig Tree"

-- story changes through drafts

-- elements of horror and supernatural

-- Puloma's stories "Anomaly" and "Natalia"

-- ordering the stories

-- working on novels

-- green M&M fanfic

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Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Tomas Moniz is the author of the novels Big Familia and, most recently, All Friends Are Necessary. He also edited the popular Rad Dad and Rad Families anthologies. He currently teaches at Berkeley City College and the Antioch MFA program. 

Joshua James Amberson is the author of Staring Contest: Essays About Eyes, How to Forget Almost Everything: A Novel, a series of chapbooks, and the long-running Basic Paper Airplane zine series. He lives in Portland, Oregon where he runs the Antiquated Future online variety store and record label.

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FULL CONVERSATION topics include:

-- engaging with an audience post-publication

-- a book tour / honeymoon

-- working with a bigger press for the 1st time

-- zines and zine community

-- working on multiple projects

-- trying and failing to sell a book

-- growing up as not a reader or writer

-- the path to early zines and RAD DAD

-- writing and receiving letters

-- the new novel All Friends Are Necessary

-- editorial collaboration

-- playing with best and worst selves in fiction

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Jenny Irish is the author, most recently, of Hatch. She is also the author of the hybrid collections Common Ancestor and Tooth Box, the short-story collection I Am Faithful, and the chapbook Lupine.

Erin Slaughter is the author of the short story collection A Manual for How to Love Us and the poetry collections The Sorrow Festival, and I Will Tell This Story to the Sun Until You Realize That You Are the Sun. Her memoir, The Dead Dad Diaries, will be out with Autofocus Books in the fall of 2025.

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Full conversation topics include:

-- growing up in Maine / living in Arizona

-- an abandoned house in the woods

-- childhood imagination and stories

-- an unexpected MFA

-- working in academia

-- Jenny's recent essay in Salon, "Teacher Spice"

-- inhabiting a body

-- society's grading of appearance

-- scrutiny of the body in the workplace

-- Jenny's new book of poetry, Hatch

-- responding to the Trump presidency

-- the decision to have or not have a child

-- a metal womb and a cast of characters

--the violent division in America

-- the decision to stay in or leave academia

-- genre and hybridity

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self Crippling and Like Happiness. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, Midnight Breakfast, Washington Square, Story, Bennington Review, Wigleaf Top 50, and Gulf Coast. 

Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length essay XO, from us at Autofocus Books. She’s also the author of the story collection, What Shines from it, from Alternating Current Press. Her book reviews and author interviews have been featured in the LA Review of Books, Newcity Lit, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

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Conversation topics include:

-- teaching college English remotely

-- bilingual teaching with AmeriCorps

-- learning to read like learning to drive

-- the switch from poetry to fiction

-- endometriosis

-- finding a community through flash

-- selling a novel that didn't sell

-- the debut novel Like Happiness

-- two timelines

-- not writing in third person

-- ambiguity

-- stories we tell ourselves

--looking away

-- healing in the right environment 

_____________

Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Brooke Champagne is the author of Nola Face:  A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy.  Her writing appears widely in literary journals and has received various awards, including the inaugural William Bradley Prize for the Essay for her work “Exercises.”  Her essays have been selected as Notables in several editions of Best American Essays.  She is the recipient of the 2023-2024 Alabama State Council on the Arts Literary Fellowship in Prose. She lives with her husband and children in Tuscaloosa, where she is an Assistant Professor of English in the MFA Program in creative writing at the University of Alabama.

Jason McCall is the author of the essay collection Razed by TV Sets (Autofocus, 2024) and the poetry collections What Shot Did You Ever Take (co-written with Brian Oliu); A Man Ain’t Nothin’; Two-Face God; Mother, Less Child (co-winner of the 2013 Paper Nautilus Vella Chapbook Prize); Dear Hero, (winner of the 2012 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize and co-winner of the 2013 Etchings Press Whirling Prize); I Can Explain; and Silver. He and P.J. Williams are the editors of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. He holds an MFA from the University of Miami. He is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and he currently teaches at the University of North Alabama.

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Conversation topics include:

-- finding time

-- 20+ years of teaching

-- reading turning into writing

-- Nola Face: A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy

-- trying to quit writing

-- putting together an essay collection

-- time's role in craft

-- approaching the page in different stages of life

-- sports and new projects

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Andrew Bertaina is the author of the essay collection The Body Is A Temporary Gathering Place, out now from Autofocus Books, and the short story collection One Person Away From You (2021), which won the Moon City Short Fiction Award. 

Mike Nagel is the author of Duplex and Culdesac (Autofocus Books, 2022 and 2024). He also wrote the music for this podcast and a column called The Unintentionalist for the literary magazine Little Engines.

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Full conversation topics include:

-- selves on the page

-- hyperfocusing

-- The Body Is A Temporary Gathering Place

-- reading as a pathway to writing

-- grading your own writing

-- essays vs. fiction

-- modes of essays

-- mind as setting

-- representing others in an essay

-- representing yourself in an essay

-- a good catalyst

-- what goes in and what goes out

-- speed

-- writing and not writing every day

-- getting and not getting stuck

-- valuing the reader

-- the essay "On Trains" specifically

-- gratitude

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Podcast theme music also provided by Mike Nagel. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Mallory Smart is the author of the books I Keep My Visions to Myself, The Only Living Girl in Chicago, I Want to Feel Happy But I Only Feel _____, and The Writer. She's the editor-in-chief of Maudlin House  and host of the podcast Textual Healing, where you can find a recent episode with the roles of this conversation reversed and hear Mallory interview Jeff.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. His novel And Yet was reissued this year by Future Tense Books. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.

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Full conversation topics include:

-- Chicagoland

-- growing up in Chicago

-- writing in high school

-- four siblings

-- history and philosophy

-- logic and therapy

-- writing a poetry collection

-- the preference for narrative

-- the story of Maudlin House

-- relationships with authority

-- writing a first novel

-- maladaptive daydreaming

-- an app that forces you to write

-- a novel in two weeks

-- fear of saying the wrong thing

-- pressure and nostalgia

-- editorial and publicity

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Josh Denslow is the author of the collection Not Everyone Is Special (7.13 Books) and the novel Super Normal (Stillhouse Press). Some recent stories have appeared in The Commuter, Okay Donkey. Pithead Chapel, and The Rumpus. He is the Email Marketing Manager for Bookshop.org, and he has read and edited for SmokeLong Quarterly for over a decade.

Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection A Kind of In-Between and editor of How to Write a Novel: An Anthology of 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, both from Autofocus Books. He's also the author of several other books, including the novel, Year of the Buffalo. He is currently the editor of Short Story, Long and the co-editor of WAS (Words & Sports) and HAD. 

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Full conversation topics include:

--moving the family to Barcelona

-- learning a new language

'-- formative places and home

-- degrees of nostalgia

-- moving around and reading

-- going to film school & LA

-- the desire to share creative work

-- discovering the literary world

-- rejection and beginning attempts to publish

-- the publication of Josh's novel, Super Normal

-- lots and lots of drafts and versions

-- humor adding to the reality of fiction

-- superheroes outside of Marvel

-- Josh's story "Infinite Possibilities Outside the Screen"

-- quality and fun

-- channeling a voice

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Kristen E. Nelson is a queer writer, performer, and community builder. In addition to In the Away Time (Autofocus Books, 2024), she is the author of the length of this gap (Damaged Goods, August 2018) and two chapbooks: sometimes I gets lost and is grateful for noises in the dark (Dancing Girl, 2017) and Write, Dad (Unthinkable Creatures, 2012). She has published creative and critical writing in Feminist Studies, Bombay Gin, Denver Quarterly, Drunken Boat, Tarpaulin Sky Journal, Trickhouse, and Everyday Genius, among others. Kristen is the founder of Casa Libre en la Solana, a non-profit writing center in Tucson, Arizona, where she worked as the Executive Director for 14 years and the co-founder of Four Queens with Selah Saterstrom. Kristen is currently a Ph.D. student and graduate student instructor at the University of California – Santa Cruz in the Literature Department’s creative/critical writing concentration.

Teresa Carmody’s writing includes fiction, creative nonfiction, inter-arts collaborations, and hybrid forms. She is the author of three books and four chapbooks, including Maison Femme: a fiction (2015) and The Reconception of Marie (2020). Her work has appeared in The Collagist, LitHub, WHR, Two Serious Ladies, Diagram, St. Petersburg Review, Faultline, and was selected for the &NOW Awards: The Best Innovative Writing and by Entropy for its Best Online Articles and Essays list of 2019. Carmody is co-founding editor of Les Figues Press, an imprint of LARB Books in Los Angeles, and director of Stetson University’s MFA of the Americas. Her forthcoming book A Healthy Interest in the Lives of Others is out early next year with Autofocus Books.

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Full conversation topics include:

--  the first event for In the Away Time

--  imperfect queer and trans narratives 

-- calling in community

-- projects conceived in love

--other voices in In the Away Time

-- getting a PhD later in life

-- hybridity and divinations

-- the limits of the body

-- constraint and the autobiographical

-- the timescape of In the Away Time

-- the roles we play in our own disasters

-- autotheory and autoethnography

-- knowing when the form is the form

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton, author of Home Movies.

Justin Taylor's most recent book is the novel Reboot. He is also the author of the memoir Riding with the Ghost, the novel The Gospel of Anarchy, and two story collections: Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever and Flings. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's, the Oxford American, and the Sewanee Review.

Emily Adrian is the author of several novels and the forthcoming memoir Daughterhood. Her work has appeared in Granta, Joyland, EPOCH, Alta Journal, and Los Angeles Review of Books. 

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Full conversation topics include:

-- growing up as a child actor

--  always wanting to be a writer

-- a father who read and read into his work

-- editing a couple Donald Barthelme anthologies

-- the leadup to his first few books

-- the new novel REBOOT

-- the role, limits, and manipulation of realism in his work

-- inviting the supernatural

-- the show within the novel

-- a bottle chapter

-- The Hungry Tiger

-- Dawson's Creek

-- Judy Blume moments for middle aged men

-- writing a short story again

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton, author of Home Movies.

Lucas Mann is the author of the new book, Attachments: Essays on Fatherhood and Other Performances, out just this week from University of Iowa Press. He is also the author of the books Captive Audience: On Love and Reality TV, Lord Fear: A Memoir, and Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere.  He teaches creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and co-owns Riffraff Bookstore & Bar in Providence, RI.

Michael Wheaton is the publisher of Autofocus Books and producer of The Lives of Writers. His essay Home Movies is out now from Bunny Presse.

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FULL CONVERSATION topics include:

-- becoming co-owner of Riffraff Bookstore & Bar

-- literary community in Providence, RI

-- figuring out how writing fits into a  new life 

-- the gap between the life and the writing about the life

-- his mom's non-fiction books for children

-- growing up  with performers as a youngest kid

-- ambition (and having less of it now)

-- ATTACHMENTS: Essays on Fatherhood and Other Performances

-- writing about intimacy and the mediation of it

-- getting long essays right

-- juggling across an essay and a book

-- framing imaginative work as an essay

-- writing about parenthood, including the ugly parts

-- resembling a real human being

-- body image

-- overlapping thinking and feeling

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the author, most recently, of the historical novel, The American Daughters. He is also the author of The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, which was longlisted for the Story Prize and was a finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and We Cast a Shadow, which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the PEN Open Book Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and International Dublin Literary Award. A recipient of an Iowa Review Award in fiction, he has been published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, AGNI, the Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas. 

Drew Hawkins is a writer and journalist in New Orleans. He's the producer and host of Micro, a podcast for short but powerful writing. You can find his work on NPR, The Guardian, Scalawag Magazine, HAD, and elsewhere.

Today's episode is brought to you in part by the podcast Micro, where today you can hear Maurice read on the new episode, available wherever you listen to podcasts like this one.

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Full conversation topics include:

-- book tour 

-- a previous life as a lawyer and restaurant-owner

-- becoming a writer

-- overcoming imposter syndrome

-- paces of production and practice

-- distraction as being useful

-- the reading you do while writing

-- approaching novels and/or stories

-- New Orleans

-- the new novel THE AMERICAN DAUGHTERS

-- research

-- knowing who you are 

-- writing as a man about women 

-- jumping through time  and sound

--  POV

-- freedom and loss

-- a forthcoming book

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton, author of Home Movies.

Richard Scott Larson is the author of  the memoir The Long Hallway  (UW Press). He has received fellowships from MacDowell and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and his creative and critical work has appeared in The Sun Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, Harvard Review, and other journals and anthologies.

Lena Crown is a book editor for us at Autofocus Books. Her essays are published or forthcoming in The Rumpus, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Narratively, North American Review, The Offing, and elsewhere, and her poems have appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, The Boiler, Poet Lore, No Contact, and Variant Lit.

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Full conversation topics include:

-- blocking out time to write

-- doing residencies

-- horror movies and mass-market fiction as a kid

-- writing as a critic and with the NBCC

-- the role of film in his life and the book

-- a crisis of fiction

-- memoir vs book-length essay

-- the new memoir THE LONG HALLWAY

-- gender, sexuality, and horror

-- visibility and hiding queerness

-- masks and Michael Myers in Halloween

-- horror tropes appearing in memoir

-- loneliness and observation

-- film form

-- fear and shame

-- the Midwestern suburbs

-- epiphany, revelation, and resolution (or lack of)

-- examining our own cruelties

-- writing about family

-- the next book and gymnasts

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton, author of Home Movies.

Jason McCall is the author of the essay collection Razed by TV Sets (Autofocus, 2024) and the poetry collections What Shot Did You Ever Take (co-written with Brian Oliu); A Man Ain’t Nothin’; Two-Face God; Mother, Less Child (co-winner of the 2013 Paper Nautilus Vella Chapbook Prize); Dear Hero, (winner of the 2012 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize and co-winner of the 2013 Etchings Press Whirling Prize); I Can Explain; and Silver. He and P.J. Williams are the editors of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. He holds an MFA from the University of Miami. He is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and he currently teaches at the University of North Alabama.

Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection A Kind of In-Between and editor of How to Write a Novel: An Anthology of 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, both from Autofocus Books. He's also the author of several other books, including the novel, Year of the Buffalo. He is currently the editor of Short Story, Long and the co-editor of WAS (Words & Sports) and HAD. 

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Full conversation topics include:

-- a recent bout with cancer

-- the rhythm of art and community

-- the pleasures of teaching

-- realizing you can write about your cultural interests

-- getting into history and mythology and storytelling

-- getting into poetry after fiction

-- approaching writing as a fan 

-- sports and pop culture

-- the new essay collection RAZED BY TV SETS

-- the contradictions of fandom

-- collective celebration

-- playing with your offhand

-- new work about John Henry

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Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Julia Hannafin is the author of the debut novel Cascade (Great Place Books, 2024). They also write for television.

Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length essay XO, from us at Autofocus Books. She’s also the author of the story collection, What Shines from it, from Alternating Current Press. Her book reviews and author interviews have been featured in the LA Review of Books, Newcity Lit, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

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Conversation topics include:

-- writing in LA

-- writing for screen and audio

-- journaling as a kid

-- truth in fiction

-- Julia's first novel CASCADE

-- expanding a short story

-- the novel before the "first novel"

-- quiet drama

-- a young narrator with a thread of danger

-- publishing as the first novel by Great Place Books

-- sharks in the Farallon Islands

-- researching the book

-- predator/prey

-- internal/external worlds

-- desire, gender, identity, and place

-- addiction, obsession, and denial

-- time and pressure

-- new work and ghosts

_____________

Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. His novel And Yet is out in April 2024 with Future Tense Books. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.

Joshua James Amberson is the author of Staring Contest: Essays About Eyes (Perfect Day Publishing), How to Forget Almost Everything: A Novel (Korza Books), a series of chapbooks on Two Plum Press, as well as the long-running Basic Paper Airplane zine series. He lives in Portland, Oregon where he runs the Antiquated Future online variety store and record label.

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FULL CONVERSATION topics include:

-- recording live in PDX

-- past work in publishing and literary community

-- the previous podcast The Steer

-- the beginnings of Jeff's novel And Yet

-- working in different forms of poetry and prose

-- the collapse of SPD 

-- the issues at PANK that led to pulling his novel from print

-- the reissue of the novel now with Future Tense Books

-- revisiting a self from five years ago

-- writing as a publisher

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Zachary Pace is a writer and editor whose first book is I Sing to Use the Waiting: A Collection of Essays About the Women Singers Who've Made Me Who I Am (Two Dollar Radio, 2024), and whose writing has been published in the Baffler, BOMB, Bookforum, Boston Review, Frieze magazine, Interview magazine, Literary Hub, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the PEN Poetry Series, the Yale Review, and elsewhere.

Michael Wheaton is the publisher of Autofocus Books and producer ofThe Lives of Writers. His essay Home Movies is out now from Bunny Presse.

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FULL CONVERSATION topics include:

-- going into the office

-- working in publishing 

-- challenges of living in NYC

-- finding a subject

-- moving to essay from poetry  

-- early writing tied up in other media

-- music as gateway into poetry

-- the new essay collection I SING TO USE THE WAITING

-- trouble

-- other people as mirrors

-- research in the writing process

-- growing up on media pre-internet

-- child psychology

-- celebrating the self and others

-- choosing essay subjects in a collection

-- continuing to write about music and listening

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Ben Tanzer is the author of the short story collection UPSTATE, the science fiction novel Orphans, and the essay collections Lost in Space and Be Cool, and most recently the novel The Missing, which is out now from 7.13 Books. Among many other things, he also produces and hosts This Podcast Will Change Your Life.

Sara Lippmann is the author of the novel Lech (Tortoise Books) and the story collections Doll Palace (re-released by 7.13 Books) and Jerks (Mason Jar Press). Her fiction has been honored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, and her essays have appeared in The Millions, The Washington Post, Catapult, The Lit Hub and elsewhere. 

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Full conversation topics include:

-- Chicago/the Midwest & upstate NY

-- small town insularity

-- Ben's new novel The Missing

-- growing up with cool parents

-- resignation in fiction, not in life

-- returning to the novel form

-- time

-- regimen

-- Ben's father's influence on his creative life

-- not being precious

-- Ben and Sara meeting

-- persistence and prioritizing yourself

-- deciding to write and detaching from the results

-- a new non-fiction project

-- learning patience

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Podcast theme music also provided by Mike Nagel. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Claire Donato is the author of Burial, a fiction novella, and The Second Body, a full-length collection of poems, and most recently Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts, a collection of fiction. Currently, she works as Acting Chairperson of Writing at Pratt Institute, where she received the 2020-2021 Distinguished Teacher Award.   

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. His novel And Yet is being reissued this year by Future Tense Books. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.

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PART ONE topics include:

-- writing desks and locations

-- being a "legend of underground literature"

-- starting to publish young

-- a music background

-- writing and not writing

-- thinking about selling a book

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PART TWO topics include:

-- Claire's new book Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts

--"fauxtofiction" and autofiction

-- MFK Fisher

-- cooking and co-ops

-- friendships in literature

-- friendships in adulthood

-- psychoanalysis

-- publishing with a bigger press

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Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Sean Enfield is the author of debut collection of essays, Holy American Burnout! (Split/Lip Press, 2023). He serves as an Assistant Non Fiction Editor at Terrain.org, and his own work has been published in Reed Magazine, Hayden’s Ferry, Witness Magazine, Tahoma Literary Review, and The Rumpus, among others.

Michael Wheaton is the publisher of Autofocus Books and producer of The Lives of Writers. His essay Home Movies is out now from Bunny Presse.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- getting a PhD after a couple years off an MFA

-- getting thrown into teaching and gardening

-- getting into writing and music as a kid in Dallas

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- the process of writing and publishing Holy American Burnout!

-- dropping the façade and accidentally getting into non-fiction

-- writing about the classroom

-- information and news overload

____________

PART THREE, topics include:

-- starting with form

-- Baldwin

-- de-emphasizing the nation state

--writing while promoting

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Joshua Marie Wilkinson is a poet, novelist, and filmmaker. His debut novel, Trouble Finds You, was published by Fonograf Editions (2023). He is also the author of nine books of poetry, including Selenography, Swamp Isthmus, and Meadow Slasher. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Believer, Tin House, Pen America, and in nearly two dozen anthologies. He has edited several collections of essays, including Anne Carson: Ecstatic Lyre, Poets on Teaching, and The Force of What's Possible with Lily Hoang.

Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length essay XO, from us at Autofocus Books. She’s also the author of the story collection, What Shines from it, from Alternating Current Press. Her book reviews and author interviews have been featured in the LA Review of Books, Newcity Lit, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- working as a therapist

-- writing while raising a kid

-- a previous life as a poet and teacher

-- the move into writing fiction

-- therapy and narrative

-- growing up in and living again in the PNW

-- early poetry books

-- the disappearances of small presses

-- not writing a "poet's novel"

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- Joshua's first novel Trouble Finds You

-- writing a "misguided" character

--  a short story that kept getting longer

-- plotting and telling a story

-- suspense

-- animals and pets in a narrative

-- not having a smartphone

-- other novels

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Brian Allen Carr is the author of eight books, most recently Bad Foundations, out now from CLASH Books. His other books include Opioid, Indiana, Short Bus, and Motherfucking Sharks.

Mike Nagel is the author of Duplex and Culdesac (Autofocus Books, 2022 and 2024). He also wrote the music for this podcast and a column called The Unintentionalist for the literary magazine Little Engines.

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Full conversation topics include:

-- sobriety

-- Plano, TX

-- retiring from middle school football

-- a family of preachers

-- Edgar Allan Poe

-- the first publication

-- the movie made from it

-- sustaining a creative life

-- a kind of arrogance

-- learning the lane

-- the new book BAD FOUNDATIONS

-- the invention of the elevator brake

-- grounded theory and work

-- sales

--putting things into the world

-- information and property

-- engaging or not in a political way

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Podcast theme music also provided by Mike Nagel. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Michael Wheaton is the author of the essay Home Movies (Bunny Presse, 2024). His writing has appeared in Essay Daily, DIAGRAM, Burrow Press Review, Rejection Letters, HAD, and other online journals. He publishes Autofocus Books and produces this podcast.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. His novel And Yet is being reissued this year by Future Tense Books. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.

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FULL INTERVIEW topics include:

-- what in retrospect is quite obviously a mid-life crisis

-- experiences with literary community before Autofocus

-- early life and reading and television and the arts 

-- pursuing music for a little while a long while ago

-- writing fiction before, through, and after an MFA

-- the move to writing more autobiographically

-- becoming a parent and ways it changed the art

-- deciding to become a publisher

-- seeing yourself as more than one thing

-- HOME MOVIES and its earlier versions

-- discovering a writing process through the attempts

-- the "Office Hours" part of the book about a planned community in Florida

-- new and old media's effects and the difficulty of seeing them

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.

Kaycie Hall is the lead editor of our online journal Autofocus. She's also a writer and literary translator, whose work has appeared in Peach Mag, Neutral Spaces, Triangle House Review, and other journals. 

Lauren Elkin is a writer and translator of many books, most recently the author of Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art and the UK translator of Simone de Beauvoir's previously unpublished novel The Inseparables. UK and US versions of her novel Scaffolding are coming out later this year.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- winding down publication publicity

-- growing up focused on the performing arts 

-- Lauren's previous book Flâneuse

-- Lauren's new book Art Monsters

-- intervening in the conversation around feminism

-- the temptation to make the book about one person

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- pregnancy shifting the shape of the book 

-- the pandemic contributing to the shifting

-- Lauren's translation  work

-- managing reading hours (or not)

-- a forthcoming novel

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Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.

Chin-Sun Lee is the author of the debut novel Upcountry (Unnamed Press 2023), listed among Publishers Weekly’s Big Indie Books of Fall 2023, and is one of Poets & Writers’5 Over 50 for 2023. She’s also a contributor to Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing 2023) and the New York Times bestselling anthology Women in Clothes (Blue Rider Press/Penguin 2014). Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Electric Literature, Literary Hub, The Georgia Review, The Rumpus, Joyland, and The Believer Logger, among other publications. More at www.chinsunlee.com. 

Erin Slaughter is the author of the short story collection A Manual for How to Love Us and the poetry collections The Sorrow Festival, and I Will Tell This Story to the Sun Until You Realize That You Are the Sun. She is the managing editor of Autofocus  and was formerly the editor/co-founder of literary journal and chapbook press The Hunger. Her writing has appeared in Lit Hub, Electric Literature, CRAFT, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, Split Lip Magazine, and elsewhere

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- finishing a first book tour

-- seeing a first novel go into the world

--previous work in the fashion industry

-- life in LA after movie young from Korea

-- arts and writing growing up

--publishing a debut novel in your 50's

- pressure and expectations on following-up a novel

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- Chin-Sun's debut novel Upcountry

-- balancing three voices

-- process changing from short stories to the novel

-- process changing from completed book to WIP

-- cults

-- class

-- the unknown

-- penance

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- place as character 

-- writing about 2009/10

-- the possibility of writing something into being by accident

-- living in New Orleans

-- the next novel

--Erin's WIP 

--the beauty and cosmetic industry

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.

Trey Moody is the author of the poetry collection Autoblivion, which is out now from Conduit Books, and Thought That Nature (Sarabande Books, 2014). He's been the recipient of numerous awards including the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, and his poems have appeared in The Atlantic, The Believer, and New England Review.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. His novel And Yet  is being reissued this year by Future Tense Books. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.

____________

PART ONE, topics include:

-- growing up in San Antonio

-- early moments that led to writing

-- getting into guitar  

-- early creative writing experiences

-- overcoming 19 MFA app rejections

-- formative mentors and editing a journal

____________

PART TWO, topics include:

-- the decision to get a PhD

-- moving to Nebraska

-- the path to Trey's first book Thought That Nature

-- poetic interests early on vs. now

-- the optimistic nihilist 

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PART THREE, topics include:

--  life in the nine years between books

-- the new book Autoblivion

-- a thin line between speaker/author 

-- putting a book together while not a student

-- publishing and stubbornness

-- writing about a daughter

-- writing about life in the Anthropocene

-- time and Agnes Martin

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.

Jehanne Dubrow is the author of nine books of poems, including most recently, Wild Kingdom (Louisiana State University Press, 2021), and three books of creative nonfiction, throughsmoke: an essay in notes (New Rivers Press, 2019), Taste: A Book of Small Bites (Columbia University Press, 2022), and Exhibitions: Essays on Art & Atrocity (University of New Mexico Press, 2023).

Lena Crown is a book editor for us at Autofocus Books. Her essays are published or forthcoming in The Rumpus, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Narratively, North American Review, The Offing, and elsewhere, and her poems have appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, The Boiler, Poet Lore, No Contact, and Variant Lit.

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Full conversation topics include:

-- writing routines and book juggling

-- switching modes of writing/thinking

-- teaching trauma writing

-- starting as an encouraged visual artist

-- Rothko

-- writing young 

-- working on Taste: A Book of Small Bites and then Exhibitions: Essays on Art and Atrocity

--  the research process for a braided essay

-- rendering place and many different countries

-- the "snapshots" and "galleries" in the book

-- ekphrasis

-- using the body and becoming a surface

-- finding (and using) different forms

-- the problem of beauty

-- possession and dispossession

-- discomfort

-- fact and pathos

-- organization and ordering

-- flash/prose poem form

-- her next book Civilians

-- frivolity

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton, author of Home Movies.

Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.

LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs is a poet and sound artist. She is the author of the poetry collections, Village (Coffee House Press, 2023)  and TwERK (Belladonna, 2013), in addition to three chapbooks. Her interdisciplinary work has been featured at the Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Walker Art Center. 

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. His novel And Yet is being reissued this year by Future Tense Books. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.

____________

PART ONE, topics include:

-- growing up and still living in Harlem

-- living in the Bay Area and other places too

-- freelance music writing for a time, then going to school

-- first developing with play

-- early life as a poet 

--trying out different things while going to writing programs 

-- getting an MFA but finding buddies in Cave Canem

________

PART TWO, topics include:

-- the success of her first full-length poetry collection TwERK

-- the uncertain path to the first collection

-- residencies 

-- the new poetry book VILLAGE, out last year with Coffee House

-- a decade between books 

-- the complexity and modes of VILLAGE

-- giving time

-- a webinar series related to the book

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.

Lindsay Hunter is the author most recently of the novel Hot Springs Drive (Roxane Gay Books, 2023). She's also the author of two story collections, Daddy's and Don't Kiss Me, and the novels Ugly Girls and Eat Only When You're Hungry. She hosts the literary podcast I'm A Writer, But.

Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection A Kind of In-Between and editor of How to Write a Novel: An Anthology of 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, both from Autofocus Books. He's also the author of several other books, including the novel, Year of the Buffalo. He is currently the editor of Short Story, Long and the co-editor of WAS (Words & Sports) and HAD. 

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- Lindsay's love of Halloween

-- Lindsay at 16 

-- the prospect of sex as teen with a Christian upbringing

-- first wanting to be an actress but always writing

-- Lindsay's history hosting Quickies! and performing readings

-- writing that's fun to write

-- her book DADDY'S coming out of the reading series

-- truly seeing in your writing

--  working with Zach Dodson of Featherproof Books

-- co-starting the podcast I'M A WRITER BUT 

-- recently experiencing burnout

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PART TWO, topics include:

--a reading of the beginning of HOT SPRINGS DRIVE

-- working with Roxane Gay on the novel for her new imprint

-- figuring out the structure of the new novel

-- trusting the plot and pushing herself

-- leveling up

-- writing about sex and food and the body

-- point of view in the novel

-- accidentally writing a mystery

-- new works in progress

_______________

Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.

Mike Nagel is the author of Duplex (Autofocus Books, 2022) and now the author of Culdesac (Autofocus Books, 2024). He also wrote the music for this podcast and a column called The Unintentionalist for the literary magazine Little Engines.

Kevin Maloney is the author of The Red-Headed Pilgrim (Two Dollar Radio, 2023), Horse Girl Fever (CLASH Books, 2024), and Cult of Loretta (Lazy Fascist, 2015).

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Full conversation topics include:

-- a new temporary living situation

-- writing junk mail for a living

-- Vonnegut

-- writing the Unintentionalist column for Little Engines

-- starting in music early and writing later

-- early influential books

-- Mike's surprise breakout hit DUPLEX

-- quitting drinking after publishing the book

-- the new book CULDESAC, a sequel of sorts to DUPLEX

-- the troubling titling the new book

-- following up a first book that gets some attention

-- writing as a way to bring meaning to mundanity

-- thinking about health in mid-life and in the new book

-- the comedy in Mike's work 

-- revising and not knowing if something is working

-- seamless drifting and losing the point

-- unintentionalism

-- Jamba Juice as character

--  the high stakes of the every day

____________

Podcast theme music also provided by Mike Nagel. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.

Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection A Kind of In-Between and editor of How to Write a Novel: An Anthology of 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, both from Autofocus Books. He's also the author of several other books, including the novel, Year of the Buffalo. He is currently the editor of Short Story, Long and the co-editor of WAS (Words & Sports) and HAD. 

Kristine Langley Mahler is the author of two nonfiction books: A Calendar Is a Snakeskin  (Autofocus Books, 2023) and Curing Season: Artifacts (West Virginia University Press, 2022). She directs Split Lip Press.

Danny Caine is the author of the poetry collections Picture Window, Continental Breakfast, El Dorado Freddy's, and Flavortown, as well as the books How to Resist Amazon and Why and How to Protect Bookstores and Why. He's a co-owner of the Raven Book Store, Publishers Weekly's 2022 bookstore of the year. 

Holly Pelesky is the author of the essay collection, Cleave, from Autofocus Books. She also writes fiction and poetry and co-edits Vast Chasm literary magazine.

________________

Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton. He publishes Autofocus Books and produces The Lives of Writers. His essay Home Movies will be out from Bunny Presse in Feb 2024.

Lexi Kent-Monning is the author of the novel, The Burden of Joy, which is out now from Rejection Letters Press. Her writing has been published or is forthcoming in XRAY, Joyland, Tilted House Review, Neutral Spaces, Little Engines, and elsewhere.

An excerpt from The Burden of Joy, titled "The Nurse's Lament", was published previously in Autofocus.

Michael Wheaton is the publisher of Autofocus Books and producer of The Lives of Writers. His essay Home Movies will be out from Bunny Presse in Feb 2024.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- working customer service for a tech company

-- previous work doing indie music publicity

-- previous work as an assistant to actresses & celebs

-- growing up near Big Sur and the CA/NY push-pull

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- Lexi's first novel The Burden of Joy

-- fragments turning into a memoir turning into a novel

-- doppelganger characters and therapy as a writing tool

-- specific and vital writing about sex and intoxication

-- admitting hard things to yourself for the writing

-- heartbreak and childhood repercussions

____________

PART THREE, topics include:

-- hindsight and the epilogue

-- the pull toward personal writing

-- the person you are when you write vs publish the book

-- promoting a first book

____________

Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Parker Young is the author of the the short story collection Cheap Therapist Says You're Insane (Future Tense Books) . His stories have appeared in  X-R-A-Y, HAD,  Juked, and elsewhere. 

A story from Parker's collection, "On the Toilet," was originally published in Autofocus.

Mike Nagel is the author of Duplex (Autofocus Books, 2022). He lives in Plano, Texas. He also wrote the music for this podcast.

____________

PART ONE, topics include:

-- living in the same building as family

-- maintaining relationships as an adult

-- writing spaces and getting into a creative state

-- the stoics and blaming

-- favorite childhood books

-- being inspired by unexplainable writing

____________

PART TWO, topics include:

-- not being into screenwriting

-- tension rather than plot

-- Parker's story collection CHEAP THERAPIST SAYS YOU'RE INSANE

-- getting a story started and variations in getting it done

-- writing and revising and collecting stories over a long period of time

-- sequencing a book that can be sequenced many ways

____________

PART THREE, topics include:

--last minute changes to the book

-- working with small presses in general and Future Tense in particular

-- putting out a first book

-- what to do after a first book

-- Thomas Bernhard

____________

Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.

Russell Brakefield is the author the poetry book My Modest Blindness, which is out now from us at Autofocus Books. He's also the author of Field Recordings and the forthcoming Irregular Heartbeats at the Park West (Wayne State University Press). His writing has appeared in the Indiana Review, New Orleans Review, The Common, Rattle, and elsewhere.

Joshua James Amberson is the author of Staring Contest: Essays About Eyes (Perfect Day Publishing), How to Forget Almost Everything: A Novel (Korza Books), a series of chapbooks on Two Plum Press, as well as the long-running Basic Paper Airplane zine series. He lives in Portland, Oregon where he runs the Antiquated Future online variety store and record label.

____________

PART ONE, topics include:

-- writing routines

-- making a life of writing 

-- wonder and mystery

-- writing as a job or identity

-- Russ's first book Field Recordings

-- the concern of audience in art

____________

PART TWO, topics include:

-- Russ's new book My Modest Blindness

-- keratoconus, and Russ's experience with it

-- lamenting and celebrating the vanishing 

-- the thing we want to write vs the one that needs to be written

-- how the need to write influences style and voice

-- writing in connection with Borges's On Blindness

-- sectioning the poetry book on subject and threading them

-- paper and vision as metaphors

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- Russ's forthcoming book Irregular Heartbeats at the Park West

-- trying to continue writing while promoting two books

-- working on short stories and a novel

-- prose vs poetry writing

-- the addictiveness of narrative

-- music in Russ's life and work

____________

Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.

Austin Ross is the author of the novel Gloria Patri   and is a senior editor with HarperCollins, where he acquires and develops a wide variety of nonfiction titles. His fiction and essays have been featured in Publishers Weekly, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. 

Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection A Kind of In-Between and editor of How to Write a Novel: An Anthology of 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, both from Autofocus Books. He's also the author of several other books, including the novel, Year of the Buffalo. He is currently the editor of Short Story, Long and the co-editor of WAS (Words & Sports) and HAD. 

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- promoting a small press novel

-- becoming an editor at Harper Collins

-- the day-to-day of remote editing

-- the Sci-Fi  -> literary genre pipeline

-- moving into your own territory as a writer

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- Austin's first novel, Gloria Patri, a thriller about religious extremism/terror

-- writing versions of the book across 20 years

-- the year of really writing the book 

-- writing novels vs stories

-- finding the structure of the novel

-- putting experience as a kid in an isolationist home church into the novel

-- researching about militia groups for the novel

-- rotating point of view

-- placing the novel where he didn't/doesn't live

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- influential books and reading while working on the novel

-- finding publication with Malarkey Books 

-- having the first book out

-- birds

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Hilary Leichter is the author of the novels Terrace House, which came out from Ecco early this fall, and Temporary, which came out, to much acclaim, from Coffee House Press in 2020. Hilary’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, n+1, The New York Times, Conjunctions, and elsewhere. Her work in Harper’s Magazine won the 2021 National Magazine Award in Fiction.

Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length essay XO, from us at Autofocus Books. She’s also the author of the story collection, What Shines from it, from Alternating Current Press. Her book reviews and author interviews have been featured in the LA Review of Books, Newcity Lit, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- boredom and daydreaming

-- the internal/external nature of writing

-- teaching undergrad at Columbia after doing their MFA

-- screenwriting and starting as a playwright

-- writing her first novel Temporary

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- drafting novels in a month

-- writing her new novel Terrace Story

-- book length and access

-- indicating space in fiction

-- an unspoiled emotional experience

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- space and limited space

-- short stories turning into novels

-- the unintentional and intentional parts of writing

--  loneliness and aloneness 

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Tyler Dempsey is the author of Newspaper Drumsticks, Time as a Sort of Enemy, Consumption & Other Vices, and Will We All Still See Each Other Afterward. He hosts Another Fucking Writing Podcast.

Michael Wheaton is the publisher of Autofocus Books and producer of The Lives of Writers.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- working for the Bureau of Land Management  

-- search and rescue volunteer work

-- starting his Another Fucking Writing Podcast

-- the monologue development process for his show

-- influential podcasts for inspiring and evolving Tyler's and Michael's

-- Tyler finding sobriety after living in rural Alaska for many years and wanting to die

-- Michael's own issues around similar but different shit

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- more about Tyler's time in Alaska

-- his brother's arrest and his relationship with him before and after

-- his book of poems from his brother letters, Newspaper Drumsticks

 -- the story of his novel Consumption and Other Vices finding publication

-- a propelling voice and dreamlike-ness

-- a new autofiction novel based around his dark time in Alaska

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Kazim Ali is a poet, novelist, and essayist. His most recent book is Sukun: New and Selected Poems, which draws from his six previous full-length collections, and includes 35 new poems. He's also published novels, translations, anthologies, and a memoir. He was a founding editor of Nightboat Books.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.

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PART ONE, topics include:

--the Kinkos era of indie publishing

-- looking back at 25 years of work for SUKUN: New & Selected Poems

-- finding the echoes in a body of work

-- the LP as poetic book form

-- also putting out a New & Selected with Harper Collins India

-- revising early poems and Dickenson's alternate wordings

-- the new book within the new book

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- starting out as a reader and writing

-- varying Englishes and language that crosses borders

-- working as an organizer for student organizations

-- the many genres in Kazim's body of work

-- not changing just to achieve a marker of success

-- founding Nightboat Books or small presses in general

-- always working on something creative

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- the beginnings and evolution of Nightboat Books

-- the small press experimental writing landscape then and now

-- spirituality and faith 

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Kaycie Hall is the lead editor of our online journal Autofocus. She's also a writer and literary translator, whose work has appeared in Peach Mag, Neutral Spaces, Triangle House Review, and other journals. 

Heidi Julavits is the author of the new book Directions to Myself: A Memoir of Four Years, The Folded Clock: A Diary, and four novels, including the PEN Award-winning The Vanishers. She is an associate professor at Columbia University and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives in New York City and Maine.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- psychic boundaries

-- living and writing part of the year in Maine

-- Narnia and Enid Blyton books

-- writing young for the fun of it

-- the life of The Believer

-- writing novels and then writing The Folded Clock (memoir)

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- a book Heidi sold and was supposed to write

-- that book becoming Directions to Myself: A Memoir of Four Years

-- thinking about how to mother a boy / mother blaming

-- treatment of the same behaviors across gender

-- writing about your own children

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- Heidi's book tour on a boat

-- getting into video editing

-- the cutting involved in a current project

-- a dead French actress' estate

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Don't forget to check out Autofocus Books. 

Benjamin Niespodziany is the author of the poetry collection No Farther Than the End of the Street  (Okay Donkey Press), the novella in one act plays Cardboard Clouds (X-R-A-Y), and two chapbooks. His work has been featured in Fence, Crazyhorse, Fairy Tale Review, Salt Hill, and other journals. He also runs the record label and blog Neon Pajamas.

Michael Wheaton is the publisher of Autofocus Books and producer of this podcast.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- music and music marketing in Chicago

-- his instrumental label Neon Pajamas

-- writing about music in the Sound Cloud era

-- growing up as a listener and a reader

-- a special interest in concept albums

-- moving from journalism to poetry and flash

-- working at a library after time in the Peace Corps

-- starting to write more and publish poetry and flash

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- the novella in one-act-plays Cardboard Clouds

-- language as performance and boxing yourself in

-- influential books for the stage play format

-- a circus-like aesthetic

-- sound being everything

-- his first poetry collection No Farther Than the End of the Street

-- writing autobiographically without writing autobiographically

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PART THREE , topics include:

-- writing from first and second vs third person

-- books as concept albums

-- publishing his books with presses associated with favorite journals

-- accumulating writing after finding obsessions

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Lucas Mann is the author of three books, Captive Audience: On Love and Reality TV, Lord Fear: A Memoir, and Class A: Baseball in Middle of Everywhere. His fourth book, Attachments: Essays On Fatherhood and Other Performances is forthcoming around the spring of 2024. He is also the new co-owner Riffraff Bookstore and Bar in Providence, RI.

Jill Talbot is the author of The Last Year: Essays. She’s also the author of The Way We Weren’t: A Memoir and Loaded: Women and Addiction, the co-editor of The Art of Friction: Where (Non)Fictions Come Together, and the editor of Metawritings: Toward a Theory of Nonfiction. Her craft book, The Essay Form(s), will be published in 2024.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- the longstanding conversation between Jill and Lucas

--  the old writing table and a new writing table

-- writing and teaching as the same project

-- being the daughter of a football coach and granddaughter of a minister

-- cheerleading as early identity and coming to non-fiction

-- Jill's first book, LOADED

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- the process of writing THE WAY THEY WEREN'T

-- turning the Paris Review Daily column THE LAST YEAR into a book

--  writing from the precipice 

-- the challenge of writing about parenthood

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- navigating the intention of writing about a child

-- writing habits changing after her child leaving the house

-- the pandemic happening during the writing of the original column

-- stories that are and aren't yours to tell

-- life after the end of THE LAST YEAR

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Don't forget to check out Autofocus Books. 

John Milas is the author of the gothic horror novel The Militia House, which came out this year from MacMillan. He served on active duty in the Martine Corps and deployed to Afghanistan in 2010.

Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length essay XO, from us at Autofocus Books. She’s also the author of the story collection, What Shines from it, from Alternating Current Press. Her book reviews and author interviews have been featured in the LA Review of Books, Newcity Lit, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- the office ceiling collapsing

-- a job you don't take home

-- writing habits changing

-- the first draft of his novel THE MILITIA HOUSE

--  getting  away with watching Alien as a sheltered kid

-- enlisting in the marines

-- a valuable poetry workshop

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- serving as a marine from 2008 - 2012

-- returning to school after the military

-- the parts of deployment that became parts of the novel

-- the haunted house at the center of the novel

-- scaring yourself to scare readers

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- porcupine quills as a motif in the novel

-- unfamiliarity

-- repetition as escalation rather than duplication

-- narrative devices related to writing

-- the question of PTSD in Act 3

-- the style of the narrator vs the writer 

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Holly Pelesky is the author of the essay collection, Cleave, from us at Autofocus Books. She also writes fiction and poetry and co-edits Vast Chasm literary magazine.

Stephanie Austin is the author of Something I Might Say, a short essay collection now available from WTAW Press. Her work has been published in more than 25 literary journals in the United States and Canada including The Sun, American Short Fiction, Bending Genres, Wigleaf, Pithead Chapel, and others. 

An  essay from Stephanie's collection, Kill Floor, was originally published by us at Autofocus.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- assistant property management

-- sending out a novel for 15 years

-- agonizing less over writing CNF

-- the short essay collection SOMETHING I MIGHT SAY

-- a lot of loss in a short period of time

-- health anxiety in general and especially during the pandemic

-- watching a parent's body die

-- caregiving for others and (not) taking care of the self

-- getting (and enjoying) a low-res MFA

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- growing up in a small rural town in Illinois

-- things shattering after a move 

-- reading and writing about ghosts and vampires as a kid

-- healing and whether one actually heals

-- the things you've been trying to do for 20 years being possible

-- a rejection that turn into publication for Something I Might Say 

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Katharine Coldiron is the author of Ceremonials, an SPD bestseller; Plan 9 from Outer Space, a monograph; and Junk Film, a collection of critical essays. Her work as a critic has appeared in the Washington Post, the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, the Houston Chronicle, Brevity, the Believer, and many other places; as a hybrid essayist, she has placed work in Conjunctions, the Rupture, the Offing, and elsewhere. She is the reviews editor at Barrelhouse and the managing editor of X-R-A-Y.

Michael Wheaton is the publisher of Autofocus Books and producer of this podcast.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- living in the unfashionable part of LA

-- being able to stop full time work

-- writing and watching movies

-- editing reviews at Barrelhouse 

-- being able to dish out editing but not being able to take it

-- managing editing at X-R-A-Y

-- cross-stitching

-- Autofocus's How to Write a Novel anthology

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- parapsychology and Ghostbusters

-- an anthology of millennial writing on Poltergeist

-- getting the writing bug and the movie bug

-- Star Wars

-- old Hollywood

-- quitting and coming back to writing

-- the move into hybrid writing

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PART THREE , topics include:

--  the critical essay collection JUNK FILM

-- the problem of (not) defining good and bad

-- the word 'junk'

-- Plan 9 from Outerspace

-- bad film as an ecosystem

-- straight to VHS vs straight DVD movies

-- the role of delusion in artmaking

-- (not) distinguishing good and bad taste

-- trying to resist looking on with pity

-- cinematic grammar (not) translating to writing

-- a novel in progress about Ilsa

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Joshua James Amberson is the author of Staring Contest: Essays About Eyes (Perfect Day Publishing), How to Forget Almost Everything: A Novel (Korza Books), a series of chapbooks on Two Plum Press, as well as the long-running Basic Paper Airplane zine series. He lives in Portland, Oregon where he runs the Antiquated Future online variety store and record label.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- an old dog

-- other priorities overtaking writing

-- growing up and living in the Pacific Northwest

-- an influential musical uncle

-- playing musical again after a long break

-- becoming a poetry publisher from 19 - 24

-- playing in bands in Olympia

-- moving to Portland for the writing community

-- the pull to engage in collective concerns and projects

-- recording an audiobook and wanting to edit everything

--  the benefits of working on other projects

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) 

-- retinal hemorrhaging and treatment with needles

-- Joshua's new book Staring Contest: Essays About Eyes

-- our ocular-centric culture and taking sight for granted

-- resisting suggestions to turn essay collection into memoir

-- writing the collection as a book from the beginning

-- approaching one subject from many angles

-- upcoming events and new projects

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Mistie R. Watkins is the author of the prose poetry collection HIRAETH (Autofocus Books, 2023).  She lives in Orlando with her kiddo, two dogs, and two rats. You can find her work in Burrow Press Review, The Drunken Odyssey, and Autofocus or follow her on Instagram at mistie_thebogwitch.

Amy Watkins is the author of three poetry chapbooks (Milk & Water, Lucky, and Wolf Daughter), a graduate of the Spalding University MFA in Writing, and a parent of a human girl.  She lives in Orlando, Florida.

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Topics include:

-- Mistie's recent book release at Zeppelin Books in Orlando, FL

-- the challenge of blending sincerity and humor in poetry

-- Mistie's new book Hiraeth, which centers on the death of their sister in childhood

-- making sure you're not the only person who doesn't fuck up when writing from life

--  writing that becomes journaling and writing that becomes the "work"

-- differences in composing poems and essays for both writers

-- the chapbook as the ideal poetic form 

-- concision in smaller work and larger work

-- learning what to leave out of a poem and a book

-- turning family myths into literature 

-- the necessity of writing the I into the family myths

-- the fiction in the facts and the truth in the fiction

-- the presence of Florida in Amy and Mistie's work

-- the specificity of place

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Tucker Leighty-Phillips is the author of Maybe This Is What I Deserve, which won the 2022 Fiction Chapbook Contest from Split/Lip Press and was published this year. His work has appeared in Smokelong, X-R-A-Y, Wigleaf, HAD, Booth, and elsewhere. 

Emily Costa is the author of Until It Feels Right (Autofocus Books, 2022). Her work can be found in X-R-A-Y, Hobart, Barrelhouse, Wigleaf, and elsewhere. She is currently working on a novel sort of about her father's video store, as well as a book of short stories.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- working for an Appalachian arts and culture organization

-- getting a puppy just after the flood in Kentucky this summer

-- reading earlier but not writing until later

-- traveling around with bands

-- graduating with a BA at 28 and going into an MFA for the stipend

-- Tucker and Emily getting published early on in similar places

-- preferences of writing short or long

-- fun and play

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- winding down promotion for Tucker's award-winning chapbook

-- writing childhood and kids in fiction

-- grocery stores and critters sneaking into the book

-- the truths in Tucker's fiction

-- reclaiming past shame

-- correlation/causation of writing and healing

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- the media Tucker consumed while writing the stories

--  the worst season of Frasier

-- Columbo and the types of tv shows in your life

-- more about Tucker's work with Appalshop

-- new projects

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Emma Catherine Perry is the author of Blocks World, which is out today from Great Place Books. Her poetry is published in Fence, Nashville Review, Quarterly West, and elsewhere. She currently lives in Moscow, Idaho where she supports other writers in her capacity as Associate Director of the Writing Center and English faculty at the University of Idaho.

A poem from Blocks World, “The Sign of the Self,” appears in Autofocus's Fall 2023 issue.

Michael Wheaton is the publisher of Autofocus Books and producer of this podcast.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- moving on to a new job at a new school

-- moving around a lot

-- linguistic diversity and justice

-- growing up in rural New Hampshire

-- an art history major before MFA and PHD

-- external validation and publishing later 

-- the challenging of publishing at all

-- deciding to go into a PHD

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- Emma's debut poetry collection BLOCKS WORLD

-- finding the form and forms of the book

-- making poetry within the confines of the medium

-- collaborating with non-human actors

-- process and seriality

-- longer poems and poems as reckonings

-- writing directly to family members and others

-- the illusion of non-mediation and intimacy

-- blending the specific real and poetic distance

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- pattern and mutation

-- seriality and repetition and iteration

--  aphorism and the declarative statement

-- long lines and syntactical play

-- finding publication as the first book by Great Place Books

-- the humbling amount of amazing unpublished manuscripts out in the world

-- trying and participating as the process

-- the importance of sharing work with friends

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Dan O’Brien is a playwright, poet, and essayist whose books include the poetry collection Our Cancers and the nonfiction work A Story That Happens. His newest poetry collection, A Survivor’s Notebook, is out today from Acre Books. And both his lyrical memoir From Scarsdale: A Childhood and a new collection of plays, True Story: A Trilogy, are out next week from Dalkey Archive Press.

Erin Slaughter is the author of the short story collection A Manual for How to Love Us and the poetry collections The Sorrow Festival, and I Will Tell This Story to the Sun Until You Realize That You Are the Sun. She is the managing editor of Autofocus  and was formerly the editor/co-founder of literary journal and chapbook press The Hunger. Her writing has appeared in Lit Hub, Electric Literature, CRAFT, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, Split Lip Magazine, and elsewhere

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- arriving once again at Sewanee

-- growing up in Scarsdale as a reader & writer

-- formative trauma and OCD

-- finding community in the theater

-- writing recent plays in poetic style

-- being disowned

-- confessional poetry and the impulse to write

-- the benefits of being a multi-genre writer

-- a background in comedy

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- a creative marriage with the actress Jessica St. Clair

-- confession and ethics and deletion

-- growing up in an abusive household

-- Scarsdale as a psychological more than geographical place

-- knowing or not knowing if family is reading your work

-- ironically fulfilling a myth

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- Dan's new poetry book A Survivor's Notebook

-- Dan's previous poetry book Our Cancers

-- loss of language and fragmentation

-- poetry and spiritualism

-- ghosts and the richness of belief

-- turning toward a deeper interest in the here and now

-- telling true stories

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Emerson Whitney is the author of Daddy Boy (McSweeney’s 2023), Heaven (McSweeney’s 2020), and the poetry title, Ghost Box (Timeless Infinite Light, 2014). Emerson’s work has appeared in The Paris Review, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books and elsewhere.

Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length essay XO, from us at Autofocus Books. She’s also the author of the story collection, What Shines from it, from Alternating Current Press. Her book reviews and author interviews have been featured in the LA Review of Books, Newcity Lit, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- a deep intentionality around place

-- teaching at Godard College's low-residency program

-- going to undergrad at Godard after six other programs

-- alternative educational paths

-- reporting for the New York Observer

-- writing autobiographically young

-- an otherwise dangerous childhood

-- working with Maggie Nelson at Cal Arts

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- the reader/writer dynamic in direct address

-- best writing as best thinking

-- Emerson's new book Daddy Boy

-- chasing storms that never materialize

-- the mutable self

-- multi-generational disability experiences

-- tornado as book structure

-- weather

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- pain and agency

-- writing about kink

-- suppressing signals

-- the end of storm chasing

-- new work about special ed and disability

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Suzanne Ohlmann is the author of Shadow Migration: Mapping a Life (University of Nebraska Press) and a registered nurse. Her work has been published by the Associated Press, Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, Longreads, and Texas Monthly.

Holly Pelesky is the author of the essay collection, Cleave, from us at Autofocus Books. She also writes fiction and poetry and co-edits Vast Chasm literary magazine.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- walking the neighborhood

-- growing up Lutheran in rural Nebraska

-- Suzanne and Holly's books from different sides of adoption

-- Suzanne's Shadow Migration: Mapping a Life

-- finding families while traveling

-- feeling disconnected from your body

-- metabolizing a missing person in your life

-- growing up with music

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- Suzanne's search for her biological parents

-- vulnerability and creativity

-- life changing after sharing the story

-- trauma and healing

-- inviting the reader to sit down with you

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- Suzanne's path to publishing a very personal book

-- the trouble of self-promoting, particularly for personal writing

-- deep-seated religious programming

-- shame and guilt, particularly around adoption

-- the need for human connection

-- mother wounds and how we define love

-- meeting Kurt Vonnegut

-- writing letters

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Emily Adrian is the author of Everything Here Is Under Control and The Second Season, as well as two critically acclaimed novels for young adults. Her work has appeared in Granta, Joyland, Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Millions. She is also a co-editor of the new press Great Place Books.

Michael Wheaton is the publisher of Autofocus Books and producer of this podcast.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- a summer in the West

-- kids going into first grade

-- the founding of Great Place Books

-- writers getting pushed into commercial directions

-- the number of great unpublished manuscripts out there

-- the first few forthcoming books for the press

-- GPB's educational arm and Emily's class on Alice Munro

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- writing without ambition as a kid

-- dropping out of high school

-- writing novels after college 

-- writing young characters while a young person

-- writing mothers while a mother

-- how different and idiosyncratic people's lives are

-- Emily's most recent novel The Second Season

-- the relief of not thinking about a book anymore

-- imagining a future phase of life through story

-- basing her main character on NBA analyst Doris Burke

-- researching the novel & talking to lots of people

-- becoming a genuine fan of the NBA

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- writing in third vs. first person

-- the beauty of clarity and context in a story

-- knowing why you reveal what you reveal and don't reveal

-- the urgency of structuring the novel around the NBA finals

-- a novel in progress

-- writing and publishing stories

-- a memoir that did not get published

-- Alice Munro  and time

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Andrew Porter is the author of the novel In Between Days and two short story collections, The Theory of Light and Matter and, most recently, The Disappeared. Porter’s short stories have appeared in One Story, Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, The Missouri Review, and Prairie Schooner, among others. 

Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection A Kind of In-Between and editor of How to Write a Novel: An Anthology of 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, both from Autofocus Books. He's also the author of several other books, including the novel, Year of the Buffalo. He is currently the editor of Short Story, Long and the co-editor of WAS (Words & Sports) and HAD. 

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- finishing up summer

-- writing longhand

-- teaching intro to creative writing

-- discovering writing as an undergrad

-- relationships with rejection

-- early jobs and time in an MFA

-- Twitter as a kind of MFA

-- the decision to teach

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- Andrew's new story collection, THE DISAPPEARED

-- guilt about not writing much during early fatherhood

-- writing the first story in the collection

-- spinning a classic story in a new direction

-- nostalgia as life and writing theme

-- the line of sentimentality

-- stories as self-contained moments in time

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- short story gut punch moments

-- knowing when a long story isn't a novel

-- mixing the longer and short forms in a collection

-- story collection order as album order

-- quiet-loud-quiet

-- work on a next novel

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Christine Sneed is the author of the new story collection Direct Sunlightin addition to three novels and two previous story collections, most recently Please Be Advised and The Virginity of Famous Men. She is also the editor of a collection of short fiction, Love in the Time of Time's Up. 

Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length essay XO, from us at Autofocus Books. She’s also the author of the story collection, What Shines from it, from Alternating Current Press. Her book reviews and author interviews have been featured in the LA Review of Books, Newcity Lit, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- juggling teaching gigs

-- the fate of mid-list fiction writers

-- writing stories vs novels

-- novels in drawers

-- Christine's Substack, Bookish

-- mainstream publishing

-- sticking it out

-- poetry before fiction

____________

PART TWO, topics include:

-- life before the first book

-- 25 years of rejection from one mag

-- disappointment

-- Christine's new story collection Direct Sunlight

-- stories as windows

-- beginning with a title

-- layering details 

-- the comic potential of the every day

-- collecting a story collection

-- the truth, revealed

_________

PART THREE, topics include:

-- balancing formal inventiveness

--  associative logic

--  the enmeshment of character and plot

-- the stories of Alice Munro

-- the first couple lines

-- figuring it out as you go

-- dealing with disappointment

-- tuning out the outside world

-- new work

____________

Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Allegra Goodman is the author of two stories collections and many novels, including Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, The Chalk Artist, and most recently SAM. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere, and she’s been a finalist for the National Book Award.

Holly Pelesky is the author of the essay collection, Cleave, from us at Autofocus Books. She also writes fiction and poetry and co-edits Vast Chasm literary magazine.

____________

PART ONE, topics include:

-- a recently empty nest

-- writing routines

-- holding the thread

-- growing up in Honolulu

-- the seven-year-old novelist

--  a literary family

-- Little House in the Big Woods

--  writing short stories at Harvard in the 80's

-- a story as a ship in a bottle

-- living with a novel

-- words as tools vs words as jewels

-- writing as performance with a delay between the audience

-- Allegra's new coming-of-age novel SAM

-- evolving consciousness as plot

____________

PART TWO, topics include:

-- process changing over time as a writer

-- studying Shakespeare and writing the Markowitz stories

-- throwing away hundreds of pages

-- versatility

-- writing about interests in different keys

-- multimedia research

-- imaginative research

-- startling humor

-- Tolstoy

-- new reading recommendations

-- laws, rituals, and rules

-- observing the Sabbath 

____________

PART THREE, topics include:

-- writing things when ready to write them

--  courage

-- working through uncertainty

-- the hugeness of coming-of-age

-- the prospect of being a moon lady

-- self-deception

-- not pushing

-- forthcoming books

____________

Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Brandon Shimoda is a yonsei poet/writer, and the author of eight books of poetry and prose, including Portuguese, The Desert, The Grave on the Wall, and most recently Hydra Medusa, which is out now from Nightboat Books. He is also the curator of the Hiroshima Library, an itinerant reading room/collection of books on the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He teaches at Colorado College.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.

____________

PART ONE, topics include:

-- parenting small children

-- sibling relationships

-- growing up with a frustrated artist

-- living on the moon

-- writing while in motion

-- the bus as residency

____________

PART TWO, topics include:

-- working five jobs in pandemic lockdown

-- negative optimism

-- more leading to more

-- Brandon's new book Hydra Medusa

-- travel-mania  and/or material-seeking

-- the MFA -> publish three books -> visiting professor -> tenure track pipeline

-- messiness and non-messiness

-- Brandon's previous book The Desert

-- corresponding with other writers

-- Brandon's blurb stance

____________

PART THREE, topics include:

-- more about Hydra Medusa

-- writing about dreams

-- orderly language

-- feeling like a piece of hardware

-- waking up in the morning

-- the writing coming before the book

-- the book coming before the writing

-- writing poetry and/or prose

-- the forthcoming A Book on the Afterlife of Japanese-American Incarceration

-- putting a rectangle around a river

-- editing an anthology as creative act

____________

Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Aaron Burch is the author of A Kind of In-Between, The Year of the Buffalo, How to Write a Novel: An Anthology of 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, and several other books. He started the literary journal Hobart, which he edited for twenty years, and is currently the editor of Short Story, Long and the co-editor of WAS (Words & Sports) and HAD. He lives in Ann Arbor, MI and is online: on Twitter and Instagram at @aaron__burch, and the world wide web at aaronburch.net

You can buy A Kind of In-Between and the How to Write a Novel anthology bundled here.

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Shannon McLeod is the author of the collection Nature Trail Stories (Thirty West, 2023), the novella Whimsy (Long Day Press, 2021) and the essay chapbook Pathetic (University of Indianapolis Etchings Press). Her writing has appeared in Tin House Online, Wigleaf, Hobart, Joyland Magazine, Cosmonauts Avenue, and Prairie Schooner, among other publications. 

Emily Costa is the author of Until It Feels Right (Autofocus Books, 2022). Her work can be found in X-R-A-Y, Hobart, Barrelhouse, Wigleaf, and elsewhere. She is currently working on a novel sort of about her father's video store, as well as a book of short stories.

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Seth Rogoff is the author of the novels First, the Raven: a Preface (2017), Thin Rising Vapors (2018), and The Kirschbaum Lectures (2023), and the nonfiction book The Politics of the Dreamscape (2021). He is the co-author with former NBA player Kendrick Perkins of the memoir The Education of Kendrick Perkins (2023). Find more at sethrogoff.com.

Sara Lippmann is the author of the novel Lech (Tortoise Books) and the story collections Doll Palace (re-released by 7.13 Books) and Jerks (Mason Jar Press). Her fiction has been honored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, and her essays have appeared in The Millions, The Washington Post, Catapult, The Lit Hub and elsewhere. With Seth Rogoff, she is co-editing the anthology Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible for SUNY Press. 

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik and Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Emma Bolden is the author of The Tiger and the Cage: A Memoir of a Body in Crisis, House Is an Enigma, medi(t)ations, and Maleficae. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship, her work has appeared in The Norton Introduction to Literature, The Best American Poetry, The Best Small Fictions, and journals including Mississippi Review, Seneca Review, StoryQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, and Shenandoah.

Erin Slaughter is the author of A Manual for How to Love Us, The Sorrow Festival, and I Will Tell This Story to the Sun Until You Realize That You Are the Sun. She is the managing editor of Autofocus.

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Jessica E. Johnson writes poetry and nonfiction. She's the author of the book-length poem Metabolics and the chapbook In Absolutes We Seek Each Other. Her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in The Paris Review, Tin House, The New Republic, Poetry Northwest, River Teeth, DIAGRAM, Annulet Poetics, The Southeast Review, and Sixth Finch. 

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Katherine Indermaur’s first full-length book, I|I (Seneca Review Books, 2022), was selected as the winner of the 2022 Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize by Kazim Ali and as the winner of the 2023 Colorado Book Award. Katherine is also the author of two chapbooks, Facing the Mirror: An Essay (Coast|noCoast, 2020) and Pulse (Ghost City Press, 2018).

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Nazli Koca is the author of the novel The Applicant (Grove Atlantic, 2023). She is the recipient of grants from the Nanovic Institute, Soham Dance Space, and United States Artists. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Threepenny Review, BookForum, Second Factory, The Chicago Review of Books, and books without covers, among other outlets. 

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Eileen Myles' books include Pathetic Literature, For Now (an essay/talk about writing), Evolution, Afterglow (a dog memoir), I Must Be Living Twice: new and selected poems, Chelsea Girls, and most recently A Working Life. The Trip, their super-8 puppet road film, can be seen on YouTube. Eileen has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and was recently elected a member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters. They live in New York and Marfa, TX.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the director/co-editor of Fonograf Editions and BUNNY. fonografeditions.com

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Tyler Gillespie is the author of the nature machine! (Autofocus Books, 2023), The Thing about Florida: Exploring a Misunderstood State (University Press of Florida, 2021),  and Florida Man: Poems (Red Flag Poetry, 2018). He's a fifth-generation Floridian and currently teaches at Ringling College of Art + Design. Find out more at TylerGillespie.com.

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Arda Collins is the author of Star Lake (2022) and It Is Daylight (2009), which was awarded the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, A Public Space, Colorado Review, jubilat, and elsewhere. She is a recipient of the Sarton Award in Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the director and co-editor of Fonograf Editions and its imprint, BUNNY.

Find Autofocus Books at autofocuslit.com/books.

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

D.T. Robbins is the author of Birds Aren't Real, out now from Maudlin House, and This Is What Happens When You Leave Me Alone, from Rejection Letters Press, which he founded. He lives and works in Southern California with his family.

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission form Bertholet.

John Cotter is the author of the memoir Losing Music, published by Milkweeds Editions, portions of which have appeared in Raritan, Catapult, Indiana Review, and Guernica. His novel, Under the Small Lights, was published by Miami University Press in 2010, and his fiction, essays, criticism, and theater pieces have appeared–or will soon– in New England Review, Epoch, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, Georgia Review, Adroit, The New York Times, and Commonweal.

Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of six books, most recently the poetry collection Fur Not Light and the novel And Yet. His poetry and prose have been published in places like The American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, and Prairie Schooner, and his reviews and interviews in The Rumpus, Kenyon Review, Rain Taxi, and more. He directs the nonprofit book press/record label Fonograf Editions.