American fiction writer and essayist
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5 episodes with Jami Attenberg
3 episodes with Jami Attenberg
2 episodes with Jami Attenberg
4 episodes with Jami Attenberg
3 episodes with Jami Attenberg
3 episodes with Jami Attenberg
2 episodes with Jami Attenberg
2 episodes with Jami Attenberg
2 episodes with Jami Attenberg
Jeff and Rebecca note some side-effects of Onyx Storm's huge release before talking about Oscars nominations, NBCC finalists, recent reading and more. Then, Jami Attenberg talks to Rebecca about how she put together a book fair where every kid can walk away with a book. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Sign up for the Book Riot Podcast Newsletter and follow the show on Instagram and Bluesky. Get more industry news with our Today in Books daily newsletter. A new year means a new Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons. Sign up at bookriot.com/readharder. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Discussed in this Episode: The Book Riot Podcast Patreon The Onyx Storm roll-out didn't quite go as planned - and demand crashed the Target website and Fans are not impressed with the “exclusive” art NBCC finalists Oscar nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay Blob I Heard Her Call My Name by Lucy Sante The Language of Mathematics by Raul Rojas Alligator Tears by Edgar Gomez Life in Three Dimensions by Shigehiro Oishi Jami's Craft Talk Substack How We Hacked the Scholastic Book Fair So Every Kid Could Buy a Book 1,000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round A Reason to See You Again Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Episode 181, Sarah and Catherine of Gilmore Guide to Books catch up on the 16 new releases they shared in the Fall 2024 Book Preview, now that they've read them. They share their reading stats, chat about what worked — and hash out which books didn't work and why. Check out the episode for their full reviews on all their fall picks and get recommendations for your next book! This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog. Highlights Catherine describes her fall reading “trick or treat” — mostly treats (her first 5-star preview book since February), but a few tricks (two DNFs). Sarah had a higher DNF count than usual, but still had a high(ish) success rate for this season. Since this is the last Circle Back of 2024, they look at their stats for the entire year of Previews. They name the best and worst books picks for fall! Books We Read Before the Preview [3:30] Sarah's Picks Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker (Sep 3) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:58] The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Oct 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [5:32] Other Books Mentioned The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz [5:35] Fall 2024 Circle Back [7:28] Mid-August Catherine's Picks There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (Aug 20) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[7:36] September Sarah's Picks Guide Me Home by Attica Locke (Sep 3) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [10:23] The Siege by Ben Macintyre (Sep 10) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [15:41] Entitlement by Rumaan Alam (Sep 17) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [23:36] A Reason to See You Again by Jami Attenberg (Sep 24) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [29:51] Adam and Evie's Matchmaking Tour by Nora Nguyen (Sep 24) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [36:35] Catherine's Picks Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes (Sep 10) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [12:54] Bringer of Dust by J. M. Miro (Sep 17) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [20:07] Other Books Mentioned Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke [10:44] Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke [10:48] The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre [15:46] Ordinary Monsters by J. M. Miro [20:12] Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam [24:29] Sandwich by Catherine Newman [25:03] All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg [30:09] Banyan Moon by Thao Tai [37:01] The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza [37:32] The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl [37:48] October Sarah's Picks Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner (Oct 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [45:36] Catherine's Picks A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang (Oct 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [27:00] The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni (Oct 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [32:24] Libby Lost and Found by Stephanie Booth (Oct 15) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[39:47] Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger (Oct 29) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [42:21] Other Books Mentioned The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni [33:07] The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner [46:14] November Catherine's Pick The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson (Nov 12) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [48:23] About Catherine Gilmore Blog | Facebook | Instagram | X Catherine started The Gilmore Guide to Booksover 10 years ago after wrapping up a career as a corporate librarian. She loves books and reading (surprise!) and currently lives in Seattle, WA. Next Episode In two weeks (November 13), Sarah will be back with Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman.
On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Drew Hawkins interviews Jami Attenberg.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.____________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______________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.
Notes and Links to Jami Attenberg's Work For Episode 254, Pete welcomes Jami Attenberg, and the two discuss, among other topics, seeds for her newest novel, the significance of its title, research and its connection to continuity, and salient themes and issues in her novel like grief and intergenerational traumas, the rapid development of digital technology and its ever-changing effects on society, conventional and unconventional family bonds, and guilt. Jami Attenberg is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including The Middlesteins, All Grown Up and a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. She is also the creator of the annual online group writing accountability project #1000wordsofsummer, which inspired the recently published USA Today bestseller 1000 Words:A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. Jami has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, the Sunday Times, The Guardian, and others. Her work has been published in sixteen languages. Her debut collection of stories, Instant Love, was published in 2006, followed by the novels The Kept Man and The Melting Season. Her fourth book, The Middlesteins, was published in October 2012. It appeared on The New York Times bestseller list, and was published in ten countries in 2013. It was also a finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction and the St. Francis College Literary Prize. Her fifth book, Saint Mazie, was described by The New York Times Book Review as, “full of love and drink and dirty sex and nobility.” Her sixth book, All Grown Up, was a national bestseller, appearing on numerous year-end lists. Her most recent novel, All This Could Be Yours, for which Kirkus dubbed her, “poet laureate of difficult families,” also appeared on a number of year-end lists. In 2022 she published a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home, which USA Today called, “a fierce memoir of personal transformation.” In January 2024 she published the creativity book, 1000 Words:A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round which was praised on The Today Show, NPR, and elsewhere. In September 2024 she will also publish a new novel, A Reason to See You Again. She lives in New Orleans, LA. Buy A Reason to See You Again New York Times Review of A Reason to See You Again Excerpt of A Reason to See You Again from People Magazine Jami Attenberg Website At about 3:20: Jami describes her mindset as her 10th book is set to be published within the week At about 4:40, Jami details her exciting book tour, including a cool stop in Ireland for a book festival At about 8:00, Jami describes which books of her own and of others are “in conversation” with her latest At about 11:10, Pete and Jami share a few interesting and complimentary and funny reviews At about 12:10, Jami responds to Pete's wondering about seeds for the book At about 13:40, Pete cites the book's first scene and its focus on a pre-Internet world; Jami expands upon her mindset in showing the changes in technology in the book's 46 year-arc At about 16:00, Jami remarks on the ways in which she wanted to have work and technology as background and not at the forefront, and how it is and isn't a “work novel” At about 17:30, The two laugh over a labeling of the book as “historical fiction” At about 18:10, Pete highlights Jami's trendsetting abilities involving “demure” At about 19:15, Pete notes the interesting ways in which Jami structures her dialogue At about 20:45, Jami responds to Pete's questions about how she maintained continuity in writing the book chronologically or not At about 23:25, Pete asks Jami about the background of the evocative first line of the novel At about 25:55, The two discuss Rudy, the “hero” of the members of the Cohen family, and the ways in which Jami sees him At about 28:15, Jami discusses Frieda and what she may have been missing in her life At about 30:00, Jami reflects on the balance and relationship between Shelley and Nancy, the sisters At about 33:30, Jami responds to Pete's questions about familial connections over generations At about 36:00, Frieda and her resignation towards her daughters and Robby and Nancy's relationship is discussed At about 39:10, Generational traumas and guilt are discussed At about 42:40, Jami shouts out helpful feedback from helpful writer friends in expanding parts of the novel At about 43:35, Pete and Jami reflect on two interesting pairs and family dynamics At about 47:25, Jami details how her current novel title happened, and the importance of this title At about 49:25, Jami shouts out some favorite bookstores to buy her novel You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode. I am very excited about having one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review. Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This month's Patreon bonus episode features segments from conversations with Deesha Philyaw, Luis Alberto Urrea, Chris Stuck, and more, as they reflect on chill-inducing writing and writers that have inspired their own work. This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 255 with Chris Knapp, whose work has appeared in print in the Paris Review and the New England Review, among other publications. His novel, States of Emergency, from Unnamed Press, has Sept 17 as its Pub Day and has been widely-acclaimed, including by the masterful Brandon Taylor. The episode will air on September 27. Lastly, please go to ceasefiretoday.com, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.
Notes and Links to Akshaj Mehta's Work For Episode 253, Pete welcomes Akshaj Mehta, and the two discuss, among other topics, his early experiences with bilingualism, formative and transformative writers and writing, beautiful trips with his mother to the library, his interest in representation of multidimensional and diverse characters and stories, a paradigm shift in reading Steph Cha, his evolving writing and salient themes and issues in his work like multiculturalism, subtlety, and unbiased writing. Akshaj Mehta, who has been writing since he was four years old, is currently studying political science at UCLA as a second year student. Akshaj is an author with five published books, the most recent titled The Butterfly Effect, which was created in collaboration with the non-profit KidsFirst Roseville. He has also written for the N Magazine and Sacramento School Beat. Buy The Butterfly Effect Akshaj's 2019 Article for The Sacramento Bee: “The ‘transforming' power of a name: Learning to embrace the unique name I was given Akshaj's Story, “The Tragedy of Antonio Solaris” At about 1:40: Akshaj talks about college life as an incoming sophomore At about 2:20, Akshaj At about 4:10, Akshaj talks about sparks for his love of reading-shout out to mothers who bring kids to libraries At about 6:20, Akshaj expands on the plot of his first novel, Super Mouse At about 7:10, Akshaj responds to Pete's questions about an important writing assignment about the power of his name At about 9:20, Akshaj reads the opening of the article mentioned above At about 10:25, Akshaj responds to Pete asking about the experience of writing about his name and if the writing of it was “cathartic” At about 11:35, Akshaj reflects on how he looks back at the topics of the article and how he sees his experiences now At about 13:10, Akshaj replies to Pete's question about books that have inspired and challenged him-he shouts out Steph Cha's Your House Will Pay At about 14:20, Pete follows up on how Akshaj might see Cha's book differently after a few years and spending time in LA; Akshaj also talks about how an assignment in English class based on the novel brought him back into fiction At about 18:00, Pete and Akshaj read from and discuss Akshaj's story written in English class, “The Tragedy of Antonio Solaris” At about 19:00, Akshaj talks about the variety of articles he has written for UCLA publications At about 20:25, Akshaj's view of journalism and heavy topics and philosophies are discussed At about 24:00, Akshaj shares an interesting idea about mitigating bias in journalistic work At about 24:40, Akshaj's talks about his school senior project and connections to ideas of representation and his book for children, The Butterfly Effect At about 26:35, Akshaj's pinpoints how he and illustrator Alexa Bandala approached the art for his children's book At about 30:00, Akshaj's reflects on lessons learned from reading stories with diverse representation to young kids At about 32:40, Akshaj shares his experience in mock trial and how having to be persuasive has informed and changed his writing At about 36:10, Pete wonders if/how Akshaj's reading is different now that he is a published author, and Akshaj's expands on how his writing has evolved At about 39:15, Akshaj talks about his initial reading and later views of Krakauer's Into the Wild At about 41:00, Akshaj talks about exciting future projects At about You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode. I am very excited about having one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review. Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This month's Patreon bonus episode features segments from conversations with Deesha Philyaw, Luis Alberto Urrea, Chris Stuck, and more, as they reflect on chill-inducing writing and writers that have inspired their own work. This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 254 with Jami Attenberg, the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including The Middlesteins, All Grown Up and a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. Her work has been published in sixteen languages; her novel, A Reason to See You Again is set to be published September 24, which is when her episode will also drop. Lastly, please go to ceasefiretoday.com, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.
Welcome to the Fall 2024 Book Preview with Catherine of Gilmore Guide to Books! Today, Catherine and I share 16 of our most anticipated books releasing mid-August through December. This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog. Announcement One of the many benefits to joining our Patreon Community is that you get access to several bonus podcast episode series, including Book Preview Extras! In these episodes, Catherine and I share at least 4 bonus books we are excited about that we did not share in the big show preview episode. Get more details about all the goodies available to all patrons (Stars and Superstars) and sign up here! Highlights Catherine and Sarah share some big releases coming this fall (lightning round style). Catherine's theme is “unpredictability” — half her picks are repeat authors and the other half simply caught her eye. Sarah's choices feature 6 returning authors and overall are leaning more literary. A few shorter books from Sarah's picks: under 300 pages. Sarah has already read and rated two of her picks! Plus, their #1 picks for the fall. Big Fall Releases [1:29] Books Mentioned By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult (Aug 20) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:56] Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (Sep 3) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:00] The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Sep 3) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:05] Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty (Sep 10) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:11] The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (Oct 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:30] Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey (Oct 15) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:36] The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny (Oct 29) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:39] The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins (Oct 29) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:45] The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (Nov 19) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:51] It Starts with One: The Legend and Legacy of Linkin Park by Jason Lipshutz(Oct 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:54] MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock's Most Revolutionary Band by Brad Tolinski, Jaan Uhelszki, and Ben Edmonds (Oct 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:55] Never Understood: The Jesus and Mary Chain by William Reid and Jim Reid(Sep 17) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:56] Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton & Me by Bernie Taupin (2023 release — in paperback Sep 10) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:58] The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.: A Biography by Peter Ames Carlin (Nov 5) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:59] Backlist Titles Mentioned The Midnight Library by Matt Haig [2:08] The Measure by Nikki Erlick [2:27] The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins [2:45] 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami [3:02] What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami [3:25] Fall 2024 Book Preview [6:34] Mid-August Catherine's Pick There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (Aug 20) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[9:22] Other Books Mentioned The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak [11:03] 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak [11:12] September Sarah's Picks Guide Me Home by Attica Locke (Sep 3) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [7:11] Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker (Sep 3) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [11:41] The Siege by Ben Macintyre (Sep 10) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [18:03] Entitlement by Rumaan Alam (Sep 17) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [22:37] A Reason to See You Again by Jami Attenberg (Sep 24) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [28:00] Adam and Evie's Matchmaking Tour by Nora Nguyen (Sep 24) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [33:45] Catherine's Picks Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes (Sep 10) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [15:37] Bringer of Dust by J. M. Miro (Sep 17) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [20:28] Other Books Mentioned Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke [7:21] Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke [7:24] The Cutting Season by Attica Locke [7:55] Godshot by Chelsea Bieker [15:08] The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre [18:12] Ordinary Monsters by J. M. Miro [20:41] Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam [22:57] Trust by Hernan Diaz [23:45] Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid [23:48] All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg [28:06] Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg [28:09] The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg [28:10] Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow [29:39] Banyan Moon by Thao Tai [29:44] The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza [34:37] The Women by Kristin Hannah [35:44] October Sarah's Picks The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Oct 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [39:18] (To skip ahead, jump to [44:55] in your podcast player.) Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner (Oct 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [46:44] Catherine's Picks A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang (Oct 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [26:11] The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni (Oct 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [30:59] Libby Lost and Found by Stephanie Booth (Oct 15) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[36:48] Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger (Oct 29) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [44:56] Other Books Mentioned The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni [31:07] A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin [38:43] The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz [39:23] The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin [42:23] Capote's Women by Laurence Leamer [42:27] It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover [43:39] The Heirs by Susan Rieger [45:04] The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner [46:56] Happiness Falls by Angie Kim [47:53] November Catherine's Pick The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson (Nov 12) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [48:53]
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
NOTE: This is an updated replay of my amazing chat with New York Times bestselling author, Jami Attenberg, in honor of the start of #1000WordsofSummer that kicked off June 1st! Take a listen to learn more about how to jump in and get going. You can always sign up at 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com to get a letter each day from Jami encouraging you to write 1000 words, additional notes from contributing authors, on writing, creativity, and productivity, and there are write-alongs, a slack channel, and of course the book. Enjoy! New York Times bestselling author, Jami Attenberg, spoke with me about documenting the process of being a writer online and off, building a global literary movement, and her latest, 1000 Words: A Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All-Year Round. Jami Attenberg is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books of fiction, including The Middlesteins, All Grown Up, and her recent memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You. Her work has been published in 16 languages, she is the founder of the annual #1000WordsofSummer project and maintains the popular Craft Talk newsletter. Jami Attenberg's latest is 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. “Inspired by [her] wildly popular literary movement #1000WordsofSummer, this writer's guide features encouraging essays on creativity, productivity, and writing from [over 50] acclaimed authors including Roxane Gay, Lauren Groff, Celeste Ng, Meg Wolitzer, and Carmen Maria Machado.” Lit Hub said of the book, “It will be the new Bird by Bird, you heard it here first.” A Booklist, Starred Review called it “A fantastic set of essays… Readers of this collection will feel surrounded and bolstered by like-minded people who have been in the trenches.” [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Jami Attenberg and I discussed: The blessing and the curse of knowing you're a writer How she built an online writing community into a literary movement Her tongue-in-cheek approach to the craft The reason she uses the seasons as a metaphor for writers How to harness the power of write-alongs And a lot more! Show Notes: JamiAttenberg.com 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round by Jami Attenberg (Amazon) Jami Attenberg Amazon Author Page Jami Attenberg on Twitter Jami Attenberg on Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our guest today is writer Jami Attenberg. Jami is a New York Times bestselling author of seven books of fiction, including THE MIDDLESTEINS and ALL GROWN UP, the memoir, I CAME ALL THIS WAY TO MEET YOU, and, most recently, the bestselling writing guide 1000 WORDS. She is also the founder of the annual #1000WordsofSummer project, and maintains the popular Craft Talk newsletter year-round. Jami's new novel, A REASON TO SEE YOU AGAIN will be released in September.You can find Jami on her Substack: 1000wordsofsummer.substack.comYou can find Kim on her Substack: kimfrance.substack.comNEW: you can find Jenn on her Substack: jennromolini.substack.com(so many Substacks!)You can pre-order Jenn's book, AMBITION MONSTER: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ambition-Monster/Jennifer-Romolini/9781668056585Concerns? Critiques? Suggestions? Just want to say "hi"? You can email us: everythingisfinethepodcast@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It's a special edition of "John Updike's Ghost," recorded live from the Newburyport Literary Festival, with special guests Jami Attenberg and Steve Almond, veteran authors who have both penned great new books about writing. Steve's "Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow," is an instruction manual that allows for failure along the way; Jami's "1000 Words," an outgrowth of the writing community Jami has built largely on Twitter, offers encouragement and advice on moving forward. But how does being in the writing community affect how you read? Jami and Steve both have great thoughts about how that works and tons of titles to discuss. If you're looking for a big discussion of cultural mores, deconstructionism, separating the art from the artist, hate-reading, working with young writers, the joy of children's books, capitalism getting into the ears of writers, and so much more. If you're looking for a wide-ranging and heady literary discussion, this is it!
Welcome to the Spring 2024 Book Preview with Catherine of Gilmore Guide to Books! In this episode, Catherine and I share 12 of our most anticipated books releasing in April and May. This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). Announcement One of the many benefits to joining our Patreon Community is that you get access to several bonus podcast episode series, including Book Preview Extras! In these episodes, Catherine and I share at least 4 bonus books we are excited about that we did not share in the big show preview episode. Get more details about all the goodies available to all patrons (Stars and Superstars) and sign up here! Highlights Catherine is fully embracing spring with some lighter, fun reading. Sarah is joining the fun with lighter reads as she preps for the Summer Reading Guide. Among weddings, homecomings, and books set in Washington State, Catherine is bringing 5 out of 6 familiar authors. With some atypical stories, Sarah has some with historical fiction elements and a nonfiction book. Sarah's choices feature 2 debuts and 3 returning authors. Hopefully going for a tamer wildcard pick will work out for Sarah this season. Sarah has read and liked 2 of her chosen books, and has also started one of Catherine's picks! And don't forget to catch their top #1 picks for the spring season! Spring 2024 Book Preview [3:52] April Sarah's Picks The Wives by Simone Gorrindo (April 9) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [4:54] The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza (April 2) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [11:10] Colton Gentry's Third Act by Jeff Zenter (April 30) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[19:51] Catherine's Picks Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman (April 16) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [8:54] Honey by Victor Lodato (April 16) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [17:08] Real Americans by Rachel Khong (April 30) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [24:45] Other Books Mentioned The Wanderers by Meg Howrey [7:16] You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith [8:10] Maid by Stephanie Land [8:13] Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad [8:17] Know My Name by Chanel Miller [8:20] Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance [8:22] Educated by Tara Westover [8:24] Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman [10:37] We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza [13:53] Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza [14:01] Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato [17:17] All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg [19:14] The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner [20:16] Normal People by Sally Rooney [22:36] Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong [24:55] May Sarah's Picks The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (May 7) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[29:20] The Wealth of Shadows by Graham Moore (May 21) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [36:13] Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli (May 28) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [42:05] Catherine's Picks The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean (May 7) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[33:00] The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley (May 21) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[39:12] Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan (May 21) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [45:31] Other Books Mentioned Outlander by Diana Gabaldon [32:03] The Holdout by Graham Moore [36:22] The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin [36:59] The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore [37:39] The Guncle by Steven Rowley [39:36] The Editor by Steven Rowley [41:45] Someday, Maybe by Onyi Nwabineli [42:12] The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton [46:28] Other Books Mentioned Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennine Capó Crucet [3:39] About Catherine Gilmore Blog | Facebook | Instagram | X (formerly Twitter) Catherine started The Gilmore Guide to Booksover 10 years ago after wrapping up a career as a corporate librarian. She loves books and reading (surprise!) and currently lives in Seattle, WA.
Novelist Jami Attenberg joins us to dispense her valuable advice to writers and aspiring writers everywhere on how to stay motivated, perfect your craft, and actually get published. We talk about her new book, 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round and take calls from listeners. *This segment is guest-hosted by Matt Katz.
Jami Attenberg is the author of seven books of fiction including Instant Love, The Kept Man, The Melting Season, The Middlesteins, Saint Mazie, and All Grown Up. Her most recent novel is All This Could Be Yours (2019). She is also the author of the memoir I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home (2022). Attenberg has written about food, travel, books, relationships and urban life for The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, the Sunday Times, Slate, and others. Her work has been published in a total of sixteen languages. She lives in New Orleans, LA. Interviewer Nikesha Elise Williams is a two-time Emmy award-winning producer, an award-winning author, and producer and host of the Black & Published podcast. Her latest novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree, was acquired by Scout Press and will be published in 2025. A Chicago native, Nikesha is now a columnist with JAX Today. Her work has also appeared in The Washington Post, ESSENCE, and VOX. She currently lives in Florida with her family. READ Check out some of Jami's work from the library: https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=AUTHOR%3D%22jami+attenberg%22&te= THE LIBRARY RECOMMENDS More fiction to complement Jami's works: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud JAMI RECOMMENDS My parents live over in Venice, Florida, across the state from all of you in Jacksonville, so that's the part of Florida I know the best. These are my four favorite things about Venice: Belkis Cuban food inside the Citgo gas station. The people who run it are so nice and sometimes you just need to sit down with your family and eat an enormous Cuban sandwich. The free daily yoga on Venice Beach. The classes are offered by a lovely woman named Elin. She teaches it twice each morning. It's basically just a lot of stretching but I like to go with my mom and then take a walk on the beach after. The Legacy Trail. An incredible miles-long multi-use recreational rail trail connecting Sarasota and Venice. My mother is on the Friends of The Legacy Trail board and helped with fundraising for its expansion, so I always think of it as the “Joan Attenberg Trail.” Humphris Park/South Jetty. Whenever I visit my parents, we go and watch the sunset here and it's really lovely to see so many people come out and enjoy the natural beauty of Florida. --- Never miss an event! Sign up for email newsletters at https://bit.ly/JaxLibraryUpdates Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: jplpromotions@coj.net
The New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg talks about her latest non-fiction book 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round, her journey from being a broke writer to creating a successful creative career, creating the #1000wordsofsummer movement and how she fights for a life of writing. We also discuss the financial struggles and risks of a writing career, finding inspiration even when you're feeling disconnected, how she stays focused, and how we can commit to creativity every day. *ABOUT JAMI ATTENBERGJami Attenberg is a New York Times bestselling author of seven books of fiction, including The Middlesteins and All Grown Up, and, most recently, a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. Her work has been published in sixteen languages. She is also the creator of the annual online group writing accountability project #1000wordsofsummer. In 2024 she will publish a new novel, and also a creativity book, 1000 Words:A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. *RESOURCES & LINKS1000 Words:A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round by Jami AttenbergJami's newsletters, Craft Talk and The 52 ProjectJami's interview on NPR's 1A For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.comFor free writing sessions, join free Writers' Hours: writershour.com
We talk a lot about the negative parts of social media, but good things do happen online. One of those good things is community. Five years ago the New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg started #1000WordsofSummer. It's an online community that convenes for two weeks in June to write 1,000 words a day. People were obsessed with it. Jami's new book, 1,000 Words, is inspired by this community. It includes letters from her and over 50 seasoned writers on how to do the work when it's the last thing you feel like doing. So today we are talking to Jami about how to start writing, how to keep writing and how to be a good member of the literary community.Follow Jami on Instagram here.Subscribe to the Craft Talk the newsletter here.Buy 1,000 Words here.
Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, JP Rindfleisch, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including some positive news out of Barnes & Noble. Then, stick around as JP chats with author and #1000wordsofsummer founder Jami Attenberg! Jami Attenberg has written about food, travel, books, relationships, and urban life for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, the Sunday Times, The Guardian, and others. She is a New York Times bestselling author of seven works of fiction, including The Middlesteins and All Grown Up. Her latest non-fiction book, 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round, was released on January 9 and is available now in ebook and audio. Check It Out! 1000 Words - https://www.amazon.com/1000-Words-Writers-Creative-Productive-ebook/dp/B0C7RLR19M The Dialogue Doctor: The Language of Love (A Masterclass in Story Intimacy) - https://dialoguedoctor.teachable.com/p/story-intimacy JD's robot snowblower in action - https://www.tiktok.com/@jdbarker_author/video/7321512733466250538 Show Links: Writers, Ink on YouTube! - https://www.youtube.com/@jdbarker_author/podcasts J.D. Barker - https://jdbarker.com/ Christine Daigle - https://www.christinedaiglebooks.com/ JP Rindfleisch IX - https://www.jprindfleischix.com/ Kevin Tumlinson - https://www.kevintumlinson.com/ Jami Attenberg - https://www.jamiattenberg.com/ TODAY'S SPONSOR: AutoCrit - https://www.autocrit.com/jd (click this link to take advantage of our Writers, Ink special offer!!!) Other Links Best of BookTok - https://bestofbooktok.com/ Booktrib - https://booktrib.com/author/writers-ink/ Music by Nicorus - https://cctrax.com/nicorus/dust-to-dust-ep Voice Over by Rick Ganley and recorded at Mill Pond Studio Show notes & audio production by Geoff Emberlyn - https://twitter.com/horrorstoic Website Design by Word & Pixel - http://wordandpixel.com/ Contact - https://writersinkpodcast.com/contact/ *NOTE: Some of the links are --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/writersink/support
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
New York Times bestselling author, Jami Attenberg, spoke with me about documenting the process of being a writer online and off, building a global literary movement, and her latest, 1000 Words: A Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All-Year Round. Jami Attenberg is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books of fiction, including The Middlesteins, All Grown Up, and her recent memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You. Her work has been published in 16 languages, she is the founder of the annual #1000WordsofSummer project and maintains the popular Craft Talk newsletter. Jami Attenberg's latest is 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. “Inspired by [her] wildly popular literary movement #1000WordsofSummer, this writer's guide features encouraging essays on creativity, productivity, and writing from [over 50] acclaimed authors including Roxane Gay, Lauren Groff, Celeste Ng, Meg Wolitzer, and Carmen Maria Machado.” Lit Hub said of the book, “It will be the new Bird by Bird, you heard it here first.” A Booklist, Starred Review called it “A fantastic set of essays… Readers of this collection will feel surrounded and bolstered by like-minded people who have been in the trenches.” [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Jami Attenberg and I discussed: The blessing and the curse of knowing you're a writer How she built an online writing community into a literary movement Her tongue-in-cheek approach to the craft The reason she uses the seasons as a metaphor for writers How to harness the power of write-alongs And a lot more! Show Notes: JamiAttenberg.com 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round by Jami Attenberg (Amazon) Jami Attenberg Amazon Author Page Jami Attenberg on Twitter Jami Attenberg on Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Fetishist by Katherine Min is a darkly humorous and provocative novel of love, revenge, and identity published after her death in 2019. Min's daughter, Kayla Min Andrews, joins us to talk about her mother's work, taking on the task of finishing and publishing this novel, creating and continuing a legacy and more with host, Miwa Messer. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Executive Producer Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): The Fetishist by Katherine Min Secondhand World by Katherine Min Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Another Country by James Baldwin Holding Pattern by Jenny Xie All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Is this the year you've promised yourself you'd finally finish that manuscript, or stop playing on your dang phone so much and get into a healthier writing routine? Author Jami Attenberg joins me to talk about her new book 1000 WORDS: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused and Productive All Year Round, as well as lots of other stuff: The differences between writing fiction and memoir, finding your writing compass, getting motivated when the creative well seems to have run dry, how to start writing again if you've been away from it for a while, the importance of building writerly community, plus the #1000wordsofsummer project, cult documentaries, and more! Links to all the books we chatted about are in the shownotes on my website: https://www.jenniferlaughran.com/literaticast
As 2024 begins, we discuss some of the audiobooks we are looking forward to in the new year. Round 1: Mark: The Mercy of Gods (Written by: James S.A. Corey / Narrated by: TBA): August 6, 2024 Shachi: Wandering Stars (Written by: Tommy Orange / Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett, MacLeod Andrews, Alma Cuervo, Curtis Michael Holland, Calvin Joyal, Phil Ava, Emmanuel Chumaceiro, Christian Young, Charley Flyte): February 27, 2024 [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Lisa: Those Beyond the Wall (Written by: Micaiah Johnson / Narrated by: TBA): March 12, 2024 [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Scott: Mirrored Heavens (Written by: Rebecca Roanhorse / Narrated by: TBA): June 4, 2024 [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Round 2: Mark: Alecto the Ninth (Written by: Tamsyn Muir / Narrated by: TBA): TBD [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] Shachi: Anita de Monte Laughs Last (Written by: Xóchitl González / Narrated by: TBA): March 5, 2024 [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Lisa: Archangels of Funk (Written by: Andrea Hairston/ Narrated by: TBA): May 7, 2024 [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Scott: Space Oddity (Written by: Catherynne M. Valente / Narrated by: TBA): May 7, 2024 Round 3: Mark: Keeper of the Lost Cities #10 (Written by: Shannon Messenger / Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly): ~November 1, 2024 Shachi: Victim (Written by: Andrew Boryga/ Narrated by: TBA): March 12, 2024 [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Lisa: Someone You Can Build a Nest In (Written by: John Wiswell/ Narrated by: TBA): April 2, 2024 Scott: Service Model (Written by: Adrian Tchaikovsky / Narrated by: TBA): June 4, 2024 [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Additional Picks: Mark: 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All-Year Round (Written by: Jami Attenberg / Narrated by: Jami Attenberg, Kamali Minter, Joy Osmanski, André Santana): January 9, 2024 Shachi: The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers (Written by: Samuel Burr / Narrated by: TBA) April 2, 2024; Happy (Written by: Celina Baljeet Basra/ Narrated by: Neil Shah): January 23, 2024 Lisa: Rakesfall (Written by: Vajra Chandrasekera / Narrated by: TBA): June 18, 2024; A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping (Written by: Sangu Mandanna / Narrated by: TBA): September 10, 2024; Funny Boy: The Richard Hunt Biography (Written By: Jessica Max Stein): March 15, 2024 Scott: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles (Written by: Malka Ann Older / Narrated by: TBA): February 13, 2024; The Dead Cat Tail Assassins (Written by: Sangu Mandanna / Narrated by: TBA): April 23, 2024; Wind and Truth (Written by: Brandon Sanderson / Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer): December 6, 2024
Do We Know Things? is back, baby! After a much longer than planned hiatus, I am thrilled to bring you a new episode of Do We Know Things? On this episode, you will follow along for the part 1 of my 2 month road trip. I will share sex info and sex insights I learned along the way. Sex stuff! What do we know? Do We Know Things? Let's find out!Things mentioned in this episode:Jami Attenberg's books (I specifically mention being inspired by I Came All This Way To Meet You)Cummings Center for the History of PsychologyBook Loft in Columbus, OHDo you have any burning questions for us to cover in a future episode? Or do you want to give some anonymous feedback? Please fill out the Do We Know Things? surveyDownload the script at https://www.doweknowthings.com/episodes/56-notesfromtheroad1Hosted by Dr. Lisa Dawn Hamilton, psychology professor and sex educator.Production and script assistance by Matt TunnacliffeMusic and editing Jeremy Dahl https://www.palebluedot.ca/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Cá estamos nós para um dos episódios mais aguardados — aquele em que antecipamos os lançamentos de 2024. Não sem antes olharmos para as novidades que tínhamos A CERTEZA que íamos ler em 2023, mas depois…
Dass Autorinnen und Autoren nur selten vom Schreiben leben können, ist bekannt. Wie es sich aber tatsächlich anfühlt, das eigene Appartement untervermieten zu müssen und sich mit schlecht bezahlten Veranstaltungen über Wasser zu halten, erzählt die Autorin Jami Attenberg hier. Dieses Hörbuch ist beides: Ein sehr persönlicher Erfahrungsbericht und eine Liebeserklärung an das Schreiben, faszinierend erzählt und von Barbara Stoll feinfühlig gelesen.
Time for a fun batch of Things! Three from each of us, to be exact. Olivia's Things What are your holiday vibes for 2023? Opinions on New Year's Eve as a Holiday Is long hair cheugy now? Becca's Things Becca's new favorite kitchen tool - a garlic-chopper The Woman in Me by Britney Spears What are your glimmers? Obsessions Olivia - Geneva! Becca - Knitting What we read this week! Olivia: You Shouldn't Have Come Here by Jeneva Rose B: 1,000 Words by Jami Attenberg (out 1/9); The Woman in Me by Britney Spears This Month's Book Club Pick - The Christmas Orphans Club by Becca Freeman (have thoughts about this book you want to share? Call in at 843-405-3157 or email us a voice memo at badonpaperpodcast@gmail.com) Join our Facebook group for amazing book recs & more! Or join our Geneva! Subscribe to Olivia's Newsletter! Preorder Becca's Book! Like and subscribe to RomComPods and Bone Marry Bury! Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Olivia on Instagram @oliviamuenter and Becca @beccamfreeman.
“They're Going to Love You by Meg Howrey is my idea of a perfect book. It is about art, life, death, love, and family and it is beautifully and sharply written. I cried several times while reading it, and was sorry to let it go when I was done. I cannot recommend it enough.” —Jami Attenberg, … Continue reading E113: They're Going to Love You by Meg Howrey →
To kick off our season of 76West in celebration of our Books That Changed My Life Festival, The Lambert Center's Jason Blitman talks to designer Elizabeth Yaffe about the process of creating that thing you judge most about a book—its cover. Elizabeth Yaffe is a book cover designer and animator. She currently works in the Viking/Penguin Art Department at Penguin Random House. She has designed covers for authors including Amy Tan, Rebecca Makkai, Jami Attenberg, Kevin Wilson, Timothy Egan, and Sarah Thankam Mathews. She has animated covers for authors including Stephen King, Carola Lovering, Jesse Ball, and Chelsea Bieker. Originally from Philadelphia, she graduated from Pomona College with degrees in anthropology and media studies.
Did you know that a votive candle is one of those short, squat candles that people use for prayer or, like, to put on their outside stairs when they're hosting a fancy party? I did not. But “votive” is the word I blurted out when Cheryl Strayed was trying to describe the type of tall candle she lit as a way to psychically summon Reese Witherspoon. A decade ago, Strayed was waiting to hear whether or not the actor was interested in taking the lead role in the movie adaptation of Wild, her best-selling 2012 memoir. So she lit the big candle (maybe it was a pillar or a taper, now that I google it) and every time she walked by it, she whispered “Reese… Reese.” It worked! Witherspoon indeed took the role, the movie was a hit, and the two became great friends. Strayed is super-famous because of Wild, which is the same reason Oprah loves her, but she's also beloved for her advice column, Dear Sugar, which she started writing at The Rumpus around the time that Wild was about to blow up. She wrote it anonymously at first, and for no pay. She just fell in love with the idea of turning an advice column into a forum for literary essays about life. She had ample material to draw on: an impoverished childhood in rural Minnesota; a much-loved mother who passed away when Strayed was 22; a downward spiral that ensued and involved a lot of sex and heroin; and a life-changing, soul-finding, shoe-destroying solo trek along the Pacific Crest Trail. A couple weeks ago, I met Strayed in Portland, Oregon, where it was raining for the first time in several months, and we talked about how she still feels abject terror when faced with a blank page, how if she goes to the Oscars again, she'll wear Dr. Martens, and about some mountain-themed advice George Saunders gave her about finding her own way forward as a writer. “I really believe story is essential to us,” Cheryl told me, lighting a candle for all who believe in the power of writing, “and we need it individually, collectively; we need those stories to tell us who we are, to show us who we can be.”https://cherylstrayed.substack.com/Cheryl's recommended read:Oldster by Sari Botton:[Sari] has this wonderful take on aging. And what I love about her focus is she always says, “Oldster is not for people who are getting older.” The whole idea of aging at whatever age you are—when you're 12, you're aging. We use that word to only mean old people, but really it's about what does this experience of aging teach us? What do we learn from being 22 and 42 and 72 and 102? And people write about that and they answer this questionnaire. And it's always very inspiring and interesting to read. I love that.Show notesCheryl Strayed's Dear SugarFind Cheryl on Twitter and her personal websiteWild by Cheryl Strayed (paperback)[01:46] Her mother being portrayed by Laura Dern in Wild[05:56] Losing someone close to you[10:58] Working with Reese Witherspoon[16:21] Finally finding financial freedom[20:08] Having “How did I get here?” moments[21:20] Falling in love with words[23:00] Murder on my feet[24:00] Dear Sugar in The Rumpus[26:47] Taking over the Dear Sugar column[30:09] Early writing on the internet[31:20] The power of story[35:25] Social media as a gift for writers[40:40] Restarting Dear Sugar as a Substack [45:00] Keep Walking, by Cheryl Strayed, a scene cut from Wild [48:20] Advice from George Saunders [52:25] Going into the cave, as a writer[53:35] Oldster by Sari Botton[54:33] Advice writers Cheryl recommends: Ask E. Jean by E. Jean Carroll, ¡Hola Papi! by John Paul Brammer, and Ask Polly by Heather Havrilesky.[55:04] Other Substacks Cheryl loves: Craft Talk by Jami Attenberg, Story Club by George Saunders, Your Local Epidemiologist by Katelyn Jetelina, Austin Kleon's newsletter, and The Audacity by Roxane Gay.The Active Voice is a podcast hosted by Hamish McKenzie, featuring weekly conversations with writers about how the internet is affecting the way they live and write. It is produced by Hanne Winarsky, with audio engineering by Seven Morris, content production by Hannah Ray, and production support from Bailey Richardson. All artwork is by Joro Chen, and music is by Phelps & Munro. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit read.substack.com
Author and educator Dariel Suarez talks about the larger social and publishing concerns that could be holding you back, while trying to refocus yourself on the work in front of you.And apparently the great Jami Attenberg was writing about the exact same idea today! Here's Jami's take: Dariel Suarez is the Cuban-born author of the novel The Playwright's House and the story collection A Kind of Solitude, winner of the International Latino Book Award for Best Collection of Short Stories. He is an inaugural City of Boston Artist Fellow and the Education Director at GrubStreet. Dariel's writing has received the First Lady Cecile de Jongh Literary Prize and has appeared in Best American Essays, The Threepenny Review, The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Michigan Quarterly Review, and The Caribbean Writer, among others. He resides in the Boston area with his wife and daughter. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
“I missed it so much. And definitely didn't get it or appreciate the specialness of it, or this particular beauty of it … until you have to show up at a party full of strangers. And answer that, where are you from question so many times. I'm not sure I would have written this book, if I didn't have to do that over and over and over again, in so many different places.” That's Katie Runde, riffing on the Jersey Shore; it's more than just the setting for her debut novel, The Shore, it's a character in its own right. Katie joins us on the show to talk about writing a coming-of-age novel for an entire family, homesickness, grief, sisterhood, jump-starting her own writing career with help from Jami Attenberg's #1000wordsofsummer + a Catapult class + a Tin House workshop, her literary inspirations for this book and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end the show with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his guest bookseller, Becky. Featured Books: The Shore by Katie Runde Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong Wild by Cheryl Strayed Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays). A full transcript of this episode is available here.
With numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and nearly 200 audiobooks to her credit so far, Xe Sands is known for her ability to make an audiobook an intimate experience for her listeners. Interestingly, Sands didn't come to audiobooks through acting as most narrators do. She began her adult life as a visual artist. “I used to paint. I did a lot of photo manipulation, and just a whole bunch of handcrafting of all kinds.” How did she get involved in the audio world? “My daughter and I had a long commute for many years, and we went through a million audiobooks.” She also read aloud to her daughter, until it dawned on her: “I would love to do that.” She didn't think her voice would be one that anyone would want to hear, but she really wanted to try her hand at narration. So in 2008, she discovered a supportive audio community that encouraged recording. She worked with them for a few years before she was “discovered.” She's won several of the coveted AudioFile Earphones Awards and has narrated novels for Alafair Burke, Kristan Higgins, Bethany Crandell, Lily King, Jami Attenberg, BA Shapiro, Darby Kane, Kennedy Ryan, Chuck Wendig, Juliette Blackwell, CD Reese, KJ Dell'Antonia, Hannah Morrissey, Paul Tremblay, Carrington MacDuffie, Judy Blume, and many more, including Kris's second novel, Sissie Klein is Completely Normal. Intro roll for WTPC
With numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and nearly 200 audiobooks to her credit so far, Xe Sands is known for her ability to make an audiobook an intimate experience for her listeners. Interestingly, Sands didn't come to audiobooks through acting as most narrators do. She began her adult life as a visual artist. “I used to paint. I did a lot of photo manipulation, and just a whole bunch of handcrafting of all kinds.” How did she get involved in the audio world? “My daughter and I had a long commute for many years, and we went through a million audiobooks.” She also read aloud to her daughter, until it dawned on her: “I would love to do that.” She didn't think her voice would be one that anyone would want to hear, but she really wanted to try her hand at narration. So in 2008, she discovered a supportive audio community that encouraged recording. She worked with them for a few years before she was “discovered.” She's won several of the coveted AudioFile Earphones Awards and has narrated novels for Alafair Burke, Kristan Higgins, Bethany Crandell, Lily King, Jami Attenberg, BA Shapiro, Darby Kane, Kennedy Ryan, Chuck Wendig, Juliette Blackwell, CD Reese, KJ Dell'Antonia, Hannah Morrissey, Paul Tremblay, Carrington MacDuffie, Judy Blume, and many more, including Kris's second novel, Sissie Klein is Completely Normal. Intro roll for WTPC
You're listening to From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, a food and culture podcast. I'm Alicia Kennedy, a food writer based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Every week on Wednesdays, I'll be talking to different people in food and culture, about their lives, careers, and how it all fits together and where food comes in.Today, I'm talking to Angela Garbes, the author of Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy, and the new Essential Labor: Mothering As Social Change. We discussed how her past as a food writer continues to inform her work, what mothers who are creative workers need to thrive—spoiler, it's basically what all workers need to thrive—informal knowledge building, and the significance of having an unapologetic appetite as a woman. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or adjust your settings to receive an email when podcasts are published.Alicia: Hi, Angela. Thank you so much for being here.Angela: Thank you so much for having me, Alicia.Alicia: Can you tell me about where you grew up and what you ate?Angela: Sure. I grew up in rural Central Pennsylvania. So—people can't see this—but this is roughly the shape of Pennsylvania, my hand. And I grew up here in what I call the ass crack of Pennsylvania. And it was a very small town, about 4,000 people. And I was one of very few people of color. And my parents are immigrants from the Philippines. You know, I would say that from a very young age, I was, like, born different. But, you know, we have a fairly typical…like, my parents are both medical professionals. So we had a pretty typical, I would say, fairly typical as you could get, middle class upbringing. And as far as what we ate, I look back on it now and I think of it as like a perfect combination of like 50 percent American, quote unquote, American convenience food, like a lot of Hamburger Helper, a lot of Old El Paso soft shell tacos, a lot of Little Caesars Pizza, a lot of Philly cheesesteaks. And then the other half we ate Filipino food: sinigang, adobo, arroz caldo, tinola... and, you know, I remember my dad, like, hacking up pig's feet, you know, I would come downstairs and he'd be cooking up things like that. And so when I look back on it now, I think it was—I mean, I love Filipino food so much. But I also, I mean, I love all kinds of food. And I kind of eat anything. And it's partly, I think, because I was just exposed to a lot of things. But my parents, you know, we lived in this really small town, and they couldn't get all of the ingredients that they wanted to make traditional dishes. But they kind of improvised with what they had. And because they were so committed to cooking Filipino food, sort of against the odds, I would say, you know, we did a lot of…there were not vegetables that [were] available, like you couldn't get okra or green papaya. So we would use zucchini, and, you know, frozen okra to make sinigang. But it was such a way for them to stay connected to their cultures and I feel so grateful to them because what they did was really pass that down to me, from an early age. I was like, Oh, yeah, this is—this is my food, like, this is who I am. And I've never lost that. And I've always loved [it] and, yeah, so it was sort of this wonderful, healthy mix, I think. Alicia: For sure, and, you know, it was so interesting to realize, because I don't think I'd realized it before, that you were a food writer. [Laughs] Until I got into your books, I was like, Wait…And Like a Mother, your first book, starts out like, so…like, such a rich piece of food writing. And I'm like, Wow, now I understand. And then I realized, I'm like, Oh, she is a food writer. So you know, you've come to write your two books about motherhood, but you know, you're also a food writer, and you're writing about food in these books as well. How did you become a food writer?Angela: First of all, thank you for saying this now because I miss food writing. And I think at heart, I am a food writer. And I think it informs, you know, the way I portray sensory detail and physical experiences. But yeah, so the way I became a food writer was sort of, it was really my entry into writing. But it happened…the year was 2005, I think. And you know, I had gone to college and studied creative writing, but like a lot of things, I just thought just because I liked doing something doesn't mean I get to do [it], right?And I think that's a lesson that a lot of writers could learn... [laughs] So I didn't work in these like writing-adjacent dying industries, you know; I worked as an independent bookseller. I worked for a nonprofit poetry press—which is still going, actually I should say, and then I worked as an ad sales rep at an alt-weekly. And, you know, I obviously wish that I was a writer there, but I had no designs on writing. I was, you know, I partying a lot with the ad salespeople, and we were just— I mean, alt-weeklies are— I'm so proud to have started all my writing in my career and adult life there. It was a good time. So I was working in ad sales. And at the time, David Spader and Dan Savage, who are the editorial people, they said, “Hey, do you want to write?” I was leaving to take another job. And they were like, “Hey do you want to submit a sample food writing piece?” And I was like, Me? And they were like, “Yeah,” and I was like, why? And yes, and why. And they both said, “Well, we know you write, we know that you have a writing background” because I was friends with a lot of writers. And they were like, “But you're just always walking around the office, talking about where you went to dinner, talking about what you cooked, talking about what you ate, and like, everyone in the office wants to go out to lunch with you. Everyone wants you to invite them over for dinner.” And I was like, Oh, okay! And so then I just did it as a one-off. And something clicked, where you know, I had been writing fiction, I had been writing bad poetry, but when I started writing about food, I was like, Here's everything that I was thinking about, like food to me—and this is what I think it has in common really with motherhood, and mothering really—is a lens to see the world. And it's a lens into—I mean, the sky's the limit about what you can talk about, right, or what you want to talk about. And so, I mean, when I started, it was like, here write a review of this place, that’s doing mini burgers at happy hour, right? And I started doing restaurant reviews, which was very service-y, which, in some ways I hated, but in some ways I'm grateful for, right—meeting a weekly deadline, and like thinking about your audience and being of use, that's something that I think about all the time still. But um, yeah, I mean, when I started doing it, too, I felt really—I came into it, absolutely, with a chip on my shoulder. I was like, Okay, so I'm Filipina. I never hear about Filipino food. Why do we call places holes in the wall? Right, like, that's racist. Why are we willing to pay $24 for a plate of pasta but people get up in arms when someone wants to charge $14 for pho? You know, I feel like this is where I was coming from. And there wasn't really a lot of space for that, I will say. So there was—I felt a little limited. You know, I think about sometimes, what it would be like to start my career now. I feel like people have created a lot of space. It's not like just the space has opened up. But the scene has changed. I took a forced hiatus from food writing, because of the Great Recession, where they were like, We don't need freelancers anymore. I came back to it, though—what year was this? It would have been 2012; 2013 and 2014, I was pregnant. And I had actually decided, you know, just because I'm good at writing doesn't mean I get to do it. I need to figure out something more practical to do with my life. So I had applied to go to graduate school, actually to get a master's in public health and nutrition. And I wanted to work with immigrant communities to help them have culturally appropriate diets. You know, like, not everyone was just gonna eat kale, which is what people—or shop at the farmers’ market. So yeah, I mean, I took classes at the local community college. I took biology, chemistry, all the s**t that I didn't take as an English major in the mid ’90s. And, yeah, I got accepted, but then when I was pregnant, The Stranger, the alt-weekly, called me and they were like, Hey, we're hiring a food writer, and are you interested in applying? And I was like—this chance is never going to come around. And so I was like, Yeah, I'll take it. And so this was, this is a really long answer, sorry, [this was in] 2014, and I started back, and it was restaurant reviews. But it was also when $15 an hour was going really strong here in Seattle. And I really wanted to explore the labor aspect of that, and what was that like for workers…and then my secret goal, I had a great editor who was Korean-American. And she and I were like, yes, like, every two weeks, there will be a picture of a Brown or Black person to go with the restaurant review. And so it was all this stuff. Like, I felt like I finally got a chance to do what I really wanted to be doing. It was like, moving towards that. And then I wrote this piece about breastfeeding, which, at the time, they asked me to pitch a feature. They're like, You've been here on staff long enough, like what do you want to write about? And I was like, I definitely need to write about breast milk. No one in the editorial room was like, it was just like, it landed like a dead bird and I was like, Well, I kind of want to do this for myself. I felt it was very much an extension of my beat. Because I was like, here I am. I'm thinking about food. I'm producing food. I am food. I'm eating food. And so I wrote this piece and ended up going viral, which is how I got the opportunity to write my first book and I wanted to take a leave of absence because I really wanted to come back to my job. And they said, No, we're not going to hold a job for you. We're just going to piece it out on contract. And so then I kind of had to figure out what I was going to do afterwards. And so then I was like, maybe I'll just try writing books. And that's my very long answer into how I got into food writing, it was like, the right place at the right time talking about it. Because yeah, that was just like, it felt very— It was just my life.Alicia: No, I think that that's such a common—obviously, I talk to a lot of people. Like, why food, how food, how did that happen. And then, a lot of the time, especially with women who wanted to be writers, myself included, we didn't see it as an option necessarily, but when we came to it, everything kind of fell into place, which is what happened for me too. Like, once I started to focus my life on food, everything made sense, because I was doing like, copyediting and working for like, tiny literary magazines, and just thought I was gonna have like, a weird literary career, hopefully. And then I just started cooking one day and just never stopped. And like that, it just changed everything. I'm writing about this right now, actually, like how gender plays into this and whether, you know, the idea of being allowed to love to cook when you're a woman and that sort of thing, which actually, I wanted to ask you about, because there is a fabulous chapter in your new book, Essential Labor, called “Mothering as Encouraging Appetites” and it's so much about our gendered relationship to having an appetite, you know, like whether whether a woman, whether a girl is allowed to have an appetite and how you are actively encouraging your daughters to be okay with their appetites. And it reminded me of when I was a kid and like, I had this friend, who I took dance classes with, and our moms would be like, Oh, you're gonna have to like, date a rich man or something because you eat so much. And then this was like a joke about how like… when I recalled this memory, it's not a joke my mother would make. So I'm assuming it was the other mother, but um, it was just this whole thing.Angela: But it's definitely like an ambient joke, right?Alicia: It’s an ambient joke, yeah. And this chapter certainly reminded me of that. And I, you know, I was really lucky to grow up without anyone ever questioning my appetite in a real way. It was always something to be proud of a little bit, to be a girl who ate a lot. Like it was okay, in my world, at least. And so, yeah, I just wanted to ask, what was what was your inspiration for putting this piece in this book, specifically, and how that worked, because it is about the labor of feeding, but it's also about the labor of, like, self-acceptance and and excavating ourselves from these societal expectations. Angela: I mean, I want to back up a little bit to what you're saying about how when I started writing about food, and when you started writing about food, a lot of things started to make sense, right? And I felt that way, very strongly, like, inside of myself, but it felt like there wasn't quite an audience that was keyed into what I was trying to say. And I will say, at the time that I started writing about food it was very, like, you can have an appetite, and you can write about loving food. And you can be—there was a lot of, you know, like, I think people use the phrase like the, quote, golden era of food blogging. And to me, it was never really that; I didn't feel like those things. I didn't feel represented in that. It was a lot of, you can have a tremendous appetite for baguette. Right? But, um, no diss to baguette, right? But it was very Francophilic. And it was very, like, be fit and be white. So I don't, I just don't really understand. I didn't, I couldn't square having the sort of appetite and having the body that I had with, you know, quote, unquote, mainstream food writing by women. I want to say that because I think that that's true for a lot of women of color. And I think that that space is thankfully growing. But I think it's because it's an insistence on taking up space, and an insistence on not being pushed to the margins, which is really what the motivation of that chapter was. I felt like there's so many things I have been thinking about in terms of food and that like, I mean, that chapter to me is very much food writing. I was real jazzed when I was writing; I loved being able to describe the flavors, and the Filipino food that I grew up with. And yeah, like, I wish that I could explain, and I write about this, and I was like, I don't know why I never—diet culture never got to me, you know, and I think for a lot of girls, who are lucky enough to come from a family where it is a beautiful thing to have an appetite, the thing that often happens, though, is around like when you're 12 or 13 or 14, then suddenly it's not great to have an appetite, right? Like or it's a thing to be managed, because everything's changing, everything's expanding, right? Everything's growing. Before, when you're eating a lot, you're chubby and you're healthy, and suddenly you become fat. And so I was sort of wrestling with that. And also this feeling that my body just never really fit into the culture, into that small town where I grew up in. And then my body is just larger than my mother's who's a very, very small, Filipina woman. And, you know, Filipina elders are the first people to be like, Eat, eat food, eat so much food, come in here, eat food. And then they'll also be the first people to be like, Wow, you got really fat. [Laughs] It's an interesting thing. So, you know, this chapter was me sort of working out a lot of those feelings and how I did it at a young age, I had just decided, well, I guess—I've never been interested in taming my appetites. And that's not just for food, it's like, for pleasure, for like, you know, I've always wanted another round of drinks, you know, I think I always just decided, like, being a little bit too much, being a little bit fat, that was okay with me, because I don't know how to control my appetite. And I didn't want to; I don't want to say no to that. And then I think there's something really powerful about, you know, again, like my love of Filipino food helped me take up space. And it helped me clarify who I was and how I wanted to take up space in this world. Like, I did not want to quiet that part of my identity to write about food, which also meant that for a while, I didn't write about food, or figured something else out that I would do. And so when I think about that, I just think about—it is about encouraging appetite in my daughter, but it's really, to me this book is—I hope it's relevant to everyone, you know, for me, a lot of this is like how I mothered myself, into the place where I am now and seeing the way I was mothered and the things that I kind of wish I could have had, and I don't fault my mother for this, but she just wasn't, she just wasn't able to do that. But the things that I had to mother myself into were acceptance. And that's like, work that I'm still doing every day. But I think you know, we don't write as—I don't hear as much about people who are trying to manage that, and who are trying to take up space, but who still struggle with feeling like, I wish I looked a certain way, even though I'm so proud of being who I am. It's really complicated. So yeah, I mean, appetite and identity and food. And all of that has, it's a very tangled web, in my mind. So this was kind of my attempt to, you know, just sort of unpack and understand.Alicia: Right, no, and I loved it, because I do think…as women, especially when we're writing about appetite, we're writing about diet culture, and you very rarely hear from someone who makes the decision to just not ever decide to tame the appetite, you know, and what that means and what that looks like, and that's why I thought this chapter was really important, because of that, because for me, you know, yeah, I was like, Oh, I see myself, I recognize myself in this because, yeah, I love to eat, I've always loved to eat, and I'm never not going to eat a lot…[Laughs]Angela: No, and that's one of the things that I love about your work is that I feel like you are unapologetic in your appetite and in your consumption. But you also are deeply thoughtful about it, like these things are like–they are nuanced. Do you know what I mean? And you'd never, I just feel like we're not allowed—we're supposed to not have an appetite. We're supposed to have an appetite, but somehow pretend that we don't have an appetite, or, I don't know, like, really, I mean, I think also like, when I am indulging my appetite, I feel like an animal. I feel I'm no different than an animal. I'm a human animal. And I just think like, we're not encouraged to do that as women, we're not encouraged to just fully inhabit ourselves. I mean, I think all people but especially women. And so I mean, I love seeing people out there doing [it], we are out here, you know. [Laughs] And this is my like, you know, a little bit of my stake in the ground, I'm planting a flag, you know, there would be no mistake—Alicia: Well, to talk about the animal aspect of food and appetite and also being a mother, which is that you wrote, obviously, the piece that went viral is about breastfeeding. My only experience in thinking about this, of course, because I'm not a mother, is the way vegans or vegetarians write about the ways in which breastfeeding changes their relationship to dairy, like that's a really common thing. But I wanted to ask how that topic and writing about that topic and that topic changing the trajectory of your work, how did that change your relationship to food or food production, if it did?Angela: Yeah, totally. First of all, I wish that you had been asking me these questions when my first book came out because like, I love how you're like, “It's really common for vegans to talk about, you know, dairy and how breastfeeding changed their relationship to it.” And I was like, I'm not aware of that, like, literature…[Laughter] And so I think it's kind of, just that question is really exciting to me. And I wish that there was more conversation around that. Part of writing, you know, this article about breastfeeding was me being like, why do we drink the milk of a cow? Right? Why is that? Like, that's strange, right? Like, it's strange. And why have we created an entire industry around this? And like, Why do, when we look at a food plate, dairy has a very large section? And that's because of the dairy lobby, right? That's not because of our innate biological needs as human beings, right? So, yeah, I mean, how I thought about food production, 100%. This, you know, sort of lays the path for so many things that I'm thinking about. It’s work, you know, this is what your body—this is what female bodies are built to do, right? That's just true. This is what sets us apart as mammalians, you know, like, we produce milk to feed our young, but I just went into it so naive, like, it was a job. You know, I was spending the eight plus hours feeding—eight plus hours that I was like, am I supposed to be being productive? Like I'm being productive, like I'm keeping, I'm doing nothing less than keeping a human alive. I'm not being paid to do this. I'm not being given time. I'm like, in a weird office with a noisy radiator, you know, with another woman—our breasts out, just like pumping. Right? So it made me think about time and how we value time. And it also like, again, like this was all happening when I was writing about food. And there was the fight for a minimum wage of $15 an hour. And my God, how that was so polarizing, and how people just showed their whole asses about how they don't think the workers are valuable or deserving of this thing. And so I think, you know, there was the labor aspect of it that really came into play for me, that made me think about—I grew up saying grace, because I grew up Catholic, right? And when we remember to say grace, my girls do it with my parents. So when we remember to say grace at our house, we say, you know, thank you to the people who grew this food, who picked the food, who you know transported the food, who prepared the food. So I think now this sort of supply chain of food and how it is produced is something that's always top of mind and like, how do you negotiate having like an ethical relationship to that? I know this is stuff that you have thought about. This is stuff that really came to the forefront, right? And then also balancing that economically because, you know, breastfeeding is, in a country that does not give paid leave, it’s an economic privilege to be able to do that. And then people who cannot breastfeed, there's very little money put into understanding that and seeing is that, oftentimes people feel like that's a failure on their part, not as opposed to like, is it a signal about something about the health of the mother, right? Could we be—this is sort of going off a little tangent, but I think that there's a lot of that kind of stuff, like in the labor of it, and how we value women's bodies. And also just like the general chain of food production, for sure. It 100% made me think of all of those things. And so now I'm always thinking about, someone made this food, right? Someone produced this food in some way, a being—a living thing, whether it is a plant or an animal, or a person. Yeah, it’s just, I mean mothering and becoming a mother really reframed everything for me. You know, it is that care that my body couldn't help but do, you know, like my body did. And then suddenly, I felt like, it's a very beautiful thing to be able to do this. It's a very important thing. It was very meaningful to me. It was also that I was chained to a chair and chained to a person. And so yeah, I mean, that's what—that's where I'll leave it. That’s another long answer. [Laughter]Alicia: No, no…have you read the book To Write As If Already Dead by Kate Zambreno? It came out last year, I think you'll like it. She writes a lot about the body and like, I think it has a lot of parallels to your work. But it's also, you know, just more personal I guess, but she writes about having her first kid and then getting pregnant and then and like, amidst the pandemic, not being treated like a human being but a vessel and seeing the labor of the people bringing…anyway, I think you'll like the book. [Laughs] But you know, and there are so many parallels in both Like a Mother and Essential Labor to what I've been thinking about in food: formal versus informal knowledge, institutions versus communities, individual versus systemic, the political role of care…And so I wanted to ask how the understanding of the significance of something like informal knowledge building when it comes to motherhood affected your perspective on, you know, other subjects as you've said. Motherhood changed your whole lens on the world, but specifically figuring out where, how to learn from community and informal knowledge rather than constantly just taking the word of the institutions.Angela: Yeah, you know I mean, motherhood was a big part of that. But I would say that it was all, I don't know, I just feel like my whole life is learning. And I love that. And that's one of the things that I love about my life. I definitely feel like when I arrived at college—so again, I came from a very, very small town in Pennsylvania. And I didn't know about a lot of things in the world, you know, and I was like, I'm gonna go to New York City. I went to Barnard College, right? Like, I arrived there. And everyone there was like, I went to Milton Academy. I went to, you know, I went to Stuyvesant High, and I was like, like, Googling like, “what are the regents exams,” right? Like, I was like that. And I felt so out of place. Y’know what I mean, like, I felt unprepared. And I felt very self-conscious in a way about that. And I also feel like I came into, like a formal racial consciousness, right, and class consciousness. Like, I mean, when I was at Barnard was when I was like, Oh, this is how we re-create a ruling class, right? Like, what I'm saying is that I had a lot of informal knowledge. And a lot of wisdom growing up, you know, that I kind of trusted and knew. I was always like, why are we Catholic? So, is colonialism…like, what would we have been if we weren't Catholic? And my parents were like, God will provide…like, what are you talking about? Why are we asking these questions, right? And so I've always had it in me to like, question the institution, right, unfortunately, for my parents, and then our family institution for many years. So I came to college, and then I was like, Oh, it's also reckoning with for many, many years, my definition of success was, you know, grammar, spelling, right? Like, all of that s**t, which is like, those are just rules that some guy made up, right? Like coming into this and wanting to succeed on terms, you know, set by white people, being legible to white people, and being legible to institutions, which I will not deny, like, that has served me well. And this sort of like, ability to kind of code-switch in a way that I sometimes can't even tell the difference. Like, that's just been a part of my life, right? And one of the things, though, that happened is coming into consciousness as an adult, and just realizing like, Oh, no, like, I was privileged enough to, like, be educated in these institutions to figure out how to slip into these places. And then to realize, like, no, this doesn't, this doesn't speak to me. It's actually not my vibe, right? Like, but what is your vibe, then? So you have to kind of go and like, figure it out. And I felt sort of free in that, you know, when I always felt really drawn to creative people, but I was never encouraged to, you know, pursue the arts or to pursue creativite work, or my parents were supportive, but they don't really understand what I do. I think to this day, still, it's a little bit confusing to them. All of this to say that one of the other, before motherhood, one of the big things, and I really need to shout out is my spouse Will, who [when] I met, he was a community organizer. He's now a labor organizer. And there was just something about, we are so different, but when we met, there was a shared values. There was a belief in, everyone's story is important. You know, he was all about, his thing was, people come up, and they speak their truth to power. And that's when I realized, like, Oh, yes, like our lived experiences, our informal knowledge, when collected, just because it's not in a book, just because it's not what's reported, like, it is so real, and it is so powerful. And he really, like his work helped me see that. And I feel like that was kind of the start for me of being like, I want to take what I'm doing, and I want to put it in service of something else. And I want it to be a harnessing of collective energy and community knowledge. And then mothering with the whole sort of like, ask your doctor even though no one has, no one's done any studies on this and everything that's going on was something someone said in 1890, right, no one’s challenged this wisdom. Meanwhile, the greatest wisdom that came from birthing and mothering came from midwives and female elders. And that's informal knowledge that was never put in a book, y'know, doctors, when we created medicine, when people invented—when white men invented medicine, they discredited the experience of midwives. And at the turn of the 20th century in America, 50% of babies were born with midwives, who are mostly immigrants and Black women, right? This was very much a working class woman's job. So I mean, this is just my way of saying I feel like my whole life has been leading to this moment, and motherhood, sort of refined that lens, a place to put all of these things, but it's been multiple steps along the way, and it's been sort of painful. You know what I mean? Like feeling like, Oh, I wish I had known this earlier. But then realizing like, Oh, like, but I know this now. And I think there are many people who share these values and who want to put their faith in more informal knowledge, and who don't trust institutions, but don't really know how, you know what I mean? And I feel like that's a journey, like we're all learning. And I feel like, I don't know…I'm old enough to remember when we weren't supposed to know everything. I feel like now there's this pressure to have some sort of expertise in everything. And I'm like, I still don't know what the f**k I'm doing. Like, everything I'm doing is learning, and that's what's fun. That's part of why I like being a writer is just doing homework or whatever.Alicia: That's so interesting. Yeah, I feel like this is something I've been thinking about a lot, is there is this kind of—you're not supposed to ask questions. You're not supposed to say “I don't know,” you're supposed to, we're all supposed to have sort of absorbed some sort of bastion of knowledge that we might not even know exists about things that we've never thought about before. But like, you're just not allowed to not know things anymore, you're not allowed to be learning. I don't know. It's very weird. I mean, that's more social media than anything else. But, because I'm always interested in this. So you went to college in New York? How did you come to live in Seattle?Angela: So when I was in college, my parents—long story short, they had a midlife crisis. And my dad became very disillusioned by managed healthcare. This was 1997, by the way. And so they just decided to make a huge change. Like, my dad was miserable, and my mom was miserable; they're miserable together. And so they decided to start over, and they moved to Washington State. And I was in college, and I was just like, I need to get out of New York. So I was like, okay, and now they seem to be doing better, so I'm gonna go spend a summer with them. And the Pacific Northwest in the summer is heaven, it's so beautiful. And I was like, oh, I’ll like, come out here after I graduate, and I'll stay for a couple months, and then I'll go back and get a job in publishing as an editorial assistant. And that was 1999. And then I just never left. You know, I spent many years comparing it to the East Coast. And then I just was like, it's easier here. And I used to feel some sort of shame around that. But um, I don't know, it's just more laid back. I feel really—I've written about this—I just don't, I don't want to say that I'm not ambitious. But it's just like, there's ladders that you climb, there's like places you could try to put yourself into institutions, I guess. And I'm just really not about the hustle. I feel like I work really hard and I'm really not trying to work harder. Like, I like my little life. Before I had a chance to, you know, publish books, having a job as a staff writer at an alt-weekly, it was like—that was great. Like, you know, I feel like it's easier to do, I don't know, community building can be—I don't want to generalize too much. I just like being in a city. It's a young city. It's a weird city, in some ways. It's changing. But um, yeah, but I like the West Coast. I think I'm—Alicia: I'm always interested in how people leave New York, because obviously, I'm from Long Island, but I spent a lot of time in New York City. And so then, because I left in 2019, but like, didn't really think about it, about what I was doing. So I'm always like, What was the choice? What were the choices that led you away from New York? [Laughter]Angela: I think it was the thought that I would come back. And I think there's always a little bit of like—I couldn't go back. You know, like, it's all the same, like things are there. They're not going away. But New York also still has the same ugly, modern, new high rise weird, like townhome architecture that we get here in Seattle. It's not, you know, not to be I mean. I went to college in New York from ‘95 to ‘99. And, you know, I go back now and I'm like, This is so different. I was like, you know, it wasn't even like dirty New York, y'know. But yeah, I think I just like being a little bit outside things. How was it for you? Like, do you feel like returning or do you feel like you're home? Or do you kind of feel like it's all open?Alicia: I would prefer to stay here in San Juan ’cause it's an easier life, like you're saying, and I talked to Jami Attenberg about moving from New York to New Orleans. And same thing. It's like, it's just easier, and for me, especially as a food writer, I feel like it gives me a lot more to talk about and I don't feel like I have to go to the same restaurants as everybody. And like, obviously, I don't even think I could move back until everything goes differently with the housing situation. Like it's just such—I mean, it's happening everywhere. But I'm just like watching on Twitter, and everyone is like, my landlord just raised my rent $700, $1,200. And I'm like, I'm never going back. I can never go back. But I mean, we have that problem here, too, because it's become like a tax haven. So there's like, all the real estate is absolutely mind-boggling. And like the daughter-in-law of the governor is sort of instrumental in it, which seems like a problem, so— [Laughter]But, yeah, so everywhere has its challenges. But yeah, I feel really good. You know, having gotten sort of away from New York. You know, when I left New York, I was bartending and writing. And here, now I just have a newsletter. So, I'm working a lot less hard. [Laughs]Angela: I mean, I think there's something to be said to of space—physical space. I have a house, you know what I mean, to have physical space, which is also, it's not necessary, but it does lead to mental space. You know what I mean, things feel more expansive here in a way that like, I can go on a long walk, the mountains are 45 minutes that way—wait, sorry, going West. Sorry, the East actually—But I think there's just something there where I feel. I don't know. I just—there's something here where I just feel like I can be myself in a way that—I'm less like, thinking about myself in the context of other people and other things, like I could just sort of be in an easy—Alicia: Exactly, no, no. And that's really key. Obviously, like I'm homesick a lot. But I, then I just go back, you know. And then I'm like, I'm sick of this. Goodbye. [Laughter]But also, to get back to your book, in Essential Labor, you talk about the flattening of creative identity that came through being a mother in the pandemic, do you think that it is possible to change how work and caregiving are structured and perceived in the U.S.? And specifically, what do you think mothers who are creative workers, thus doing work that's kind of already devalued in our society, what is really needed to thrive?Angela: That's a great question. I do think it's possible. I have to think it's possible, because—I'm glad that your question wasn't, do you, like, do you hope that this is, you know, like, I find it hard to be, I find it hard to be hopeful about it in this moment. But I mean, I wouldn't have written this book if I didn't think it was possible. And, you know, maybe it will take a very long time. But I think we are due for, I mean, the United States has never reckoned with all of its original sins, right. But one of them, you know, one of the biggest ones at this point, that's like a foundation to it is that care work doesn't matter and has no financial value. So I think, you know, we had these moments, there was the advanced check, tax child credit. And then also, when we were doing direct stimulus payments, that was not specifically like, here's pay for mothering and care work. But, here's pay for keeping yourself alive and keeping people alive, which is what care work is. So I think that people are—that conversation is happening, I think, you know, part of writing this book was, there were all these, there were so many people who were suddenly awake to, like the child care crisis is a pre-pandemic problem, right? Like that childcare workers are three times more likely to live in poverty. The fact that until your child is age 6, in the United States, like you're on your own, to figure all of that out, and suddenly a lot of white affluent women, to generalize, were realizing that, you know, when care structures fall apart, when your nanny and childcare and babysitters go away — they are left to do all of this work. And that to be a woman in America is to be defined by a condition of servitude. And that was a hard f*****g lesson. And people reacted in a way that they were rightfully so, really angry. And part of writing this book was, I was like, this is going to go away, right? Like when schools reopen, people are gonna think we solved the childcare crisis, right? When things are not inconvenient, when people can start outsourcing that care, and we're gonna lose that momentum. And so to a certain extent, like, why I also believe it's possible is because I know that for myself, and for other people, like, I will never shut up about this. This is something that is foundational and essential to our country and how it functions and until we properly value that, we're going to have an inhumane and dysfunctional society. So yes, I think it's possible. In this particular moment, I feel that it's a much longer fight, and then it's going to be a much harder fight. I don't want it to be a fight, but that's that's where I am on that. You know, and in terms of mothers who are doing creative work, I mean, I just think of all people doing creative work again, like, care is an issue that, obviously, yes, I'm writing about mothering but like, care is the work of being a human being, you know, needfulness is the state of being a human being. And so, you know, if I'm just like, allowed to say what I would like to do is like, we should just give people money. We live in a very rich country, there is enough money to do this. If we gave people a universal basic income, a guaranteed adequate income, which is not a new idea—you know, people were working on this, the National Welfare Rights Organization was doing this; they came close to getting it under Nixon. If we paid people money, if we gave people money and guaranteed a floor of what a decent life is in America, people could be creative. You know, people could do their creative work, people could mother, people could still be really f*****g ambitious and try to get a six-figure job, like six-figure salary job, like, they could still do that. You know, and I think that that's, you know, we made up money. [Laughter] We can, like, if we can make up a new system, you know, that, that gives people—you know, I did this interview for this the future of things, it was like the future of work. And I was talking about this, and the producer was like, So in your world, when you like, meet for drinks with your friends on Friday, and someone asks you how work is doing and you're like, well, Tommy's like, struggling with potty training. And I was like, No, dude, like, in my world, you meet your friends for drinks on Friday, and they're like, how are you? Like we don’t talk about work—we just talk about like, what are you doin’? Right? And so I think that, yeah, like, I think so what we need to do is like, guarantee—I mean maybe it's not just an adequate income or guaranteed income, maybe it's just like, health care, where you like, leave, like, they need people need to, like be able to live a dignified life, that doesn't involve work, you know, that is like, not defined by work that just that allows them to exist. That's what people need. And that's not just mothers, and not just mothers who do creative work that we need that. We need that. I mean, I think it's really like for me; it's for everyone.Alicia: Yeah, yeah, no, no, I mean, these are all the same answers I give when people are like, How do we fix the food system? And it's like, you have to make sure people have a good life. And then, that they don't have to work two or three jobs just to eat crap, and that they get to cook with, I mean, if they want to [they can] eat whatever they want, but like, you know, you get the option to cook, you know. Right now, it's like, so much of that moment, I guess when you started writing about food, that moment of like, go to the farmers’ market and eat kale and everything will be fine. It really stopped short of talking about poverty, it stopped short of talking about the systemic, obviously, disadvantages. It's like, some people won't be able to do this—sad for them. And then like, moving on—Angela: Yeah, look, we don't talk about how poverty is a condition we have created —it's an unnatural condition. We made this, right? And there's so much, I mean, also like the farmers’ market thing. Like, what is it, maybe now it's higher, but it's something like 6 or 12 percent of people get their produce from a farmers’ market here. I mean, so not even like, forget, like how much money you can spend. It's just such a small—you're not tackling the system. And that's not to say they're not great and you should keep money in local economies. Like I think it's all of those things. But yeah, we're not even getting to that. And we're not talking about the profound way that we assign morality to food, like people who are poor make bad choices about food. Those are choices created by poverty and scarcity. Like, anyway, this is not like a…I think you and I are on the same page about this. I think it's like the conversations that we have about food are so not the conversations we need to read. Right, like we spend a lot of time on that. And I think the same is true for care and mothering, right? It is an issue that affects everyone. And it is an issue, it is systemic, like we're talking about, I think we're both talking about giving people a decent life, which doesn't—we've come so far from that, that it seems really radical to be like, let's just, you know, take it back a step. You know, like, it'd be like—money is made up, are you with me? Like, that seems really destabilizing to people, but it's just a truth. And I think like we just drifted so far from it, that it's really, it's discouraging.Alicia: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely. I'm hopeful, I think that now people are more, even if it's just jokes or memes on social media, people are more willing to say— people are more willing to say that the all of this is bizarre. Like, even if it's just—today, we're talking on Tax Day, which is—I feel like vomiting because I still haven't done mine. But the idea that people are now talking about, why does the government let it be so difficult and complicated when they know how much we owe because they have the documentation and, you know, what are we actually even paying for? Like, I think it's important that we have a forum now for those like people to have that conversation, even if it's a joke, most of the time.Angela: One of my favorite things that I've seen recently is like, I mean, I saw it on Instagram, but it was a tweet, you know, that whole thing. But it was like, you know, humans really could have had stargazing and like pottery making and drumming, and now we have credit scores, and like, you know, but this idea that, like, we could just be f*****g living. Now it's like, we need money we need like, I just, ugh—Alicia: Yeah, we do need a general strike, and to not pay anything, not pay our taxes, not pay our student loans, not pay rent, just like let's stop and get this s**t sorted out before we keep moving.Angela: Yeah, I mean it’s really…we shouldn't be privatizing human rights. We could have this conversation, like in a circle for like, a few days, and it would be great but we should probably move on… [Laughter]Alicia: No, no, no, of course. No, well I just wanted to ask you what are the other things you're thinking about that you want to write about? I do love that you characterize being a writer is ongoing learning, you know? So what are you learning about these days?Angela: I'm learning about—so again, since I started as a food writer, the fact that I've now written two books on motherhood and mothering seems like a great surprise in my life. I mean, I think it's very—it's been great for me. But I mean, this is really just one aspect of my identity. But right now, the things that I'm really drawn to are not privileging one kind of care. I mean, I think care is a conversation we need to continue to have. And so I want to explore care. Like, so I've been thinking about it in terms of, you know, raising young children, but what is it like to have everything from like, you know, how do we encourage people who are not parents to have meaningful relationships with the youth and the elders? Right, like elder care, disability care. And then also, how do we build, one of the things that we lack, our institutions don't care about people; care is not a value that's at the center of institutions. And so I'm interested in exploring, how might we make that happen? And so care in general, an expansive and inclusive and surprising view of care, is one of the things that I'm thinking a lot about.I'm thinking a lot about the concept of service. Service, to me, is very clarifying. I think my work as a writer is about learning. But what gives me meaning is that it is definitely of service to people. And that's one of the things that I cherish about the feedback that I've gotten from people. And so this idea of service, and how we can encourage that, and people are exploring that.And then the other thing that I'm really into is middle age. You know, I'm about to be 45. I never—and I don't mean this in a fatalistic way, but I just never really imagined myself at this age, and realizing that my imagination really was pretty short. And I feel like I have to believe and I do believe that, you know, some of my most interesting transformations are still ahead of me. And so there's really not a literature of middle age for women, there's like some menopause-y stuff. But the choices that we make, and I don't know, there's like in the pandemic, too, I've done a lot of self work and therapy. But I've also, like—I haven't been able to escape myself, even though I've tried very hard through various attempts and substances. But I feel like, I don't know, if I'm about to be 45, like I said, I just feel like I don't feel confused about who I am. And I really like that. And I'm kind of curious, like, where that goes. Yeah, so those are the things I'm thinking.Alicia: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time today. Angela: Yeah, of course. Thank you.Alicia: Thanks so much to everyone for listening to this week's edition of From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy. Read more at www.aliciakennedy.news. Or follow me on Instagram, @aliciadkennedy, or on Twitter at @aliciakennedy. This is a public episode. 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You're listening to From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, a food and culture podcast. I'm Alicia Kennedy, a food writer based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Every week on Wednesdays, I'll be talking to different people in food and culture about their lives, careers and how it all fits together and where food comes in. Today, I'm talking to Jami Attenberg, the author of seven novels, including the best-selling The Middlesteins. Her latest book is a memoir called I Came All This Way to Meet You, which grapples with ideas of success and living a nontraditional life. We talk about the ups and downs of the writing life, along with her move from New York to New Orleans, why she chose to write a memoir right now, and how the pandemic has shifted her relationship to travel.You're listening to From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, a food and culture podcast. I'm Alicia Kennedy, a food writer based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Every week on Wednesdays, I'll be talking to different people in food and culture about their lives, careers and how it all fits together and where food comes in. Today, I'm talking to Jami Attenberg, the author of seven novels, including the best-selling The Middlesteins. Her latest book is a memoir called I Came All This Way to Meet You, which grapples with ideas of success and living a non-traditional life. We talk about the ups and downs of the writing life, along with her move from New York to New Orleans, why she chose to write a memoir right now, and how the pandemic has shifted her relationship to travel. Alicia: Hi, Jami. Thank you so much for being here. Jami: Hi. It's so nice to meet you.Alicia: Can you tell me about where you grew up and what you ate?Jami: Yeah, I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. I’m 50, so I grew up in the ’70s. And I'm Jewish, and so there was an emphasis on deli when we could get it. There wasn't a lot of deli going on out there where I grew up. I grew up in Buffalo Grove. So closer to Skokie is where they, where you can get deli. And then, a lot of Italian food. A lot of pizza. I don't know if you've ever heard of Portillo's before. That is an amazing Chicago chain, and the Italian—Oh. I want it right now, just thinking about it. They had this croissant sandwich with Italian beef that was really delicious. My mother would be upset to hear me say this, I do not recall having a lot of emphasis on healthy food in my household growing up. We were also latchkey kids. You come home and you sort of scramble for what you could find in the house, that kind of thing. I mean, there was food there.So, I don't know. When I look back at it now, I just think it was that there was not a clear path to, not a clear aesthetic necessarily. It was a lot of what was around.Alicia: Yeah.Well, it's interesting that you say your mom wouldn't like that. In your memoir, you write about her making chicken noodle soup from scratch and insisting she'd done it. And it's interesting, because it brings up obviously—memoir, where your memories don't match up with other people's memories and the question of that. How was it to reconstruct those kinds of things? I liked that in the book, that you enacted the problem of memoir in the memoir with this kind of like, ‘Whose memory actually is the memory that's the memory?’ [Laughs.]Jami: Well, I have a brother. So I think he would back me up on certain things. And he's a wonderful cook, and he’s very health focused and really into the farmers’ markets and has a big tomato festival in his house every year. It was like a goal of his to kind of learn how to cook and be connected with food in a different way. I mean, I'm not blaming my parents for it. They had, of course, a million jobs and things going on. So I mean, I tried to be as honest about it as I could. I mean, I think my mother genuinely wants to have cooked, made chicken noodle soup for me from scratch. I do not recall it at all. I don't think that happened. So when that did happen, it felt kind of special. I mean, she probably hadn't cooked for me as an adult and in a really long time. That story where she is looking after me and making chicken noodle soup, for me, probably happened when I was in my late 30s. I don't know how much you go home to see your family or what that looks like for you. But for me, I had lived in New York a long time and my parents lived in Chicago. And I went back maybe once a year, and when we would see each other we could go out to eat. Big going-out-to-eat family.Alicia: Well, you write in the—that you're not a great cook, but you are a superb dinner party guest. And food and drink are present in the memoir of course, but they're also present in your fiction. So, how would you kind of characterize food in your life now that you're an adult, fully formed and all that?Jami: I mean, sadly, unlike my brother, I don't, I'm not—Yeah, I didn't take on the challenge like he did. Yeah, I don't have much of a repertoire. Yeah, I make a lasagna every so often. It’s winter and I'll be like, ‘Alright, I'm gonna make lasagna, veggie lasagna, and I'm gonna drop some at friends.’ This year for Christmas. I just made a ton of spiced nuts for everyone. And like, so once a year I get excited about doing—I throw a lot of parties though. I do that. I had, right after everybody got booster shots for the first time, I had a big oyster festival in my backyard. And it was really wonderful. I mean, it's just definitely a way for me to commune with my friends. It's just really important to me to connect with people. Everyone's happy. We like to sit down for long meals. I live in a city that's got a great food culture. I lived in New York City for a long time. And I have a great food culture. I just was there last week and had dinner with some girlfriends at Ernesto’s, which was wonderful. Every part of the dinner was wonderful. But then at the very last minute, we got dessert too. And there was this fried brioche. I don't even know how to explain it. We were talking about it, still this morning. But the fried brioche, it was kind of creamy in the center. It was kind of french toast, but something at—something else. It was so good. And we’re probably going to remember that fried brioche for the rest of our lives. It was really special. Alicia: Well, and so much of the memoir is about success and how it's difficult to define. And you can publish books and have no money. It was important for me to read, I think, at this juncture in my life, where I was like, ‘Nothing means anything, necessarily, until it means something.’ I don't know. [Laughter.]How do you define success? How do you feel about success as a concept as a writer?Jami: Well, first of all, let me say that, I have told you this before that I'm a fan of your newsletter. So I'm sort of following along your kind of existential crisis that you, that is sort of rolling out, in particular, the last couple of newsletters. And I don't want to be that person who's like, ‘It gets better,’ but I think it does get better. I don't know how old you are. And it's fine however old you are, but I think—Alicia: I'm 36, yeah.Jami: I think it gets better in your 40s. I hate to say it. But I have given that advice to so many people in their, in that age, where you're like, ‘I've been doing this for so long. When does it just get a little bit easier?’And I think the answer is, as a writer is it got easier for me after I'd written four books, which is like when I was 40, 41, something like that, was when I'd had that moment where I was able to—and also there's just like this catch-up period where you're constantly waiting for somebody to pay for something that you've written. And it's like, ‘How do you ever get ahead of that?’ And at some point, you sort of do get ahead of that. Hopefully. I'd make no guarantees or promises to anyone. And so to me, I think that your question was notion of success. To me, right now, because I have a book contract, and I have—I can spend the next year writing that book, that I feel safe for now. And you're always kind of leapfrogging to the next, whatever the next project is. I mean, someday I might run out. And I might be s**t out of luck. And I don't know, if you ever really get to take—it's the only thing I envy about an academic existence, is that they get to take sabbaticals. Yeah. And I mean, I guess it's for us, on our own, I think it would be about applying for grants or something like that. I don't actually, don't think residencies are really a sabbatical. The only thing that gives you, that buys you time, is money. Which is, then you have to do more. I know. I get it, I get it. It’s hard. And then I feel bad. But then it's like double I know, I know. It's really tricky. I think it slowed down a little bit for me, or got a little bit easier. I mean, part of that was that I moved to a city that was more affordable. Yeah, I had looked around when I was 45. So I've been down here for six years, I looked around and was like, ‘I can't work any harder than I am. I can't do any more than what I'm doing. I'm not really gonna make any more money than this unless something magical happens, like somebody makes one of my books into a TV show. I'm operating at a pretty good level. I'm still not saving any money. And I'm still not getting ahead. So what's the problem here?’ And it was New York City. So no, I love you, New York. But it’s bringing me down. We have to sort of start making certain decisions as we go, get older about it. And you can always go visit New York. Or wherever.Alicia: Well, New York is also my home, so yeah. But I get to go because that's where my family is. So I get to go back. But it feels so weird now, not living there anymore. I don't know how it feels for you to go back. The visiting is strange to me, to visit a place you lived for so long. Jami: Well, I don't go to Williamsburg where I lived for a zillion years. I just don't go there because—I do sometimes, because my dear friends own St. Mazie’s, a bar—restaurant there. So I'll go over there and say hi to them. But I don't go to the old apartment building that I used to live in. I know it's very different there now. I just go to see the people that I love, wherever that might happen to be. I just feel like such a country mouse when I go there now, too, because the buildings are so tall and it's so annoying and there's—it’s so expensive. It's all the things that you can work around if you live there. But when you visit, it's harder to avoid those things. And I'm not even complaining when I say any of those things at all. I had a great time there last week. It's just a sharp contrast to my existence. So I don't know if I could ever go back there. I mean, maybe you could ’cause your family's there. But I don't I wouldn't be able to take that step back, ’cause my life is maybe too quiet now. Alicia: Yeah, no. It feels very different now, life in general [Laughs.] having moved to a smaller quieter city, yeah. Jami: Do you feel happier now in that, in—with that?Alicia: Oh, yeah. Yeah, a lot happier. I didn't know it was possible. Grew up on Long Island, moved to the city. The big thing you're supposed to do is move to the city. And then, I didn't think I'd ever leave or live anywhere else. And now, I just have such a more relaxed life. I can think more, I think. I think there's a reason I've had not success, but more success as a writer leaving New York, because I—I'm not constantly, especially as a food writer, going to different restaurants and stupid things. And then, feeling I have to eat the things that everyone's eating. [Laughs.] I'm free. I'm free from having to go to whatever new place people are going to, like Bernie's, I think it's called. [Laughs.] [Note: I meant Bonnie’s!]Jami: But even as a non-food writer, I used to feel I had to go to all those places. And now I don't feel that. I don't feel that way anymore. I still have really good friends in New York who are really intuitive, or culture writers. And so, I can sort of keep track of where I might want to go through them. There's no reflection on me. It’s nice.Alicia: It’s great to be free of that. [Laughter.]Jami: Yeah, I don't know what I miss. I keep trying to figure out what I miss exactly. The only thing I've ever missed is the people.Alicia: Yeah, the people, the culture. Going to a museum. There’s museums here, but they're not those museums. I miss public transportation. We don't have public transportation here. And that's what I miss, I think. Jami: I just want to do one more thing, which is it's just about—I just think we, as writers or as creative people, I'm trying to—I'm starting to write this talk about how to carve out a creative life. I think as we get older and our priorities change, we really just have to go—we have to go all in on something. We have to if we want to really make it as an artist. And you can sort of see the people who—and this is not a criticism of them—but the people who say, ‘Alright, I'm actually not going all in as an artist. I decided I wanted to have a house in the Hamptons, or I've got three kids now.’ You can also, by the way, be an artist and have three kids. You know what you're choosing. There's no wrong answer. It's what is right for you, whatever works for you.Alicia: Yeah. It's interesting you’re writing a talk on creativity—I've been thinking about this and wanting to write an essay, because I've been listen, listening to a lot of podcasts. My dog is afraid of these birds, these local birds that kind of swoop in, so we've had to not go to the dog park while they're nesting. And so, I've just done these really long walks with the dog listening to On Being. I've never listened On Being before. But like everyone says, you realize when all these patterns of things that people say about creativity and how to make it happen, and it's—there's these patterns of like, ‘It is work, it is labor to be creative, and you have to make these choices to do it.’ Whereas when I think, when we're—When I was growing up, I always was like, ‘Oh, to be creative has to have this magical quality. And it has to strike you like lightning, and it's not work and you don't sit down and do it every day.’ [Laughter.]Jami: I just was on some panel where we were talking about this. It is a magical quality. But you have to show up in the first place to receive the magic. And that's the work part of it.Alicia: Yeah. Yeah. No, and I love the line in I came, I Came All This Way to Meet You where you say, ‘I had to be a good writer. And I had to be a good salesperson.’ And it's interesting, because you just kind of plainly said the thing that I think we're not supposed to say about being a writer and the tension of selling and writing and creativity and how these—How are you feeling now about those things as a relationship?Jami: I'm looking down as we're talking, ’cause I'm looking at my notes, ’cause I was thinking about it a little bit this morning. So I would say there's two things. One is that having been in the publishing industry for—My first book came out in 2006. So 16 years of it. I recognize that when you put out a book, it's more than just you. There's a marketing team. There's a book designer, there's an editor, salespeople. There's the assistants. There's everybody who does it. And so to me, them and also coming from a place where my dad was a traveling salesman, and my parents owned a retail store as well. I'm probably the perfect person for that to be sympathetic to this. Although frankly, I'm not a team player. I'm really about other people succeeding at their jobs. I appreciate it when people succeed at what they're trying to do. So I don't have a problem with doing certain things that are sales oriented in order to support my work, because I feel it's not—Me writing it is one piece. That's the art part of it. But once I sell it, then it's a product. That's a really seamless clear transition to me. When it's done, it's done. And now, what can I do to help you? And hopefully, you're gonna do things to help me. And so, we all have to work on it together. And I think that that has been beneficial to my career in a lot of ways. And I think it makes it, ensures that I continue to get published, because people know that I understand what the game is. Yeah, at this point in my life, through trial and error, I figured out things I don't want to do and things that I’m willing to do. And then also, the things that I'm good at doing. And I've been public facing for a long time. You had that thing in your newsletter recently about being public facing and reels, which is—I can't tell you how many people I know who are like, ‘F****n’ reels!’ And I'm not doing them. I just sort of refuse to do that. But I don't think I have to do that. But anyway, I've been public facing for a long time. And I've given too much of myself, certainly online. And then I've walked it back, meaning not, meaning I've regretted that, what I've done. And also my life is way less interesting than it used to be when I was 29, writing about my sex life online or whatever it was I was doing then.But basically, I would say actually, summer 2020 was the kind of a turning point for me, where I was like, ‘I do so much stuff online.’ I have this, the 1000 Words of Summer that I do, which is I have my own newsletter, obviously. And then I do 1000 Words of Summer thing, where it's 15,000 people. Everybody's writing. And I was doing Zoom teaching sessions and things like that. I was really, like everybody else summer of 2020, just losing their mind. And I really had to sit down and reassess what I was doing, what I wanted the internet to do for me. I was just saying this morning on Twitter that my goal is always to get more out of the internet from the internet gets out of me. So I had to really sit down and figure out what I was, what information I was willing to put out there, what I wanted to accomplish, all this kind of stuff, especially because we were really living—we had been living online. And now, we're really living online. And so, I made a list of things I was, topics that I wanted to put out there. And I talked about, to myself, about how, what kind of help I can provide? Because that's really up to me. I mean this in a non-cynical way. But I think that if you can figure out ways to be positive online, and be helpful to other people, then it is beneficial to your career, or the—think of it as a project, right? The project of my life more than career, because there's plenty of things that I do that I don't make a dime off of. But they are all part of this huge art project of my life. Ok, I think that's all I wanted to say about it. [Laughs.] We can talk about it. But do you know what I mean? It's really about, yeah, wrestling control of it and say, and not looking at what anyone else is doing. But looking at what your skill set is and what makes you feel good. And I like entertaining people. My dog makes me feel good. I know it’s a total dopamine rush. But people like my dog. And that's fine., that's yeah. I just would rather be positive online than not positive online.Alicia: No, yeah. I think I'm learning this too. That doesn't help anybody to be s**t talking or negative. And it's hard for me [laughter] as a mostly negative person. Jami: Yeah, and you’re a truth teller. I'm a truth teller, too. It's not that I'm not ever negative. I think you have to be honest about it. And especially as a thinker, a participant in culture, that kind of thing. But where you focus, you really choose to focus your energy. I sound very hippy dippy. [Laughs.]Alicia: No, you don't ’cause it's real. And yeah, we've been on the internet for so long now, at this point, everyone, I think. But it's so different now. And I think that's the tension that I'm always teasing out, is that I used to have a relationship with the internet, like you were saying, where I got so much more out of it than it got out of me. And now that definitely changed. Considering how to reassemble a positive relationship with the internet, where it doesn't feel like a vampire to just open an app, is really important. I mean, I guess, or people who weren't on the internet all the time are here. And they have a voice, and they think that they need to—the way people are and be nasty and think that that’s ok. And that sort of thing.Jami: It's out of control, but it's also it's too—it's so far gone that it doesn't even matter. It’s beyond me. So I'm just like, ‘Whatever.’ I'm just gonna do the thing that I do, and that's fine. And they can do what they're gonna do. And I can't save the world. And I can only just put out what I can put out because it's too—I'm not their mom. Or whatever. Alicia: But there are a lot of people looking for moms on Twitter. [Laughs.] Well, why did you want to write a memoir now after so many novels? I heard you talking about this on The Maris Review a little bit.Jami: I don't know why I did it. No, I know why I did. I'm very shut down about it, I have to admit. So it came out on January 11th. It's April 4. So it's been out for a little bit. I basically put it out, did everything I was supposed to do for the month that I came out. It's also two months beforehand. So I do interviews and all this other stuff. So it's really two to three months. It used to be, in the old days, that you would have a book, you would do a bunch of stuff a month before it came out. And then, you really would talk about it for 2, 3, 4 months. And now, the cycle is everything happens before and then one month after. And then, the next thing steps in. Even the biggest sellers in the world. Hanya Yanagihara’s book was massive. And I think after a month, it was like, ‘Ok, she did everything she was supposed to do. Right, who's next? Who's next on the list?’So yeah, so anyway, I put in a lot of effort around that time. And then, I immediately went offline for the month of February and worked, which was delightful. I wasn't on Twitter. I wasn't totally screen free. It felt real, real good. Now I'm back on a little bit. And I'm not really answering your question. I'm gonna answer your question, eventually. So now I'm back. And I'm going to start doing some touring again and think—this summer, I’m gonna do some stuff. And I have some speaking engagements and things like that. So I think I'm sort of back in the game. And I thought I would have perspective on it. I couldn't write another novel, because I had written seven. I needed a break from writing novels. So my way of taking a break, we don't get to take a sabbatical, was just to write a memoir. Fortunately, I had sold the book before that right before the pandemic hit. So I at least had that project to work on, and it was really poor—I thought I was gonna be writing it here and there. I'd be traveling, whatever. I just had a book come back. And instead, I was just really living with myself at home, really no escaping me while I was writing a memoir. I was a lot. I definitely think, because I was about to turn 50, that was part of it. I had some perspective, finally. It was really kind of spanning maybe 20 years of my life, my writing career, mostly focused on my writing career more than anything else. Left a little bit to childhood here and there, a little bit to the modern day here and there. I thought I had only been writing part of the truth the entire time that I have been reading nonfiction, 20 years of nonfiction, alongside 20 years of writing novels. And I thought that it would be worth it to try and explore these essays that I wrote that were 1200 words for the back of New York Times Magazine. What does it look like if they get expanded? How do they all fit next to each other? A lot of these chapters were like five essays that were not chopped up but had a very kaleidoscopic effect in the writing of the book. And then there were things that I thought were really important that I would have sworn would have been l huge focal points in the book, essays I'd written that ended up being just like a paragraph. And then I was done with it. It was really an interesting experience in that way. The process of it was actually, I learned so much from the process of it. I learned new things about my writing. I really just thought I needed to try something different, a different genre, and I thought I was ready to write about myself. I don't ever want to look at this book again. And right now that's how I feel. Yeah, I don't even know how to respond to it. I think I get that way with all my books. And then I look back a couple years later, and I'm like, ‘I knew a big word,’ or whatever. That’s a really fancy word that I put in there. How did I even come up with that? I don't know what it means now.Yeah, I don't know. I can't wait to see. I will say that I'm getting really positive responses to it from people. I'm sure there are people who hate it. But I have been getting really nice emails that are different than the emails that I usually get for my fiction. Because it's me, so they're responding to me personally. Please do send me a nice email about my work. I'm happy for it to have meant something. You don't sort of, don't know how to respond to it. I really thought I was not particularly likable in that book. And I am fascinated that people emailed me and were like, ‘I'm pretty sure we would be friends.’ I’m like, ‘Are ya? I'm not that good. Did you read the same book? I’m kind of shitty. Are you sure?’ Anyway.Alicia: I didn't come away thinking you were shitty. So I don't know. [Laughs.]Jami: I suppose we all are. Alicia: Do you think it would have been different if you weren't writing it during the pandemic? Did you anticipate it being different? Jami: For sure. Because there's the present tense of the book became—I thought I would be writing it while I was traveling. Because I had had six months of touring planned out, because in my old life, it was—that's what I did. I had a book come out, and then I toured for the next year, with little breaks here and there. And then, I'd write here and there. And so I thought, 'I'm gonna be writing this while I'm traveling.' And that's gonna be part of the process. And instead, I was writing it from a, I think, a wistful or more full place where I might have—If I were traveling and exhausted and had written it, I might even have been more critical. Instead, I was like, 'Remember that time? I was so happy there, wasn't I?' that I think that was different. I think everyone had—Not everyone. Can't speak for everyone. I think a lot of people that I know had some come to Jesus moments over the last couple of years about who you are, what you're doing with your life? What kind of person you are? What you can handle? How are you a part of your community? How do you feel about your community? All that kind of stuff. And so that, I think, played into it in a way that I wouldn't have had to think about if I were still on the road running around. I'm certain it would have been a different book. I'm certain of it. And so then, you write the book that you can write.Alicia: Well, has this time changed your relationship to traveling? Because you are moving in the book. Also in life, of course. You're traveling so much. Do you feel differently about travel now?Jami: I will say, maybe it was my sabbatical. Even though I wasn't traveling. If you'd asked me six months ago, I would have been like, 'Great. I don't ever want to travel again. It's fine.' I feel I needed the break. And now, I'm so hungry for it. I can't wait to get out in the world. I'm doing a European tour in two weeks. And I just kept adding vacation time in there. I'm gone for three weeks. And I think I have seven events in three weeks, which means there's a couple cities I'm going to that are just kind of for fun. That's just for me. And I will be super broke at the end of it. But I don't, kind of don't care. I don't know. I will have to write a little bit more than I want to. The only thing is that I write a lot in the book about how—There's a big chapter about my flight anxiety, and I had really pushed past it. And have found now that I'm flying again enmasked that it has returned. I'm doing a whole layer of work on that that I hadn't anticipated having to do. I thought it was fine. And then I had set up meetings, all these systems into place when you have anxiety. A lot of those systems aren't really available to you when you're wearing a mask. And when other people are wearing masks. And so, that's my only challenge.I think I'm gonna spend way too much money in my life on upgrading my seats. I just had this whole Twitter thing where I posted about aisle seats versus window seats. 20,000 people responded to it. Because I'm such an aisle person. But window people are super window people. Actually window people have their own form of anxiety, too. And that means to them, it feels like it's a cocoon and it's safe and everything like that. And it ended up being kind of exposure therapy for me in this weird way of seeing all these people talking about their feelings about where they sit on an airplane. Twitter was helpful for me in that way.But I still don't know, those middle-row people.Alicia: Very, very, very odd to me. I have to be in the aisle. I don't like to have to bother someone to get up. I would rather be bothered by someone than to be the botherer. I think that's the question really, is would you rather ask or be asked [laughs] to get up? I don't know what psychological meaning that has really, but it seems like something.We talked about this though, yeah. How has New Orleans changed your life other than it being an easier place to live as a writer?Jami: I now have a little house here. So I like that when you own a house, your life changes in certain ways. You have certain kinds of responsibilities. It makes me feel safe to have a mortgage, because I rented for so long. So I think being a homeowner means something to me.I would say, I see people more. I see friends more. I really appreciate now that I have the opportunity to see people in my community all the time. I miss a little bit maybe of the anonymity in New York, where you could walk out your door and not see people and just go out about your day and make the choices that you want to make. And here, it's you walk out your front door, you're gonna run into three people you know. Especially with the dog. All the dog people know each other. Everyone lives in houses versus large apartment buildings, and things like that. It's just different. It's a much tighter and closer community. The weather's better. It really doesn't mean a lot to me to have better weather. New Orleans has many, many problems as a city, but I still love it here. I definitely feel happier here. Definitely feel happier here.Alicia: Well, how do you define abundance? Jami: Well, I'm looking out my window, and there's just a huge loquat tree that is just full of orange. And I can walk out there right now and pull the fruit from the tree. And that feels like abundance to me.Alicia: Well, for you is writing a political act? Jami: Yes, of course. Of course. What else are we doing here? Alicia: Usually asking people cooking, is cooking a political act? I want to be fair. They usually say yes, or no. But people, they'll say that 'me being in the kitchen isn't political.' Speaking of academics, I did a conversation with a professor, an English professor who has a novel out. And we were talking about this, and she was saying how there's so much labor involved in cooking. And I think that when people talk about cooking not being political when they're in the kitchen, and I think that they're doing a disservice to their own work.Jami: I was thinking about how earlier you were talking about writing being labor, and there actually has been an internet discussion as of late about being a novelist being unpaid labor. I just have to say, no one's making you write a novel. No one's making you do any of this. You're choosing to do it because you want to. You chose it. You chose a hard path. We chose a hard path. But there are other paths that are even harder. And the fact that you even have a choice is amazing to do it. Sorry. I was just being a mom there. I was like, 'Oh, my gosh. I sound like such a mom.'Alicia: Yeah, no, but thank you. Thank you for being here.Jami: Yeah, sure. My pleasure.Alicia: Thanks so much to everyone for listening to this week's edition of From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy. Read more at www.aliciakennedy.news. Or follow me on Instagram, @aliciadkennedy, or on Twitter at @aliciakennedy. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.aliciakennedy.news/subscribe
In the Winter 2022 Book Preview (Ep. 102), Catherine (Gilmore Guide to Books) and I shared our most anticipated books set to release January – March 2022 (with one early April release). Today, we're giving an update on the books we shared in the Winter Preview — now that we've had the chance to read them. This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). Highlights Sarah's and Catherine's Winter 2022 reading stats and success rates. How their success rates compare to Fall 2021 and Winter 2021. Sarah talks about the key to her tremendous reading success lately. Their Best and Worst picks from the Winter 2022 Book Preview episode. Winter 2022 Books Read Before the Preview [2:54] Sarah's Picks: Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor (February 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:24] I Came All This Way to Meet You by Jami Attenberg (January 11) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [5:11] Catherine's Picks: Honor by Thrity Umrigar (January 4) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [4:34] No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib (January 4) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [7:01] Winter 2022 Circle Back [8:08] January Sarah's Pick: Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho (January 4) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [8:08] Catherine's Picks: To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara (January 11) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [12:35] The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk (January 25) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [17:49] Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (January 25) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [24:34] February Sarah's Picks: What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris (February 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [15:11] Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak (February 15) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [20:03] Fake by Erica Katz (February 22) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [27:52] Catherine's Pick: Love and Saffron by Kim Fay (February 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [30:32] March Sarah's Pick: Don't Know Tough by Eli Cranor (March 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [34:57] Catherine's Picks: One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle (March 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [39:13] Dilettante by Dana Brown (March 22) | Buy from Amazon | Bookshop.org [45:38] April Sarah's Pick: Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow (April 5) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [41:58] Other Books Mentioned The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald [3:33] The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott [24:19] American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld [24:25] Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka [24:49] The Boys' Club by Erica Katz [28:05] Friday Night Lights by H. G. Bissinger [37:32] The Bright Lands by John Fram [38:30] Never Simple by Liz Scheier [40:45] About Catherine Gilmore Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram Catherine started The Gilmore Guide to Books over 6 years ago after wrapping up a career as a corporate librarian. She loves books and reading (surprise!) and currently lives in Ann Arbor, MI.
It's time for an update on how we're doing with our (non-work-related) creative practices, and—hey, while we're at it—we'll go ahead and share some thoughts on what it's like to live in a shoe household vs. a shoeless one. Claire's creative resources: Wendy MacNaughton's DrawTogether podcast, The Artist's Way (plus this New Yorker interview with the author Julia Cameron), and Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. Erica's creative resources: Jami Attenberg's #1000wordsofsummer and Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell. Share your creativity thoughts and feelings (and shoes-in-the-house musings) at 833-632-5463, podcast@athingortwohq.com, or @athingortwohq. Get more recs in your inbox with a Secret Menu membership! Try professional counseling with BetterHelp and get 10% off your first month with our link. Understand your reproductive health with Modern Fertility—$20 off your test with our link. Support your business of any size with Shopify. Get a free 14-day trial with our link. Get your birth control online with The Pill Club, which will make a $10 donation to Bedsider.org when you use our link. YAY! Produced by Dear Media
It's time for an update on how we're doing with our (non-work-related) creative practices, and—hey, while we're at it—we'll go ahead and share some thoughts on what it's like to live in a shoe household vs. a shoeless one. Claire's creative resources: Wendy MacNaughton's DrawTogether podcast, The Artist's Way (plus this New Yorker interview with the author Julia Cameron), and Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. Erica's creative resources: Jami Attenberg's #1000wordsofsummer and Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell. Share your creativity thoughts and feelings (and shoes-in-the-house musings) at 833-632-5463, podcast@athingortwohq.com, or @athingortwohq. Get more recs in your inbox with a Secret Menu membership! Try professional counseling with BetterHelp and get 10% off your first month with our link. Understand your reproductive health with Modern Fertility—$20 off your test with our link. Support your business of any size with Shopify. Get a free 14-day trial with our link. Get your birth control online with The Pill Club, which will make a $10 donation to Bedsider.org when you use our link. YAY. Produced by Dear Media
In the spotlight during this episode are the novelists Anna Pitoniak, Jami Attenberg and the late, great Susan Sontag. Featured are excerpts from their blog post, newsletter and Paris Review interview, respectively. Pitoniak's latest novel is titled “Our American Friend,” while Attenberg recently published a memoir titled “I Came All This Way to Meet You.” Sontag wrote the novels “The Benefactor” and “Death Kit,” among other books. She died in 2004.Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “Lolita Firestone: A Supernatural Novel,” and the short story collection “Love American Style.” Write to him at novelistspotlight@gmail.com. We hope you will subscribe and share the link with any family, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this program.
Librarians Sarah and Katie chat about what they're currently reading and new books on their to-read list. They riff on short stories, memoirs, mysteries, family reads, the '90s and more. Plus, they talk about novels versus short stories and what BookTok offers readers. Titles and authors discussed in this episode include: These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card, The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson, The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk, Starfish by Lisa Fipps, and Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston. Also mentioned: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi; A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan; Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips; The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman; Jackson Brodie mysteries by Kate Atkinson; Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan; The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee; Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang; The Nineties, Killing Yourself to Live, and Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman; I Came All This Way to Meet You by Jami Attenberg; It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey; Best Wishes, Warmest Regards by Daniel Levy and Eugene Levy. Music: Tim Moor via Pixabay
We all tackle ageing in different ways but very few of us do it the way this week's guest did - by packing up her entire life and moving thousands of miles to a new city and a new life. Until her mid-forties, writer Jami Attenberg sofa-surfed her way around America - the year she turned 40 she slept in 26 different beds in seven months! Even for the daughter of a travelling salesman, Jami's litany of sofas, spare beds and floors is enough to give even the most nomadic back ache!The author of seven novels, including four bestsellers, I Came All This Way To Meet You, is Jami's first memoir. A moving, candid, unexpectedly funny look at becoming grown up (ish), stopping running and how she, quite literally, wrote herself home.Jami joined me from New Orleans to tell me how she finally stopped moving, being the daughter of a motherless mother and how she was scarred by summer camp! She also talked about embracing the mid-life move, why you don't always have to give people what they want, just because they ask, and the life changing impact of having a hysterectomy. Oh and that “neck thing”? It's real…• You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at Bookshop.org, including I Came All This Way To Meet You by Jami Attenberg and the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too, by me!• The Shift (on life after 40) with Sam Baker is created and hosted by Sam Baker and edited by Emily Sandford. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate/review/follow as it really does help other people find us. And let me know what you think on twitter @sambaker or instagram @theothersambaker. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
In the spotlight is novelist Jami Attenberg, who has now written her memoir, “I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home.” As the daughter of a traveling salesman in the Midwest, Attenberg was drawn to a life on the road. Frustrated by quotidian jobs and hungry for inspiration and fresh experiences, her wanderlust led her across the country and eventually on travels around the globe. Through it all she grapples with questions of mortality, otherworldliness, and what we leave behind.Learn more about Jami at http://www.jamiattenberg.com/Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “Lolita Firestone: A Supernatural Novel,” and the short story collection “Love American Style.” Write to him at novelistspotlight@gmail.com. We hope you will subscribe and share the link with any family, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this program.
Welcome to a new year and a new season of Your Favorite Book! Our inaugural guest this season is Jami Attenberg, most well known for her fiction (All This Could Be Yours, The Middlesteins, and others) but she's here to talk about her memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. Jami shares her insights on book events, travel in the midst of COVID, setting boundaries with social media, and so much more. We also chat about a collection of short stories for the first time on this show, in this case the collected works of Grace Paley. We discuss her unique voice and eschewing of formal conventions, along with avoiding sentiment and cliche in writing domesticity. It's a great episode and definitely avoids spoilers, hope you all enjoy! Jami's virtual event at Women and Children First: https://www.womenandchildrenfirst.com/event/virtual-conversation-jami-attenberg-ada-lim%C3%B3n Buy Jami's Book: https://bookshop.org/books/i-came-all-this-way-to-meet-you-writing-myself-home-9798200851348/9780063039797 Follow the podcast on instagram and twitter @yfbpodcast
Welcome to an all new episode of Are You There, Ghost? It's Me, Chiwan. This week Chiwan welcomes award winning writer Jami Attenberg. Find out about the transformative encounter that turned Jami from a non-believer into full-on ghost-curious. From seeing ghosts in New Hampshire to the state of hauntedness in New Orleans to her dog Sidney. A show so fun, it will scare the lit out of you! #HauntedNewOrleans #GhostEncounter #HauntedNewHampshire #GhostLIt
David speaks with Jami Attenberg about her latest book ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS. Originally aired on November 14th 2019.
Originally aired on October 13th 2017.
Bookrageous Episode 84; Historicals What We're Reading Jenn [0:45] Sacred Games, Vikram Chandra [1:51] Pandemic, Sonia Shah (February 23 2016) [3:05] Pandemic board game [3:55] Getting Things Done, David Allen Josh [4:30] Judge This, Chip Kidd [6:30] American Housewife, Helen Ellis [7:55] Eating the Cheshire Cat, Helen Ellis [8:15] The Noble Hustle, Colson Whitehead [8:25] On the Books, Greg Farrell [10:20] Plotted: A Literary Atlas, Andrew Degraff Preeti [13:00] Knulp, Herman Hesse [14:40] Bucky Barnes: Winter Soldier, Ales Kott, Marco Rudy [16:20] Amazing Spider-Man, Dan Slott ----- Historicals [23:50] The Wake, Paul Kingsnorth [27:00] A Magnificent Farce, Alfred Edward Newton [27:45] The Memoirs of Cleopatra, Margaret George [28:45] Sharon Kay Penman [29:40] Saint Mazie, Jami Attenberg [30:25] The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone [32:00] WWII: Number the Stars, Lois Lowry; The Book Thief, Markus Zusak; Code Name Verity, Elizabeth E. Wein [32:45] Magic Tree House series [33:35] The Bad Popes, ER Chamberlin [35:20] Cleopatra, Stacy Schiff [36:00] The Witches, Stacy Schiff [37:15] Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, James Loewen [37:25] Kenneth C. Davis books [39:55] Pandemic, Sonia Shah (February 23 2016) [42:10] Mary Stewart's Arthurian Saga [42:48] Hild, Nicola Griffith [43:42] Debt, David Graeber [44:10] The Utopia of Rules, David Graeber [44:50] Colum McCann: Dancer, Transatlantic, Let the Great World Spin [45:45] Studs Terkel [46:02] Please Kill Me, Legs McNeil, Gillian McCain [46:29] The Ibis Trilogy, Amitav Ghosh [47:20] K Blows Top, Peter Carlson [48:16] Terra Nostra, Carlos Fuentes [49:40] Courtney Milan, Beverly Jenkins, Sarah MacLean [50:50] Georgette Heyer [52:55] Walk on Earth a Stranger, Rae Carson [55:02] Ellen Oh: Warrior, Prophecy [55:45] Under a Painted Sky, Stacey Lee [57:50] Patrick O'Brian, Aubrey Maturin novels --- Find Us! Bookrageous on Tumblr, Podbean, Twitter, Facebook, Spotify, and leave us voicemail at 347-855-7323. Find Us Online: Josh, Preeti, Jenn Get Bookrageous schwag at CafePress
The Invaders (Regan Arts) Please welcome back to Skylight one of our favorite local authors, Karolina Waclawiak! A searing follow-up to Karolina Waclawiak's critically acclaimed debut novel, How to Get Into the Twin Palms, The Invaders casts a harsh light on the glossy sheen of even the most “perfect” lives in America's exclusive beach communities. The novel centers around Cheryl who has never been the right kind of country-club wife and has always felt like an outsider. Now in her mid-forties—facing the harsh realities of aging and a disintegrating marriage—she feels cast adrift by the sparkling seaside community of Little Neck Cove, Connecticut. When her troubled stepson Teddy moves back home after being kicked out of college, she joins him in an epic downward spiral, just as a storm brewing off the coast threatens to destroy the precarious safe haven crashing down around them. With sharp wit and dark humor, The Invaders exposes the lies and insecurities that run like fault lines through our culture, threatening to pitch bored housewives, pill-popping children, and suspicious neighbors headlong into the suburban abyss. Praise for The Invaders “The Invaders, by the glorious Karolina Waclawiak, is an elegant, ominous book. It's a sharp, witty novel of manners of the most sinister kind. In Waclawiak's expert hands, this novel will have you holding your breath and your heart until the very last word.” —Roxanne Gay, Bad Feminist and An Untamed State “Karolina Waclawiak's The Invaders is the stiffest of literary drinks—it'll jolt your system, and make the world around you glow a little differently when you're done with it. Witty, dark, and honest, this novel tells the hard—but hilarious—truths about aging in America, dysfunctional relationships, and suburban vices.” —Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins “The Invaders is as crisp as they come, hilarious and alarming in equal measure. This book is a time bomb in madras shorts, ready for golf, sex, and natural disasters.” —Emma Straub, The Vacationers and Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures “Karolina Waclawiak's The Invaders is a blazing wonder of a novel. So long limited to satire and parody, the pristine world of the American suburbs become, in Waclawiak's skillful hands, places of tumult, hunger, loneliness and menace. Her heroes are outsiders-on-the-inside and we watch them struggle amid the confinements of their environment and their own complicated histories. As whip-smart and cunning as it is poignant and mysterious The Invaders demonstrates that Waclawiak's masterful debut novel, How to Get into the Twin Palms, was just the beginning.” —Megan Abbott, author ofDare Me “The Invaders is a gut punch of a novel—a scathing look at privileged people trapped by their own choices, but unable to imagine an alternative to their misery. Karolina Waclawiak is a remarkable writer, able to channel the unflinching clarity of Richard Yates, the off-kilter tenderness of Cheever, and taut narrative energy of crime fiction in a voice that is all her own.” —Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers and Little Children “Seamlessly blending literary and genre traditions, Karolina Waclawiak never fails to surprise, delight, and reveal secrets that lesser writers keep hidden. I love her work, and I'm already waiting for the next book.” —Sara Gran, author of Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead “Karolina Waclawiak's The Invaders is a thrilling meditation on the explosive complexities of marriage, identity, and class—all set against the picturesque yet stultifying landscape of small-town Connecticut. Waclawiak is a master at illuminating the secret selves these characters long to keep hidden, and The Invaders is a wonderfully fierce novel, from a brilliant and essential talent.” —Laura van den Berg, author of The Isle of Youth and Find Me “A witty, vicious, and entirely moving portrait of privilege, alienation, and sexual invisibility set in a Connecticut beach community.” —Kate Zambreno, author of Green Girl “How To Get Into The Twin Palms was a mini-masterpiece of atmosphere and mood; a new book is a cause for celebration.” —Emily Gould, author of Friendship Karolina Waclawiak received her BFA in Screenwriting from USC School of Cinematic Arts and her MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. Her first novel, How To Get Into The Twin Palms, was published by Two Dollar Radio in 2012. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Rumpus, and The Believer (where she is also an editor). She lives in Los Angeles. Antonia Crane is a writer, teacher and Moth Story Slam Winner in Los Angeles. She is the author of the memoir Spent(Barnacle Books/Rare Bird Lit March, 2014). She was featured on Lisa Ling's documentary, “This is Life” recently on CNN. Her other work can be found in Playboy, Cosmopolitan Magazine, The Rumpus, Dame Magazine, Salon, PANK magazine, Black Clock, The Weeklings, The Believer, Frequencies, Slake, The Los Angeles Review, The New Black, The Heroin Chronicles and lots of other places. She the CNF editor at Word Riot. She is at work on another memoir about running wild in Bombay, India as a teenager.
Today's readings come from books that might be the perfect summer reading: engrossing, devourable novels that, even if they're not fluffy feel-goods, feel amazing to read. Emily Schultz reads from The Blondes and Jami Attenberg reads from Saint Mazie. Both books are on sale now. CatapultReads.com // @CatapultReads // The Trebuchet
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