Podcasts about atocha station

Charlotte speculates on why Prep is still Curtis Sittenfeld's best novel, and Jo (17:46) endorses Jeff Sharlet's sensitive, surprising The Undertow. The scintillating Nicolás Medina Mora (24:05) then joins to revolutionize autofiction discourse with his theory about Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station.Nicolás Medina Mora is a Mexican writer. He currently works as an editor at Revista Nexos, a monthly magazine of culture and politics published in Mexico City. Before that, he lived in the United States for ten years, where he worked as a financial reporter for Reuters and as a police reporter for BuzzFeed. He holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. His first novel, América del Norte, is forthcoming from Soho Press in May 2024.Send questions, requests, recommendations, and your own thoughts about any of the books discussed today to readingwriterspod at gmail dot com. Charlotte is on Instagram and Twitter as @Charoshane. She writes semi-regularly in newsletter form, with additional work linked on charoshane.comJo co-edits The Stopgap and their writing lives at jolivingstone.comLearn more about our producer Alex at https://www.alexsugiura.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Links, Bios & Support InfoHope MohrHope Mohr's Horizon StanzasAlyssa HaradComing to My Senses: A Story of Perfume, Pleasure, and an Unlikely Bridge by Alyssa HaradThe Descent of Alette by Alice NotleyInanna Queen of Heaven and Earth by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah KramerMOTHERs by Rachel ZuckerAlice Notley reading books 1 and 2 of Descent of AletteAlice Notley reads books 3 and 4 of Descent of AletteSharon Bridgforth Omi Osun Joni L. Jones Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben LernerBridge Live ArtsCherie HillKarla QuinteroShifting Cultural Power by Hope MohrNew Commonplace School Course: “Reading with Rachel”Support Commonplace!Transcript (to come)

Last week, Adam chaired a conversation between Ben Lerner and Jakuta Alikavazovic, on the writing and translating of The Topeka School, at the conference BEN LERNER - EDGE OF GENRE. The discussion was compelling, enlightening and hilarious in equal measure. Enjoy!Buy The Topeka School: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-topeka-schoolBen Lerner was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1979. He has received fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, and is the author of three internationally acclaimed novels, Leaving the Atocha Station, 10:04 and The Topeka School. He has published the poetry collections The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw (a finalist for the National Book Award), Mean Free Path and No Art as well as the essay The Hatred of Poetry. Lerner lives and teaches in Brooklyn.Jakuta Alikavazovic is a French writer of Bosnian and Montenegrin origins. Her debut novel, Corps Volatils, won the Prix Goncourt in 2008 for Best First Novel. She has translated works by Ben Lerner, David Foster Wallace and Anna Burns into French. She lives in Paris and writes a regular column for the daily newspaper Liberation.*Listen to Alex Freiman's Play It Gentle here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're discussing Robertson Davies' novel, "The Manticore," and surprisingly one of us liked it and the other did not. Division on the podcast! And finally, we pick a June book from a list of nominations that are out of left field. We go through a good list of books we wouldn't normally nominate in the hopes of trying something new. Where we end up may surprise you....Nicholas Sparks is that you? (Side note; in classic fashion we mispronounce our selection for the entire podcast. Oh well.) As always loads of tangents, featuring Taylor Swift, Adele, and audiobooks. Enjoy! Nominations: The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller City of Bones by Cassandra Clare The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks Can You Keep a Secret? By Sophie Kinsella The Man You'll Marry by Debbie Macomber Another Woman by Penny Vincenzi Contact Us: Instagram @therewillbbooks Twitter @therewillbbooks Email willbebooks@gmail.com Goodreads: Therewillbebooks ko-fi.com/therewillbbooks patreon.com/therewillbbooks

Ben Lerner reads his story “The Ferry,” which appeared in the April 10, 2023, issue of the magazine. Lerner is the author of the novels “Leaving the Atocha Station,” “10:04,” and “The Topeka School,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2020. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2015.

Next in the series exploring The Exuberance of Youth World Book Club talks to the award-winning American author Ben Lerner about his beguiling debut novel Leaving the Atocha Station. Brilliant, unreliable, young American poet Adam Gordon is on a fellowship in Madrid, where he is struggling to establish his identity and dazzle his contemporaries. Instead of studying, his research becomes a meditation on authenticity - are his relationships with the people he meets in Spain, especially the two clever and beautiful women he falls for, as fraudulent as he fears his poems are? In the aftermath of the 2004 Madrid train bombings has he participated in history or merely watch it pass him by? Winner of the Believer Book Award and a Guardian Book of the Year from 2012 which marked the launch a major new literary talent. (Picture: Ben Lerner. Photo credit: Catherine Barnett.)

Ben Lerner reads his story “Café Loup,” from the September 5, 2022, issue of the magazine. Lerner is the author of the novels “Leaving the Atocha Station,” “10:04,” and “The Topeka School,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2020. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2015. 

“Part of what enabled me to kiss that stranger was knowing I would never see him again.”  –Colleen Kinder In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Colleen discuss why she started the magazine Off Assignment, and how it came to encompass letters to strangers (2:30); some of the specific stories included in Letter to a Stranger, and the role potential romance can play in meeting strangers (9:00); Rolf's memorable travel strangers, how new travelers interact with people and places with a different energy than seasoned travelers or expats (27:00); places that force us into contact with strangers, like subways and hostels (33:00); and what it's like to see travelers as a stationary person, and what local strangers must think of travelers (42:00). Colleen Kinder (@colleenkinder) is an essayist and editor whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New Republic, and The Best American Travel Writing. She is the editor of the anthology Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us. Colleen's magazine Off Assignment accepts "Letter to a Stranger" submissions from all manner of travelers. If you'd like to submit an 800-1500-word letter to an unshakeable stranger you've met on the road, please read the magazine's submission guidelines. Notable Links: Leslie Jamison (essayist) Pico Iyer (travel author) Interview with Julia Cooke (Deviate episode) Lavinia Spalding (travel author) "To a Stranger," by Walt Whitman (poem) Ficar (Brazilian Portuguese slang) Speed dating (matchmaking process) Hijab (garment worn by some Muslim women) "Blot Out," (Egypt essay by Colleen Kinder) Craig Mod (writer) Before Sunrise (1995 travel movie) Ajijic (Mexican town popular with retiree expats) Leaving the Atocha Station (novel by Ben Lerner) Semester at Sea (study-abroad program) The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel's 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don't host a “comments” section, but we're happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

Guest artist LUKE BURTON joins me to chat about his work via Ben Lerner's 2019 novel 'The Topeka School'. The story revolves around Adam Gordon and his parents, and the ambivalence of language as both a pathway to reparation and a driving force towards violence.  Luke Burton and I go on to discuss his own ambivalence, working with and against male and masculine archetypes in Western art. We acknowledge the ability of psychotherapy to excavate knowledge you didn't previous have about yourself, the selective access to language, the aggression within public rhetoric and language as spells.  LUKE BURTON lukeburton.tumblr.com bosseandbaum.com/artists/luke-burton instagram luke_p_burton 'Impossible Weather' solo exhibition 2020 Bosse and Baum 'The Artist Oracle' Sep 2021 White Crypt ARTISTS & ARTWORK Coptic Textiles Donald Judd Hans Holbein the Younger Lee Krasner Neil Cummings 'Rebel Without A Cause' 1955 film BOOKS & WRITERS Adam Phillips 'Attention Seeking' 2019 Ben Lerner 'Leaving the Atocha Station' 2011 Ben Lerner '10:04' 2014 Ben Lerner 'Contest of Words' Harper's Magazine 2016 Harriet Lerner, clinical psychologist and author Isabel Hardman 'Why We Get the Wrong Politicians' 2018 Lidija Haas 'The Guardian' 4 Nov 2019 Owen Jones 'The Grammar of Ornament' 1856 Rachel Kusk 'Outline' 2014 'Transit' 2016 'Kudos' 2018 GALLERIES & ORGANISATIONS Barbican Gallery, London Girton College, University of Cambridge  Victoria and Albert Museum V&A          

Musician Ned Russin of Title Fight and Glitterer joins the podcast to share his love for Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station and to also chat about his own latest creations: Glitterer's new record Life Is Not a Lesson and his first published novel Horizontal Rust. It's an all-encompassing conversation on experience, reality, and authenticity — all topics that get more elusive the more one tries to pin them down.  In other words: the best kind of topics. Life Is Not a Lesson is available now from ANTI- Records and Horizontal Rust is available now from Shining Life Press.

Join me for a day out to the Royal City of Aranjuez, a worthwhile day trip from the Spanish capital. I hop on the Cercanías light-rail commuter train from Madrid's Atocha Station and make the 45 minute train ride through the middle of the harsh Castilian plateau, to the haven of peace and tranquillity of Aranjuez, which lies in a green fertile valley between the rivers Tagus and Jarama. Wander with me as I explore this opulent, former Royal Spring retreat and walk its grand boulevards, squares and parks - that seem to remind me of a mini version of Paris. I talk through the royal comings and goings over the centuries, take a look at the Royal Palace, stop off in a very traditional Taberna to soak up the history - and noise - over a beer and some Buñelos de Rape. Then off to cool down in the vast Jardín del Prícipe, probably Spain's largest park. Tune in to find out about the famous modern classical concerto that the Prince's Garden inspired and what the 'Strawberry Train' is all about. At the beginning of the episode I also talk in more detail about Madrid's Cercanías train system and the places of note you can visit easily and affordably by using it. More info here:  https://www.renfe.com/es/en/suburban/suburban-madrid I didn't go inside the Royal Palace but you can find more info about ticket prices and the timetable here:https://www.patrimonionacional.es/en/visita/royal-palace-aranjuez Enjoy the When in Spain podcast? Please support the show by becoming a When in Spain Patron: https://www.patreon.com/wheninspain?fan_landing=true Check out more info and podcast episodes at https://www.wheninspainpodcast.com/

Hop on and ride with me as I cycle Madrid's streets to uncover some curious secrets and hidden gems of the Spanish capital. In this episode of the When in Spain podcast I sign-up to Madrid's BiciMadrid public cycle scheme and dodge the traffic to check out some fascinating locations which hide some surprising stories in the Spanish capital. More at https://www.wheninspainpodcast.com/post/madrid-secrets-by-bike   I puzzle at the Masonic symbolism on the Ministry of Agriculture building next to Atocha Station, visit the scene of the audacious assassination of Spanish prime minister Admiral Luis Carrero - whose car was catapulted over a five-floor apartment, visit Madrid's oldest sports venue, a hidden pelota court on a leafy city street and uncover a fishy story in the Malasaña neighbourhood. Listen to the episode to find what the giant bronze statues on top of the Ministry of Agriculture symbolise. In fact the whole façade of the Ministerio de Agricultura is littered with Masonic references. Find out what they mean in the episode. Next stop...The scene of the audacious assassination of Spanish prime minister Admiral Luis Carrero on a quiet street in the upmarket Salamanca district in 1973. Find out who was behind the murder of Franco's would-be successor and the incredible lengths they went to plant a bomb which sent his car and him flying over a five floor building where the scars can still be seen today.   On a lighter note, I scoot over to the other side of the Castellana into the handsome neighbourhood of Almagro, home to a hidden 4000-square metre Pelota Court, otherwise known as Beti-Jai in Basque, which is where the ball game originates from. The huge open air court was left to ruin for decades after it closed in 1919. It had several reincarnations over the years including a practice ground for Falangist bands. In 2018 it was brought back to its former Neo-Mudejar glory after a long renovation project. Last stop, a fishy tale on Malasaña's Fish Street, Calle del Pez. Hear the sombre story of how the street got its name.

In episode 381, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn do the thing and review the Netflix movie EXTRACTION. Also discussed: Westworld, Better Call Saul, Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner, What We Do In The Shadows, Spielberg on HBO, Absurd Planet on Netflix, and more! Support the show and remember to damn the man, save... The post #381 – The Fine Scale appeared first on Cinema Crespodiso.

Ben Lerner reads his story from the April 20, 2020, issue of the magazine. Lerner is the author of the novels “Leaving the Atocha Station,” “10:04,” and “The Topeka School,” which was published last year. He was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 2015. 

Well, we've finally found a book we disagree on! While Matt loved A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (https://amzn.to/2GrJJzC), Adrian was more cool on it. In this episode we discuss our disagreements, which largely come down to matters of taste in the aesthetics of stories we enjoy. We also get at some of the tough questions about empire & cultural hegemony posed by the book, and discuss wether we think the book fully explored these issues. We also talk plenty about the historical worldbuilding & other elements that we both enjoyed. It's a different episode than most, in that we disagreed, it's actually the second time we recorded the post-read (we weren't happy with the way the first session came out), and we recored in person together in Adrian's NYC apartment.  There's a long list of other books / media we talk about at the end of the episode and I've tried to capture them all here. As always, links at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher, and any Amazon links are affiliates. * East Goes West by Kang Younghill * 1587: A Year of No Significance by Ray Huang * Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay * Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner * Foreigner by CJ Cherryh * Treason by the Book by Jonathan Spence * Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott * An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (episodes 20.1 & 20.2) * Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (episodes 6.1 & 6.2) * Byzantophilia in the Letters of Grigor Magistros? by AnnaLinden Weller  --- As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.com, or submit the episode to r/printSF on reddit. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment. And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends! Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.

Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station and 10:04 find their synthesis in The Topeka School, the third in his Hegelian trilogy.

This month on the ark audio book club, we are revisiting an old flame with the new novel "The Topeka School" by Ben Lerner. Lerner’s first novel, "Leaving the Atocha Station", was the book started this crazy show so in many ways this is something of special occasion. In The Topeka School, Adam Gordan of the Atocha stations is back and this time we are learning about his upbringing with his Psychologist parents at the eponymous research and treatment facility in the small Kansas city. Told from the perspectives of Adam, his father Jonathan and his Mother Jane, the novel is exploration both of the formation of this character and the complex historical entanglements that an upbring entails, from youthful hijinks to developmental psychology, from New york subversives to midwestern values, from the fringes of the Westboro Baptist church to the exclusive debating clubs for future politicians. The novel explores the complexities of living in our world in classic Lerner style by excavating the disjunctions of language and action the stories we produce to square the circles. Talking about the book are long-time friend of the pod, Franek Korbanski, returning champ and Lerner scholar, Charlie Cassarino and of course, the people started the podcast all those years ago, Giovanna Alessandro and Macon Holt. From Granta Books.

American author Ben Lerner talks about Leaving the Atocha Station, his first novel narrated by a young man living outside his usual experience. Adam Gordon is a brilliant, if highly unreliable, young American poet on a prestigious fellowship in Madrid, struggling to establish his sense of self and his relationship to art. Instead of following the dictates of his fellowship, Adam's 'research' becomes a meditation on the possibility of the genuine in the arts and beyond: are his relationships with the people he meets in Spain as fraudulent as he fears his poems are? Is poetry an essential art form, or merely a screen for the reader's projections? A witness to the 2004 Madrid train bombings and their aftermath, he needs to decide whether he participates in historic events or merely watch them pass him by. Presented by James Naughtie and recorded with a group of readers asking the questions. To take part in future Bookclubs email bookclub@bbc.co.uk January 2020's Bookclub Choice : The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (2011) Presented by James Naughtie Produced by Dymphna Flynn

"Man Up". "He's Safe" "No Homo" How do men talk and write about masculinity? Laurence Scott talks to authors Ben Lerner, Derek Owusu and JJ Bola about crying, competitiveness, anger - and the pressure to perform. Ben Lerner is the author of Leaving the Atocha Station, 10:04 and his latest novel is called The Topeka School. He holds a prize commonly called the "genius grant" as a MacArthur Fellow. Derek Owusu's latest novel is called That Reminds Me. He has also presented the podcast Mostly Lit and edited Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space a collection of Essays which includes an Essay by JJ Bola. JJ Bola has also written a novel No Place to Call Home, a poetry collection Refuge, and non-fiction book on masculinity, Mask Off: Masculinity Redefined. You can find more Identity Discussions in a playlist on the Free Thinking website including Caryl Philips and Johny Pitts on Afropean identities https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005sjw Emma Frankland, June Sarpong on a panel asking Can There Be Multiple Versions of Me? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p061zr74 Producer: Robyn Read

To mark Bookclub's 21st birthday Helen Fielding talks about her creation Bridget Jones, with the first novel in the series, Bridget Jones's Diary. Bridget has now become an iconic figure in modern fiction. Bridget Jones started life as a weekly column in the pages of The Independent in 1995, when Fielding worked on the news desk. Refusing to use her own byline, Helen’s column chronicled the life and antics of fictional Bridget Jones as a thirty-something single woman in London trying to make sense of life and love - and was published as a novel in 1996. Helen says in Bookclub that she honestly expected the column would be axed after six weeks for being too silly. She also describes how much she leaned on the plot of Pride and Prejudice, as in 1995 it seemed the whole country was watching the BBC adaptation with Colin Firth as Mr Darcy. Bridget eventually finds love with aloof lawyer Mark Darcy, who of course was played by Firth in the film of the novel. With fans from women in their twenties now to others in their fifties who lived the life of Bridget at the time, Helen answers questions about the identity of unmarried women in their thirties in the 1990s, with Bridget feeling as alone as Miss Havisham and how perceptions have changed since; as well as how Bridget would fare in this #MeToo, Instagram image obsessed and internet dating world. Recorded as part of the BBC's BBC Arts year-long celebration of literature, The Books That Shaped Us; and presented by James Naughtie and with a group of readers asking the questions. December's Bookclub choice : Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner (2012) Presented by James Naughtie Produced by Dymphna Flynn

Ben Lerner reads his story from the May 27, 2019, issue of the magazine. Lerner is the author of the novels "Leaving the Atocha Station" and "10:04," as well as three books of poetry. His third novel, "The Topeka School," from which this story was adapted, will be published in October. 

Cody is re-joined by comedian, actor, and writer Elliot Lerner and comedian, writer, and illustrator Dave Stinton // to get The Nemesis out of your Nabisco! You can find your copy of the book at the house of your neighbor who has a lot of free time.    'Help Lord - The Devil Wants Me Fat!'  by C.S.Lovett   1977: Learn HOW the devil is able to influence our eating an how to deal with him. Learn how to deal with your appetite. Last learn how to de-program yourself from bad eating habits.   1982: Book by C.S.Lovett   1995: A wonderful book concerning weight loss.   Show Notes:   Previous Episodes: 9. ‘The Wendigo’ w/ Dave Stinton 88. 'Legally Stoned' w/ Erica Reid & Dave Stinton   Currently Reading: ‘Infinite Jest’ by David Foster Wallace ‘Leaving the Atocha Station’ by Ben Lerner ‘Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting TogetherIn The Cafeteria?’ by Beverly Daniel Tatum 'Your blues ain't like mine’ by Bebe Moore Campbell Longform Investigative Journalism   Topics: SATAN, THE LORD, C.S. Lewis, Dan Nainan, dieting, eating disorders, blame, Savior, calories, hunger, The Cave, Judaism, conspiracy, hunger.   Follow TOMEFOOLERY for information about upcoming episodes & books: @Tomefoolery and Facebook.com/Tomefoolery. Please rate and review on iTunes!   WEBSITE: http://Tomefoolery.com   STORE: http://squareup.com/market/CodyMelcherEsq   SUPPORT our PATREON: http://patreon.com/CodyMelcherEsq   FAN GROUP: http://www.facebook.com/groups/Tomefoolery

Does art have any political efficacy? What does it mean to have a "profound experience of art?" Are plots overrated in novels? Can the Spurs win without Kawhi? (Bear with us, we recorded this before Game 6.) These are just some of the questions raised in this installment of the Fan's Notes podcast. We discuss Ben Lerner's terrifically funny novel for the first 53 minutes, then switch over to check in on where some of the second round series stand. Next week we'll be reading Donald Barthelme's short story "Concerning The Bodyguard," and in two weeks we'll chat about Claudia Rankine's Citizen. Join us for those!

On this special anniversary edition of the Ark Audio Book club we have brought together the panel from the first ever episode, on Leaving the Atocha Station, to talk about Ben Lerner’s second novel 10:04. The story of an unnamed Ben Lerner-like New York author, working on a follow up to his well received Atocha Station-like first novel while juggling relationships, family, the spectres of death, technology and ecological disaster and the prospect of having a child with his best friend, all set within a baroque metafictional construction. The novel is a poetically crafted exploration of the differentness temporalities of art making and life living, and the attempt for ever-unattainable authenticity.  This episode features Alexander Buk-Sweinty, Magnus Friis, Giovanna Alesandro and is hosted and produced by Macon Holt.

We return to Atocha station to find a train to El Escorial. #Madrid #Spain #2016 #Madrid2016 #May #Holiday #CityBreak #Weekend #cane #VI #VisuallyImpaired #RobertJohnson #MarkRogers #Food #Culture #Atocha #cercanias #ElEscorial

In this episode we are discussing Ben Lerners debut novel ‘’Leaving the Atocha Station’’ from 2011. We are trying new ways of sharing the literature and those experiences, this is just one of the ways we’ll be exploring. This episode features Macon Holt, Alexander Buk-Swienty, Magnus Friis and Giovanna Alesandro Ark audio book club is made by Giovanna Alesandro, Macon Holt and Alexander Buk-Swienty

Bestselling author and prolific lit interviewer Brad Listi was named One of LA s most fascinating people of 2015 by the LA Weekly. He stopped by to chat with me about podcasting and the secrets of successful writers. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting. Start getting more from your site today! On his “in depth and inappropriate” podcast, Otherppl with Brad Listi, he has interviewed over 350 leading contemporary authors — including George Saunders, Cheryl Strayed, Tao Lin, Jonathan Lethem, Austin Kleon, and Susan Orlean — and his takeaways for writers are often priceless and pointed. In addition to his street-cred as a bestselling novelist, Brad is a screenwriter, and the founder and publisher of The Nervous Breakdown, an online culture magazine and literary community. In this file Brad Listi and I discuss: Why Interviews with Beginners Can Be More Interesting Than Interviews with Superstars The Magic of Deadlines, Caffeine, and Word Counts Why First Drafts are Like Ironing a Shirt The Importance of Meditation for ‘Unplugging’ How Great Writers Capture a Moment That Others Can’t 3 Key Takeaways from over 350 Interviews with Writers Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ... Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes The Otherppl Podcast hosted by Brad Listi The Otherppl App Books by Brad Listi The Nervous Breakdown — an online culture magazine and literary community Otherppl on Twitter Brad Listi on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter The Transcript How Novelist and Prolific Podcaster Brad Listi Writes Voiceover: This is Rainmaker.FM, the digital marketing podcast network. It’s built on the Rainmaker Platform, which empowers you to build your own digital marketing and sales platform. Start your free 14-day trial at RainmakerPlatform.com. Kelton Reid: These are The Writer Files, a tour of the habits, habitats, and brains of working writers, from online content creators to fictionists, journalists, entrepreneurs, and beyond. I’m your host, Kelton Reid: writer, podcaster, and mediaphile. Each week, we’ll find out how great writers keep the ink flowing, the cursor moving, and avoid writer’s block. Bestselling author and prolific lit interviewer Brad Listi has been named as one of LA’s most fascinating people of 2015 by the LA Weekly. He stopped by to chat with me about podcasting and the secrets of successful writers. On his in-depth and inappropriate podcast, Otherppl with Brad Listi, he’s interviewed over 350 leading contemporary authors, including George Saunders, Cheryl Strayed, Tao Lin, Jonathan Lethem, Austin Kleon, and Susan Orlean, and his takeaways for writers are often priceless and pointed. In addition to his street-cred as a bestselling novelist, Brad is a screenwriter and the founder and publisher of The Nervous Breakdown, an online culture magazine and literary community. In this file, Brad Listi and I discuss why interviews with beginners can be more interesting than interviews with superstars, the magic of deadlines, caffeine and word counts, why first drafts are like ironing a shirt, the importance of meditation for unplugging, and three key takeaways from over 350 interviews with writers. If you enjoy The Writer Files podcast, please do me a favor. Leave a rating or a review in iTunes to help other writers find us. Thanks for tuning in. Mr. Listi, thank you so much for coming onto The Writer Files. Brad Listi: It’s my pleasure, man. Thanks for having me. Kelton Reid: I am a huge fan of not only your writing, but also your podcast, which just blows me away with the breadth and depth and number of writers that you’ve interviewed over there is fantastic. Brad Listi: Just leveraging my mental illness into productivity. Kelton Reid: For listeners who aren’t familiar with your podcast and what you do, what is your area of expertise as both a writer and a podcaster? Brad Listi: None. But I’m curious. I’m curious, professionally curious, and then also professionally confused. Those two things make for, hopefully, a decent podcaster, or somebody who talks to people regularly and interviews them, or not really interviews, but has conversations. I don’t know how unusual it is to be able to do that, but I can do it. I can sit there and talk to people and be totally fascinated, genuinely fascinated. It started as kind of a lark, which is how most of the things in my life tend to go, in my professional life, and it just snowballed. I’ve had so much fun doing it that I keep doing it. Then here we are four years later. Kelton Reid: The podcast is Otherppl on iTunes and Stitcher. I definitely would encourage writers to seek it out if they don’t know it already. You’re an intrepid interviewer, but you just get into the mind of the writer. You let them rip. You talk about process. You’ve interviewed some amazing contemporary authors, including George Saunders, Tao Lin, Austin Kleon, who I love, who was just on this show as well — just an amazing, amazing array of different types of writers, which I think is very cool. Why Interviews with Beginners Can Be More Interesting Than Interviews with Superstars Brad Listi: Yeah. That’s always been part of the idea for the show, is that I would talk to writers across a wide range, meaning I talk to a guy like George Saunders, or I’ll talk to Cheryl Strayed, or I’ll talk to Susan Orlean, or I’ll talk to Edwidge Danticat, Tom Perrotta, those really recognizable, at least within the realm of the literary world, names. Then I’m also talking to people who are debut authors on indie presses. Or I’m talking to poets, and nobody knows who any poets are practically. I’m not interested in only talking to people who have somehow managed to get some kind of media traction or name recognition. I’m interested in talking to writers who are at the beginning of the process, too. I think that’s just as interesting. Sometimes it’s more interesting. I’m mostly curious about people generally, and I happen to interview writers. I like writers as people. I have a great deal of sympathy for people who do this, who try to do this work, and feel driven to do it. Whatever that is, whatever formula that is inside of a human being, I tend to gravitate towards, and I like. It’s just fun to talk to them. Kelton Reid: For listeners who don’t know of your writing as well, you’re also a bestselling author. Brad Listi: Bestselling is generous, but I’ll take it. Kelton Reid: I loved your novel. Attention Deficit Disorder spoke to me at a time in my life, actually, when I just moved away from Los Angeles. I found the connection that you had to Colorado very interesting. But it’s kind of what’s-it-all mean novel. It really connected with me. I love the format. I love the writing itself. Anyway, where can we find more of your writing? I know that you have an online community. You’re constantly getting your hands into other projects. What are you working on presently? Brad Listi: I don’t mean to be cryptic. I’ve got a book going that’s been going forever. I published an experimental work of nonfiction with a writer named Justin Benton a couple of years ago called Board. It’s like a literary collage, ripped from comment boards on The Nervous Breakdown. I was just interested, and Justin was interested, in comment board culture and what people say on the Internet. We made this like weird book of literary collage out of it and called it Board, so that’s out there. Then I’ve been working on a book for a long time. I’m also working on film and TV stuff, which I can’t fully talk about. I’m trying to get something going there. It might go. It might not go. It’s that kind of thing. That’s been occupying a lot of my time. Then doing the podcast, running The Nervous Breakdown in all of its various iterations. It’s a full schedule, and being a parent. The time goes away quickly. Kelton Reid: The Nervous Breakdown is a great stop also for writers to discover new writing. I’ll point to that in the show notes as well. Do you want to talk about your productivity a little bit as a writer? The Magic of Deadlines, Caffeine, and Word Counts Brad Listi: Yeah. It’s in fits and starts. I’m good with a deadline, and if I have a project and I know that has like a real shape to it time-wise, I’m able to lock in. Otherwise, when I have the free time to work on a book, the problem with me is that I feel like I need a good chunk of time to get my head into the right space to inhabit the world of the book and to really feel like I have a rhythm. My life has not been able to accommodate that consistently. I have it in pockets. I’ll go to work on it, and then I’ll get pulled into another project that has a deadline attached to it and probably money. And I’ll have to go there. That’s the way that it’s been going. I have been struggling mightily to write the second book. I wrote an entire novel called City of Champions, which I trashed. It was 130,000 words. Kelton Reid: Wow. Brad Listi: Yeah. Then I wrote an entire another novel draft, trashed it. It’s been like that for me. It has not been easy. This is not something that comes easily to me at all. It’s been very frustrating. Then you compound that with trying to make a living and support a family, and it’s challenging. It’s still a work in progress in terms of trying to figure out how to make it all happen. But the good news is that there could be potentially a glimmer of light. It’s the best I can tell you. Kelton Reid: Well that’s good to hear. When you are working on any kind of project that requires you to sit in one place, do you have any pregame rituals or practices that help you get into that mode? Brad Listi: Yeah, caffeine. Just caffeine. It’s caffeine. I used to exercise and then work. Now, lately, I have been working and then exercising. In a perfect world, I’d get up really early and work. Actually, I don’t know. In a perfect world, I’d get up really early and go for a hike someplace beautiful, a couple of hours, then come down and work. Be unimpeded. But usually morning, drink some caffeine, get in front of the keyboard. I had a pocket of time earlier this spring where I was really working for about six weeks. That’s the way I was doing it. I usually operate on a word count just to give myself a no BS metric. I have to see how many words I’m getting in order to actually chart my progress. I write it down so that it’s externalized. It’s not just something that I keep in my head. I actually have it on paper day by day, so I can see what I’m doing. Because it can get really easy to sort of spin your wheels. That’s going to happen inevitably. At some point in the writing process, you’re going to have to backtrack and cut pages, or you’re going to get stuck in a certain section and just grind away and not get anywhere for a while. If I don’t write it down, I can wind up grinding away for a long time. It be like, “I feel like I’m working,” but the book has not advanced. The narrative has not advanced in six weeks or whatever. It’s just helpful for me to do it that way. It keeps me accountable. Kelton Reid: Do you prefer silence, or do you like to listen to music while you’re typing, writing? Brad Listi: Like ambient music. I’ve written parts of books at least where music has helped me in terms of getting an emotional tone, getting myself into the right emotional, tonal headspace to write whatever section it is or whatever project I’m working on. I don’t like to write with music that has lyrics and people are singing in my head. It’s too many voices, and I’ll start singing along. It’s just distracting. If I could ever find silence — I live in Los Angeles, there’s no such thing. I have small children, a small child with another one on the way, so silence is hard to come by. That would be pretty awesome if I could find that, but not any time soon. Kelton Reid: When you are in that pocket of productivity, do you find yourself needing to sit down every day? Brad Listi: Yeah. I’m very rhythmic. That’s what I mean by ‘rhythm.’ What’s frustrating is that if I could set up a schedule where I was able to do it every day at the same time. The other thing, too, some of these people, I was talking to Aimee Bender on my show. She has young twins and was talking about how she’s writing in seven-minute pockets of time, whatever’s available to her, which is the resourceful, admirable, intelligent way to go about it. For me, I need a few hours. I need a couple of hours just to mess around before I can even get started. I don’t know why. That’s the way it’s always been for me. I have to warm up. I have to sit there and re-read it. It takes me a while to get back into it. It’s always been that way. Maybe I’m doing something wrong. Four hours is a minimal pocket of time in order for me to get 500 to 1000 words, unless I’m really caffeinated. Kelton Reid: Do you edit while you work, like as you go? Why First Drafts Are Like Ironing a Shirt Brad Listi: Yeah. I try to write the best possible first draft that I can. I’m not somebody who just sits there and let’s it rip. I’m always trying to write the best I can, and at the same time, I’m trying to make sure that I don’t get too nitpicky and stifle myself or let the inner critic or whatever overtake the process. I find that if you’re too permissive, then it can let you off the hook. You let yourself off the hook, and you get into lazy writing, which isn’t helpful. Then you have this huge mess to clean up. I liken it to ironing a shirt. When you’re working on a first draft, it’s like when you iron a shirt and you’re always sliding the shirt over to go back to where you just were. I don’t know if that’s the right visual. But I’ll write, and then I’ll reread what I’ve written, usually all the way from the beginning. This is another reason why it takes me forever. I’ll start, I could be on page 150 of a book, and every morning, I get up and I start on page one and I reread — and I’m just ironing. Then I’m getting back in, and then I’m trying to advance it 500 or 1000 words or whatever. That doesn’t mean that I’m not skimming. There’s certain sections where you know you have it or you need to come back to it later and focus time. That’s how I do it. Kelton Reid: You’ve interviewed so many authors, and I’m sure that you’ve asked this same question of them. Do you believe in writer’s block? Do you get writer’s block or do you have a superstition about it? Brad Listi: No. I think you just do the work, and you just write something. I can understand being blocked with respect to a particular project, or you hit some sort of impasse. There is such a thing as getting to a point where you realize a book is not going to work, or you’re just out of juice for the time being. I don’t get the whole thing where I’m too scared to say anything. You can’t let yourself have that. You just get to work. If that’s the way it is, and it’s consistent and it’s prolonged, then I think you need to consider finding other ways to occupy yourself. Kelton Reid: If I could pick your brain a little bit about your workflow over there. What kind of hardware or typewriter are you presently clacking away on over there? Brad Listi: Just a MacBook Pro, either Microsoft Word or Scribner. Nothing out of the ordinary. Kelton Reid: Do you have any methods for staying organized? Do you use outlines, et cetera? Brad Listi: No, I don’t outline. I work intuitively. The outlines that I have, it would be too generous to call them outlines. I’ll have a document where I’m keeping notes and scraps and what not, but it’s not like a great system or some sort of really ingenious method. Again, I feel like all these things could be improved upon. You know? Kelton Reid: Yeah. Brad Listi: There’s lots of room for improvement. Kelton Reid: Definitely. Well, I think all of us feel that way, but talking about it helps. Brad Listi: Yeah, that’s right. I mean I’ve been doing it for the past four years. Kelton Reid: The talking cure, so to speak. I think Austin Kleon is the one who, first at least, pointed to productive procrastination in his stuff. It sounds like what you’re doing when you do get into that mode is that you’re doing a productive procrastination prior to getting into it. Do you have any other methods for beating procrastination or is that something you wane into? Brad Listi: Just deadlines, self-loathing. Eventually you’re just like, “What the heck am I doing? I got to get to work.” I’ll be reading something that inspires me, or I’ll reread whatever I’ve been writing to get back into the voice and to figure out what’s going to happen next. Again, because I’m not working through an outline. It almost feels like I got to get this momentum. The rereading, you inhabit not only the voice of the book but also the world of the book, and then you get caught up in the narrative momentum of the book if you’re really concentrated. Then when you get into that leaping off point, if you’ve got the right momentum, then you can usually figure it out, or you can make some progress. I think that’s part of it. Kelton Reid: Nice. Brad Listi: Otherwise, in terms of prep or constructive procrastination or whatever, again, sometimes it could be more constructive. Sometimes I’m just on Facebook or whatever. Kelton Reid: How do you unplug at the end of a session? The Importance of Meditation for ‘Unplugging’ Brad Listi: Meditation. I mediate twice a day on a good day. Always once lately, but usually twice. The best thing I can do is sit for 20 minutes to 40 minutes and just do that — focus on breathing and try not to think so much. It really does reset me. Kelton Reid: Just a quick pause to mention that The Writer Files is brought to you by the Rainmaker Platform, the complete website solution for content marketers and online entrepreneurs. Find out more and take your free 14-day test drive at Rainmaker.FM/Platform. If we could dive into creativity a little bit. Can you define creativity in your own words? How Brad Defines Creativity Brad Listi: Let me see here. Making stuff. God, man, that’s a tough one. You’re taking disparate elements and combining them to make something that didn’t previously exist. I’m interested in the composite nature of creativity. Any work of art, I’m always fascinated when the sourcing of it is articulated, or you can figure it out by reading, like in the context of literature, like literary biography. That’s another reason I think that I like doing the podcast. I like getting into some of that, where you’re talking to somebody and figuring out what were these disparate elements that they pulled together to write this? What were the things that were bothering them? Who were the authors that they were turning to or leaning on when they were putting their initial ideas for their book together, when it was still in the realm of abstraction? I think that’s what it is to me. I’m very much a fan of collage art. I’m very much a fan of odd combinations. I think my novel is a testament to that. I like the idea of digression. I like the idea of nonfiction infused with fiction. Mini biography, all that kind of stuff really appeals to me. Kelton Reid: Those are some of the most appealing parts of your novel for sure, that infused fiction nonfiction. I love the quotes, the definitions, how it jumps. Brad Listi: I think I could do without the definitions, or at least just a couple. I think I overdid it on those. But one thing I really like, not about my own book but that would maybe further clarify what I’m trying to say, is that I really love books that are explicit reactions to reading. All books are in some way a reaction to what the author is reading. I really love authors that you can tell, either explicitly or implicitly or in the endnotes or whatever, that they’re really responding to a book or a set of books, or they have like a central question that they’re trying to get the answer to and have done the research around it, and that kind of thing. There’s something about the transparency of that, that appeals to me and that I find heroic. Kelton Reid: Do you have a creative muse at the moment? Brad Listi: I’m sure I do. I love Louis CK like everybody else. I think it’s because of the way in which he conveys how humiliating life is. I agree with that. It’s like it’s just humiliating to be alive, painful. It’s just such an awkward mess. He finds the funny in that. That sensibility really appeals to me. I mean I’m going to sound corny, but my daughter — just because when you have a four year old you have a young child, right? Kelton Reid: I do. Brad Listi: Being around kids, whether they’re your own or they’re other people’s, there’s something wonderful about how free they are in terms of how they create. Just having her sit there and scribble on a piece of paper and draw something. There’s no self-consciousness. There’s no self-editing. There’s no, “This is bad,” or “This is good.” It’s all free. That is fun to be around and a good reminder. Kelton Reid: That’s fun. Yeah, they have no filter whatsoever. It’s funny because definitely some of your monologue work on your show reminds me of Louis CK. Brad Listi: Oh really? Kelton Reid: Yeah. Pointing out the absurdity of everyday stuff, which is great. Brad Listi: I appreciate it. I think that’s generous. I watch his show. I listen. I’ve taken his standup, and I listen to a lot of Howard Stern. I listen to a lot of Maron. I listen to a lot of Terry Gross, Charlie Rose. I love interview shows in addition to doing one. I have all these people who I’ve been listening to for years and who I think were inspirational when I went to start my own little podcast. I feel like, inevitably, some of the rhythms of their delivery and some of the things that they are fixated upon, they’re going to work their way into my show somehow. Kelton Reid: II have one Louis CK standup seared into my brain, and it’s the Chewed Up special that he did. I’ll jump to what makes a writer great. How Great Writers Capture a Moment That Others Can’t Brad Listi: I think the ability to tap into and articulate well what everybody else is thinking but doesn’t have the words to say. There are some writers who are preternaturally good at that. I think a really terrific intellect is a big part of it as well. I always think of Don DeLillo whenever I think of somebody who’s just got a Teflon brain. I know David Foster Wallace is often thought of in that context, but DeLillo, it’s frightening to me. His brain is just so sharp. There’s a lot of writers like that. It’s not just contemporary. It’s not just men, obviously. It runs the gamut. There are a lot of great writers, and I think they’re all just terrifically intelligent. But in addition to having brain smarts, I think having a real sense of the human heart and having a real sense of humor. To be contradictory, I don’t know if DeLillo is a super funny writer. I know nothing about him in person. But recollecting his work, I don’t think of it as like being super funny, but I love that alchemy. I think a great writer can write tragedy and comedy in the same sentence, because that kind of sentence and that kind of work holds a mirror up to the world. There’s the old adage that the world is tragic, terrible and tragic and dark and absurd and hilarious, and often at the same time. I think that’s totally true, and really great art should reflect that. Then, again, there are great books that are like super dramatic and not funny at all. So it’s not like it’s got to be just my way, but that’s what I look for. If I can find a writer who does that. Whenever anybody asks me that question “What’s your favorite book?” — which is an impossible question to answer, I always say Journey to the End of the Night and Death or the Installment Plan, the two books by Louis Ferdinand Celine. I almost said Louis Ferdinand CK. But those two books, when I read them in my early 20s, blew me away. In the aftermath, reading up on Celine and trying to figure out who he was as a guy, you find yourself conflicted because he was a Nazi sympathizer in his later years. It got a little sketchy there. But he was a soldier in World War One. He suffered head trauma. He had a hard life in a lot of respects and regardless of how he conducted himself in his personal life in his later years or what his political beliefs might have been, those two books have a ton of humanity in them, and a ton of really deep intellect, a lot of heart, and a lot of really dark humor. I don’t know if it’s the translation. I guess the translation must be a big part of it, but those books always struck me in terms of how well they’ve aged. You read those books or I read those books at the turn of a century — they were published in like 1930s — and they didn’t seem dated at all to me, other than maybe some of the context in terms of what was happening in the books, the war or whatever. There’s just something really immediate about them and just wildly smart and funny and dark. The sense that I find myself having when I put down a book that I really admire is that it says everything. There’s just nothing left, and I got it. Another book that I had that feeling about was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Again, at the time that I read it, again, I was probably 21 years old or whatever. I was at the Boulder Bookstore, and for whatever reason, I picked that book up in hardcover, and I bought it. I read it, and I was like, “Oh man, that’s it.” It just summed up a moment. When you write something like that, that captures a moment, and I guess from a certain perspective, it really resonates. You obviously can’t say everything, but if you can capture a little sliver of it in a really full way, it has that feeling of saying everything. I don’t know if I articulated that well, but you know what I mean — hopefully. Kelton Reid: I think you articulated quite well. A couple of fun ones, and you may have already answered this, but who is your favorite literally character? Brad Listi: Hang on. Kelton Reid: I’m going to keep the silence in. Brad Listi: Yeah. I want the audience to feel the weight of the silence. Kelton Reid: That’s a terrible question, I know. Brad Listi: No. There’s the Kilgore Trout, but I don’t really feel like I grabbed on, and Bardamu in Journey to the End of the Night is not exactly somebody you lionize. You know what I’m saying? A lot of the literary characters in the books that I’ve liked best are not exactly heroic. I like the anti-hero. I always thought that Bukowski narrator was funny. There’s a guy who could write funny, like genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, at least for me, in his best stuff. God, you know who else I really liked? I liked the narrator in the Ben Learner novel Leaving the Atocha Station. To go back to the whole thing about capturing a moment, there’s something about that book that feels it’s getting it. It’s getting its time perfectly right, or at least it did for me, a certain kind of obsessive self-consciousness coupled with the moment in terms of geopolitics and technology and how we live now. I don’t know, but that narrator actually made me laugh. I always go to writing that feels really deeply smart but also funny, and that’s rare. Kelton Reid: Yeah, absolutely. Writing that doesn’t take itself too seriously, even though it might be. Brad Listi: Well, I don’t want just a silly book. If it’s just a bunch of like jokes, then that’s easy, but if it’s somebody who’s really got something to say and the laughs come unexpectedly. If I laugh out loud while reading a book, I’m sold. It doesn’t happen very often. Kelton Reid: If you could choose one author living or dead for an all-expense paid dinner to your favorite restaurants, who would you choose, and where would you go? Brad Listi: Let’s do some more silence here. Oh, living or dead. A few years ago, I probably would’ve said Gore Vidal in his prime just because I always thought he was so funny and such a great talker. But then I watched this documentary and you read the postmortem about his later years. Then was a book, this guy — I’m already forgetting his name — just wrote a book, which I didn’t really love. It was called Sympathy for the Devil. It was a guy who knew Gore going back to his years in Rome in 70s or whatever, and it was just a mess. Life, especially if it’s lived long, usually ends messy one way or another because old age is a massacre or whatever. It’s just tough to get old, but it’s especially tough to get old when you’re drinking a gallon of whiskey every day. There’s a part of me that really admired and just loved Vidal for being such a wit, so stinking funny and so sharp and acidic — just good company. I imagine that, at his best, he was really fun to sit at a dinner table with, but he could also be really mean and sloppy. He came unhinged at the end. I’ll say Gore Vidal, but in his prime. Kelton Reid: Okay. Where would you take him? Brad Listi: God, I don’t think I would take him anywhere. I think he would probably pick the restaurant. Let’s just say somewhere in Revello. Kelton Reid: Okay, perfect. Do you have a writer’s fetish at all? Brad Listi: No, I don’t even know what that is. Like I have to have a certain like pen or something? Kelton Reid: Yeah, I don’t know. I know fetish has a couple of different meanings, but yeah, do you collect weird writerly paraphernalia? Brad Listi: No. I’m the least sentimental person ever. Even baby pictures, I’m like, “Shred them. I don’t need them. It’s too much clutter. I don’t care.” I just need some space, quiet, or be in a coffee shop with some headphones on, but I’m not super nitpicky about having to have a certain kind of pen or anything like that. Kelton Reid: Who or what has been your greatest teacher? Brad Listi: The books and the writers that wrote them, no doubt. It starts with the work itself. If I were going to add a dimension that might differentiate me even a little bit, it would be that I almost always get into nonfiction if I like a writer’s fiction or if I like a writer’s work period. Meaning, I’ll always go in search of literary biography, which maybe makes my podcast make more sense. To be really frank with you, I’m often more interested in the literary biography than I was in the work, even when I loved the work. I’m very fascinated with the people who make the work, why they do it, and who they were. That kind of detective work is interesting to me. I guess that might mean that I should write biography. I haven’t done it yet. I don’t know if a straight biography is exactly what I’m wired to do, but some component of that is fascinating. I think the podcast is a form of literary biography, in the aggregate especially. That element of it has been probably the most important thing that I have done in terms of getting an education. That includes getting an MFA. It’s just got to be the case for anybody who does this. You have to read books that move you, and you have to really read them — and sometimes re-read them. Then the other thing about it is that, when I was coming up, I went through a period of about two or three years where every morning I would print out one or two interviews with authors. I just built this huge library of author interviews that I read, and I keep them in a filing cabinet. We’re talking thousands of pages when it was all said and done. I just had this huge library of them. We talked about earlier, rituals to get like ready to work or whatever, that’s what I was doing in my 20s. I would read author interviews and that would get me excited about working, just to hear them talking about the work, why they did the work, how they did the work, and successes they’d had or struggles that they had overcome. That can be extremely helpful and even medicinal, especially if you’re stuck, or you’re feeling down, or your energy level is low. Part of my motivation in doing the podcast is to get some of that for myself, but also to create a place for writers to come and hear and commiserate, virtually at least, and hopefully leave with a little bit more energy or a little bit more hope about their own lives and work. Kelton Reid: You’ve just amassed so much advice from other writers. Do you have any advice yourself, kind of sage advice for fellow scribes on just how to keep going, how to keep the cursor moving? 3 Key Takeaways from over 350 Interviews with Writers Brad Listi: Read a lot, and read interviews with the authors that you love. Find out about their lives because it’s a great way to demystify it. It’s a great way to take them down off their pedestal. Humanizing people we admire is important. It’s often instructive because you can figure out how they did and what happened to them when they hit adversity and how they handled it and so on and so forth. It’s not always great, either. You don’t necessarily learn from the best example every time. Sometimes you learn from the worst example. You learn what to avoid. So there’s that. Having done almost 400 interviews with writers, I think I’ve gleaned it. I try to boil it all down into the simplest possible insights into the writing life, if I can remember them. One of them was don’t do it for money. The writers that I’ve talked to who seem the most well-adjusted and often have the most success, they’re definitely having the most fun doing it. There just not thinking of it like, “Oh I got to make a living from this,” or, “I got to make a million dollars from this.” They’re doing it because they love it. They don’t care if they make money. They like to do it. It makes their life better. That’s one thing. Then if the money comes, great. But it’s not why you do it. It’s not anything you’re expecting. The other thing is read a lot. I’ve said this many times, but one of the big dirty secrets amongst so many writers is they don’t read, or they don’t read regularly, or enough. That’s a bad formula. Don’t do it for money, read a lot, and then write every day or close to it. Those are the three things. If you can do that, you’re likely going to get books done, and you’re not going to be miserable doing it. That’s the best I can tell you. Those are three common denominators. Obviously, it’s a little bit different for everyone, and there are always outliers and exceptions to the rule. But those are the three things, if I had to boil it down, that I’ve come away with after talking to all these writers. Kelton Reid: That’s fantastic advice. Where can fellow writers connect with you out there? Brad Listi: The podcast has its own website. It’s Otherppl.com. Then you can follow the show on Twitter, @Otherppl. Then you can follow me @BradListi on Twitter. Those are probably the best places to keep up with things. The podcast also had its own app, which is free. You can get it wherever you can get apps. You get that app on your device, and then the most recent 50 episodes are available free. You get the app and the most recent 50 shows are just there waiting for you. Then if you want to get to the deeper archives, you can sign up for premium, which is as cheap as like 75 cents a month. It’s 75 cents a month, and you get access to everything. Those are the best ways. Get the app and you should be off and running. Kelton Reid: That’s fantastic. The six degrees of Brad Listi. You probably have some connection to every great contemporary writer at this point. Brad Listi: Fewer than six degrees I would bet. Not that I know them, but I’m sure I know somebody who knows somebody who knows them. Kelton Reid: Thank you so much for taking the time. I do encourage writers to seek out the podcast and also your writing, and I really appreciate you taking the time. Brad Listi: It was absolutely my pleasure, Kelton. Thanks for having me on. Kelton Reid: Cheers. Great advice that all writers should heed. For more episodes of The Writer Files and all of the show notes or to leave us a comment or a question, please drop by at WriterFiles.FM. You can always chat with me on Twitter @KeltonReid. Cheers. See you out there.

10:04 (Faber & Faber) For tonight's event Ben Lerner will be joined by one of Skylight's favorite local authors, Rachel Kushner! A beautiful and utterly original novel about making art, love, and children during the twilight of an empire, Ben Lerner's first novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, was hailed as "one of the truest (and funniest) novels . . . of his generation" (Lorin Stein, "The New York Review of Books"), "a work so luminously original in style and form as to seem like a premonition, a comet from the future" (Geoff Dyer, "The Observer"). Now, his second novel departs from Leaving the Atocha Station's exquisite ironies in order to explore new territories of thought and feeling. In the last year, the narrator of 10:04 has enjoyed unexpected literary success, has been diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition, and has been asked by his best friend to help her conceive a child, despite his dating a rising star in the visual arts. In a New York of increasingly frequent super storms and political unrest, he must reckon with his biological mortality, the possibility of a literary afterlife, and the prospect of (unconventional) fatherhood in a city that might soon be under water. In prose that Jonathan Franzen has called "hilarious . . . cracklingly intelligent . . . and original in every sentence," Lerner captures what it's like to be alive now, when the difficulty of imagining a future has changed our relation to our present and our past. Exploring sex, friendship, medicine, memory, art, and politics, 10:04 is both a riveting work of fiction and a brilliant examination of the role fiction plays in our lives. Praise for 10:04 "Reading Ben Lerner gives me the tingle at the base of my spine that happens whenever I encounter a writer of true originality. He is a courageous, immensely intelligent artist who panders to no one and yet is a delight to read. Anyone interested in serious contemporary literature should read Ben Lerner, and 10:04 is the perfect place to start." --Jeffrey Eugenides, author of The Marriage Plot "Ben Lerner is a brilliant novelist, and one unafraid to make of the novel something truly new. 10:04 is a work of endless wit, pleasure, relevance, and vitality." --Rachel Kushner, author of The Flamethrowers Ben Lerner is a poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. He has been a Fulbright scholar, a finalist for the National Book Award, a Howard Foundation fellow, and a Guggenheim fellow. In 2011 he won the Preis der Stadt Müenster für Internationale Poesie, the first American to receive this honor. He is the author of a novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, and the poetry collections The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw, and Mean Free Path. Lerner is a professor of English at Brooklyn College. Rachel Kushner is the author of THE FLAMETHROWERS, which was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award, shortlisted for the 2014 Folio Prize and the James Tait Black Prize, longlisted for the 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, and a New York Times Top Five Novel of 2013. Kushner's debut novel, TELEX FROM CUBA, was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the California Book Award, and a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book. Kushner's fiction and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Paris Review, among other places. She is the recipient of a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship.

The award-winning poet and author of the novel Leaving the Atocha Station brings his masterful command of words from the page to the stage, celebrating the start of LIVE's Fall 2014 season and his new book, 10:04.

Review of the 2011 debut novel by Ben Lerner in which a young American goes to Spain on the US government's buck, meets two girls, and learns to fall in love with himself. Excellent book.

Bookrageous Episode 70; Plot, Character, and Style Intro Music; “The New Style” by The Beastie Boys What We're Reading Preeti [1:15] The Serpent of Venice, Christopher Moore [2:10] Talon, Julie Kagawa (October 28 2014) [3:40] The Patrick Melrose Novels, Edward St. Aubyn Paul [5:45] Eiji Tsubaraya: Master of Monsters, August Ragone [7:50] Beautiful Darkness, Fabien Vehlmann, Kerascoet [10:00] The Love Bunglers, Jaime Hernandez Jenn [13:30] Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer; Authority; Acceptance (September 2 2014) [15:45] Pretty Deadly, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Emma Rios Rebecca [18:10] What We See When We Read, Peter Mendelsund (August 5 2014) [23:45] Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon --- Intermission; “Suspicious Character” by The Blood Arm --- Plot, Character, and Style [28:05] Red or Dead, David Peace (May 27 2014) [31:30] Sarah MacLean [34:00] Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer [36:10] Brian Jacques [38:45] Sandman, Neil Gaiman [39:55] Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh [43:45] The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton [44:30] The Woman Upstairs, Claire Messud [45:25] Dancer, Colum McCann [46:05] Land of Love and Drowning, Tiphanie Yanique (July 10 2014) [48:00] Dark Places, Gillian Flynn [54:30] Leaving the Atocha Station, Ben Lerner [56:35] “badonkadonk” with Bryan Cranston on Jimmy Fallon --- Outro Music; “The New Style” by The Beastie Boys --- Find Us Online: Bookrageous on Tumblr, Podbean, Twitter, Facebook, Spotify, and leave us voicemail at 347-855-7323. Come to the BOOKRAGEOUS BASH at BEA on May 28th in New York City Find Us Online: Jenn, Paul, Preeti, Rebecca Order Josh's book! Maine Beer: Brewing in Vacationland Get Bookrageous schwag at CafePress Note: Our show book links direct you to WORD, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn. If you click through and buy the book, we will get a small affiliate payment. We won't be making any money off any book sales -- any payments go into hosting fees for the Bookrageous podcast, or other Bookrageous projects. We promise.

Well, it's the end of March, and finally Mike gets a pick: Ben Lerner's much-celebrated 2011 novel about a poet on a Fullbright in Spain struggling with a series of major and minor existential crises. We talk about poetry and "poetry," people having "profound experiences of art," and what makes writers' identity crises interesting or not. Mike's also got a new installment of Fan Fiction Corner, much to Tom's chagrin. This week we're checking out fan fiction about characters from the literary canon. For more, visit us online at bookfightpod.com. And check out Barrelhouse's various offerings at barrelhousemag.com.  Also, there's still time to register for our D.C. writers' conference, Conversations and Connections, happening this weekend (April 5th).

Review of the 2011 debut novel by Ben Lerner in which a young American goes to Spain on the US government's buck, meets two girls, and learns to fall in love with himself. Excellent book.

Beth Lisick is the guest. Her new book, Yokohama Threeway and Other Small Shames, is due out from City Lights Publishers on September 24, 2013.  Kathleen Hanna raves "This book is fucking great. There is a story in it called ‘PANDA AMBULANCE!!!’ How is Beth Lisick not as famous as David Sedaris?” And Matthew Zapruder says "These short pieces, which at first seem casually constructed and connected, are immediately funny, ironic, personable, embarrassing and oddly appealing. Yet quickly they accumulate into deep emotional resonance. Just a few pages in and I was totally involved with the struggles of this clearly talented, hilariously confused person to be better in her own weird antic backassward ways. Full of indelible phrases (Panda Ambulance!) and painfully irrefutable observations about art, crappy jobs, friendship, wealth, sex, hygiene, booze, motherhood, and so many other things, this book is basically the inverse of those sappy self-discovery memoirs that inevitably arc into hard earned wisdom and self-discovery. This writer has the courage to stay in difficult places, and therefore be truer to life. I laughed and cringed and cared more and more. Thank you, Beth Lisick, it was and continues to be worth all the struggles." Monologue topics: voicemail, Felicity, funny books, Leaving the Atocha Station, Ben Lerner, beets, Gore Vidal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We get into IT. The IT being... estrangement! Listen in as John Eckert, David Gorin, and your host (Thom Parry) get knee deep in sourceless emotions, emotions gone missing, and the trouble of creating yourself in a foreign country, all in pursuit of understanding Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner. We talk about crying. A lot. Buen provecho!

We get into IT. The IT being... estrangement! Listen in as John Eckert, David Gorin, and your host (Thom Parry) get knee deep in sourceless emotions, emotions gone missing, and the trouble of creating yourself in a foreign country, all in pursuit of understanding Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner. We talk about crying. A lot. Buen provecho!