The Lives of Writers

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Andrew Bertaina interviews Nick Rees Gardner.Andrew Bertaina is the author of the essay collection The Body Is A Temporary Gathering Place, out now from Autofocus Books, and the short story collection One Person Away From You (2021), which won the Moon City Short Fiction Award. Nick Rees Gardner is the author of the story collection Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts (Madrona Books, 2024).  He's also the author of the novella Hurricane Trinity, a book of poetry, So Marvelously Far (2019), and a chapbook Decomposed (2017). ____________Full conversation topics include:-- buying a beer & wine store-- morning vs evening writing-- wanting to write-- running-- grandma as childhood poetry teacher-- emo poetry in high school-- drugs in college--short stories-- dropping out for rehab-- the short story collection DELINQUENTS-- from novel to story collection-- time-- knowing when a story is done-- rewriting drafts-- slowing down-- process-- reviewing books-- influence-- rhythm-- subverting the narrative of rehab____________Podcast theme music also provided by Mike Nagel. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Jason McCall interviews Tasha Coryell.Tasha Coryell is the author of the debut novel Love Letters to A Serial Killer. Her forthcoming novel, Matchmaking for Psychopaths, is now available for preorder.Jason McCall is the author of the essay collection Razed by TV Sets (Autofocus, 2024) and the poetry collections What Shot Did You Ever Take (co-written with Brian Oliu); A Man Ain’t Nothin’; Two-Face God; Mother, Less Child ; Dear Hero; I Can Explain; and Silver. He and P.J. Williams are the editors of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. ____________Conversation topics include:--seasons / the cold-- ambience videos-- wanting to be a writer at eight-- re-shifting priorities-- moving into the thriller genre-- learning to write novels-- relaxing about publishing-- running-- unpublished novels-- writing while succeeding-- the debut novel Love Letters to a Serial Killer-- the journey of the manuscript to publication-- a very millennial character-- academia-- reading about serial killers / true crime-- enjoying writing the character-- writing an entertaining book-- the forthcoming Matchmaking for Psychopaths_______________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.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Jason McCall interviews Juan Carlos Reyes.Juan Carlos Reyes is the author of the story collection, Three Alarm Fire, which is out on October 22, and the novella  A Summer's Lynching. His stories, poems and essays have appeared in Florida Review, Waccamaw Journal, and Hawai’i Review, and more. He has been the recipient of the Gar LaSalle Artist Trust Storyteller Award, a PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellowship, and a Jack Straw Writers Fellowship, among others. Jason McCall is the author of the essay collection Razed by TV Sets (Autofocus, 2024) and the poetry collections What Shot Did You Ever Take (co-written with Brian Oliu); A Man Ain’t Nothin’; Two-Face God; Mother, Less Child ; Dear Hero; I Can Explain; and Silver. He and P.J. Williams are the editors of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. He holds an MFA from the University of Miami. He is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and he currently teaches at the University of North Alabama.____________Conversation topics include:-- pre-pub ramp-up-- reading as gateway to writing-- the influence of children on reading habits-- being born in Ecuador in the 1980's-- moving to New Jersey as a kid-- wanting to become a writer-- owning it and changes majors-- vicarious creativity-- trying to get writing work-- entering the world of writers-- working temp jobs-- from getting an MFA to tenure-track teaching-- doing stuff in Seattle-- working with Hinton Publishing-- the new story collection Three Alarm Fire-- overlapping voice-- triptychs-- (re)organizing the collection-- fun in the nuances of craft-- narrators as people-- finishing a new draft_______________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.

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.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Drew Hawkins interviews Kirsten Reneau.Kirsten Reneau is the author the debut full-length essay collection, Sensitive Creatures, which is out now with Belle Point Press.  of two chapbooks, and her work has been published in The Threepenny Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Reed Magazine, and others. Drew Hawkins is a writer and journalist in New Orleans. He's the producer and host of Micro, a podcast for short but powerful writing. You can find his work on NPR, The Guardian, Scalawag Magazine, HAD, and elsewhere. His essay, "Bottom of the X," came out recently in the summer 2024 issue of Autofocus.____________Full conversation topics include:-- Kirsten's debut book Sensitive Creatures-- three different selves in three different stages-- sexual assault and gendered violence-- writing the very personal-- infusing nature in the writing-- images and animals-- younger self as ideal reader-- ideal writing situations-- post-writing situations-- stages of the manuscript into final book-- editing literary mags and writing-- organizing a collection-- cicada season -- turning the page with CNF-- the thing that scares you-- implicating others-- reading magical realism-- care______________Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Kristine Langley Mahler interviews Dennis James Sweeney.Kristine Langley Mahler is the author of three nonfiction books: A Calendar Is a Snakeskin  (Autofocus Books, 2023), Curing Season: Artifacts (West Virginia University Press, 2022), and the erasure essay collection Teen Queen Training (forthcoming with Autofocus Books in 2026). Kristine is the director and publisher of Split/Lip Press.Dennis James Sweeney is a cross-genre writer. His first book, In the Antarctic Circle, won the Autumn House Rising Writer Prize and was a Debut Poetry Book of 2021 in Poets & Writers. You’re the Woods Too, his second book, was a Small Press Distribution bestseller and a finalist for the Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Prize. Most recently, The Rolodex Happenings won the Stillhouse Press Novella Prize.____________Full conversation topics include:-- slowing production-- reading before bed-- Dennis's forthcoming book How to Submit-- small presses-- hybridity-- Dennis's first books-- Dennis's essay Ghost/Home-- photographs-- Crohn's-- Dennis's new novella, The Rolodex Happenings-- imaginings and inventions and experiments-- performance art-- the gaps in our writing-- artmaking-- the gong moment-- meaning-making-- the real in the fiction____________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.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Kaycie Hall interviews Puloma Ghosh.Kaycie Hall is the lead editor of our online journal Autofocus. She's also a writer and literary translator, whose work has appeared in Peach Mag, Neutral Spaces, Triangle House Review, and other journals. Puloma Ghosh is the author of the debut short story collection Mouth (Astra House, 2024). Her work has appeared previously in One Story, CRAFT Literary, Cutleaf, and other publications. ____________Full conversation topics include:-- starting a new job after a layoff-- balancing writing and illustration-- elementary school notebooks-- the short story collection MOUTH-- putting together a collection after an MFA-- being generous to a past self-- Puloma's story "The Fig Tree"-- story changes through drafts-- elements of horror and supernatural-- Puloma's stories "Anomaly" and "Natalia"-- ordering the stories-- working on novels-- green M&M fanfic____________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.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Joshua James Amberson interviews Tomas Moniz.Tomas Moniz is the author of the novels Big Familia and, most recently, All Friends Are Necessary. He also edited the popular Rad Dad and Rad Families anthologies. He currently teaches at Berkeley City College and the Antioch MFA program. Joshua James Amberson is the author of Staring Contest: Essays About Eyes, How to Forget Almost Everything: A Novel, a series of chapbooks, and the long-running Basic Paper Airplane zine series. He lives in Portland, Oregon where he runs the Antiquated Future online variety store and record label.____________FULL CONVERSATION topics include:-- engaging with an audience post-publication-- a book tour / honeymoon-- working with a bigger press for the 1st time-- zines and zine community-- working on multiple projects-- trying and failing to sell a book-- growing up as not a reader or writer-- the path to early zines and RAD DAD-- writing and receiving letters-- the new novel All Friends Are Necessary-- editorial collaboration-- playing with best and worst selves in fiction____________Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Erin Slaughter interviews Jenny Irish.Jenny Irish is the author, most recently, of Hatch. She is also the author of the hybrid collections Common Ancestor and Tooth Box, the short-story collection I Am Faithful, and the chapbook Lupine.Erin Slaughter is the author of the short story collection A Manual for How to Love Us and the poetry collections The Sorrow Festival, and I Will Tell This Story to the Sun Until You Realize That You Are the Sun. Her memoir, The Dead Dad Diaries, will be out with Autofocus Books in the fall of 2025.____________Full conversation topics include:-- growing up in Maine / living in Arizona-- an abandoned house in the woods-- childhood imagination and stories-- an unexpected MFA-- working in academia-- Jenny's recent essay in Salon, "Teacher Spice"-- inhabiting a body-- society's grading of appearance-- scrutiny of the body in the workplace-- Jenny's new book of poetry, Hatch-- responding to the Trump presidency-- the decision to have or not have a child-- a metal womb and a cast of characters--the violent division in America-- the decision to stay in or leave academia-- genre and hybridity_______________Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

In today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Sara Rauch interviews Ursula Villarreal-Moura.Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self Crippling and Like Happiness. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, Midnight Breakfast, Washington Square, Story, Bennington Review, Wigleaf Top 50, and Gulf Coast. Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length essay XO, from us at Autofocus Books. She’s also the author of the story collection, What Shines from it, from Alternating Current Press. Her book reviews and author interviews have been featured in the LA Review of Books, Newcity Lit, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and elsewhere._____________Conversation topics include:-- teaching college English remotely-- bilingual teaching with AmeriCorps-- learning to read like learning to drive-- the switch from poetry to fiction-- endometriosis-- finding a community through flash-- selling a novel that didn't sell-- the debut novel Like Happiness-- two timelines-- not writing in third person-- ambiguity-- stories we tell ourselves--looking away-- healing in the right environment _____________Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Jason McCall interviews Brooke Champagne.Brooke Champagne is the author of Nola Face:  A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy.  Her writing appears widely in literary journals and has received various awards, including the inaugural William Bradley Prize for the Essay for her work “Exercises.”  Her essays have been selected as Notables in several editions of Best American Essays.  She is the recipient of the 2023-2024 Alabama State Council on the Arts Literary Fellowship in Prose. She lives with her husband and children in Tuscaloosa, where she is an Assistant Professor of English in the MFA Program in creative writing at the University of Alabama.Jason McCall is the author of the essay collection Razed by TV Sets (Autofocus, 2024) and the poetry collections What Shot Did You Ever Take (co-written with Brian Oliu); A Man Ain’t Nothin’; Two-Face God; Mother, Less Child (co-winner of the 2013 Paper Nautilus Vella Chapbook Prize); Dear Hero, (winner of the 2012 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize and co-winner of the 2013 Etchings Press Whirling Prize); I Can Explain; and Silver. He and P.J. Williams are the editors of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. He holds an MFA from the University of Miami. He is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and he currently teaches at the University of North Alabama.____________Conversation topics include:-- finding time-- 20+ years of teaching-- reading turning into writing-- Nola Face: A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy-- trying to quit writing-- putting together an essay collection-- time's role in craft-- approaching the page in different stages of life-- sports and new projects_______________Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Mike Nagel interviews Andrew Bertaina.Andrew Bertaina is the author of the essay collection The Body Is A Temporary Gathering Place, out now from Autofocus Books, and the short story collection One Person Away From You (2021), which won the Moon City Short Fiction Award. Mike Nagel is the author of Duplex and Culdesac (Autofocus Books, 2022 and 2024). He also wrote the music for this podcast and a column called The Unintentionalist for the literary magazine Little Engines.____________Full conversation topics include:-- selves on the page-- hyperfocusing-- The Body Is A Temporary Gathering Place-- reading as a pathway to writing-- grading your own writing-- essays vs. fiction-- modes of essays-- mind as setting-- representing others in an essay-- representing yourself in an essay-- a good catalyst-- what goes in and what goes out-- speed-- writing and not writing every day-- getting and not getting stuck-- valuing the reader-- the essay "On Trains" specifically-- gratitude____________Podcast theme music also provided by Mike Nagel. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

On today's episode ofThe Lives of Writers, Jeff Alessandrelli interviews Mallory Smart.Mallory Smart is the author of the books I Keep My Visions to Myself, The Only Living Girl in Chicago, I Want to Feel Happy But I Only Feel _____, and The Writer. She's the editor-in-chief of Maudlin House  and host of the podcast Textual Healing, where you can find a recent episode with the roles of this conversation reversed and hear Mallory interview Jeff.Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. His novel And Yet was reissued this year by Future Tense Books. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.____________Full conversation topics include:-- Chicagoland-- growing up in Chicago-- writing in high school-- four siblings-- history and philosophy-- logic and therapy-- writing a poetry collection-- the preference for narrative-- the story of Maudlin House-- relationships with authority-- writing a first novel-- maladaptive daydreaming-- an app that forces you to write-- a novel in two weeks-- fear of saying the wrong thing-- pressure and nostalgia-- editorial and publicity_______________Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Aaron Burch interviews Josh Denslow.Josh Denslow is the author of the collection Not Everyone Is Special (7.13 Books) and the novel Super Normal (Stillhouse Press). Some recent stories have appeared in The Commuter, Okay Donkey. Pithead Chapel, and The Rumpus. He is the Email Marketing Manager for Bookshop.org, and he has read and edited for SmokeLong Quarterly for over a decade.Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection A Kind of In-Between and editor of How to Write a Novel: An Anthology of 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, both from Autofocus Books. He's also the author of several other books, including the novel, Year of the Buffalo. He is currently the editor of Short Story, Long and the co-editor of WAS (Words & Sports) and HAD. ____________Full conversation topics include:--moving the family to Barcelona-- learning a new language'-- formative places and home-- degrees of nostalgia-- moving around and reading-- going to film school & LA-- the desire to share creative work-- discovering the literary world-- rejection and beginning attempts to publish-- the publication of Josh's novel, Super Normal-- lots and lots of drafts and versions-- humor adding to the reality of fiction-- superheroes outside of Marvel-- Josh's story "Infinite Possibilities Outside the Screen"-- quality and fun-- channeling a voice_______________Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Teresa Carmody interviews Kristen E. Nelson.Kristen E. Nelson is a queer writer, performer, and community builder. In addition to In the Away Time (Autofocus Books, 2024), she is the author of the length of this gap (Damaged Goods, August 2018) and two chapbooks: sometimes I gets lost and is grateful for noises in the dark (Dancing Girl, 2017) and Write, Dad (Unthinkable Creatures, 2012). She has published creative and critical writing in Feminist Studies, Bombay Gin, Denver Quarterly, Drunken Boat, Tarpaulin Sky Journal, Trickhouse, and Everyday Genius, among others. Kristen is the founder of Casa Libre en la Solana, a non-profit writing center in Tucson, Arizona, where she worked as the Executive Director for 14 years and the co-founder of Four Queens with Selah Saterstrom. Kristen is currently a Ph.D. student and graduate student instructor at the University of California – Santa Cruz in the Literature Department’s creative/critical writing concentration.Teresa Carmody’s writing includes fiction, creative nonfiction, inter-arts collaborations, and hybrid forms. She is the author of three books and four chapbooks, including Maison Femme: a fiction (2015) and The Reconception of Marie (2020). Her work has appeared in The Collagist, LitHub, WHR, Two Serious Ladies, Diagram, St. Petersburg Review, Faultline, and was selected for the &NOW Awards: The Best Innovative Writing and by Entropy for its Best Online Articles and Essays list of 2019. Carmody is co-founding editor of Les Figues Press, an imprint of LARB Books in Los Angeles, and director of Stetson University’s MFA of the Americas. Her forthcoming book A Healthy Interest in the Lives of Others is out early next year with Autofocus Books.____________Full conversation topics include:--  the first event for In the Away Time--  imperfect queer and trans narratives -- calling in community-- projects conceived in love--other voices in In the Away Time-- getting a PhD later in life-- hybridity and divinations-- the limits of the body-- constraint and the autobiographical-- the timescape of In the Away Time-- the roles we play in our own disasters-- autotheory and autoethnography-- knowing when the form is the form____________Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton, author of Home Movies.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Emily Adrian interviews Justin Taylor.Justin Taylor's most recent book is the novel Reboot. He is also the author of the memoir Riding with the Ghost, the novel The Gospel of Anarchy, and two story collections: Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever and Flings. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's, the Oxford American, and the Sewanee Review.Emily Adrian is the author of several novels and the forthcoming memoir Daughterhood. Her work has appeared in Granta, Joyland, EPOCH, Alta Journal, and Los Angeles Review of Books. ____________Full conversation topics include:-- growing up as a child actor--  always wanting to be a writer-- a father who read and read into his work-- editing a couple Donald Barthelme anthologies-- the leadup to his first few books-- the new novel REBOOT-- the role, limits, and manipulation of realism in his work-- inviting the supernatural-- the show within the novel-- a bottle chapter-- The Hungry Tiger-- Dawson's Creek-- Judy Blume moments for middle aged men-- writing a short story again____________Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton, author of Home Movies.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Michael Wheaton interviews Lucas Mann.Lucas Mann is the author of the new book, Attachments: Essays on Fatherhood and Other Performances, out just this week from University of Iowa Press. He is also the author of the books Captive Audience: On Love and Reality TV, Lord Fear: A Memoir, and Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere.  He teaches creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and co-owns Riffraff Bookstore & Bar in Providence, RI.Michael Wheaton is the publisher of Autofocus Books and producer of The Lives of Writers. His essay Home Movies is out now from Bunny Presse.____________FULL CONVERSATION topics include:-- becoming co-owner of Riffraff Bookstore & Bar-- literary community in Providence, RI-- figuring out how writing fits into a  new life -- the gap between the life and the writing about the life-- his mom's non-fiction books for children-- growing up  with performers as a youngest kid-- ambition (and having less of it now)-- ATTACHMENTS: Essays on Fatherhood and Other Performances-- writing about intimacy and the mediation of it-- getting long essays right-- juggling across an essay and a book-- framing imaginative work as an essay-- writing about parenthood, including the ugly parts-- resembling a real human being-- body image-- overlapping thinking and feeling____________Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Drew Hawkins interviews Maurice Carlos Ruffin.Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the author, most recently, of the historical novel, The American Daughters. He is also the author of The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, which was longlisted for the Story Prize and was a finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and We Cast a Shadow, which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the PEN Open Book Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and International Dublin Literary Award. A recipient of an Iowa Review Award in fiction, he has been published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, AGNI, the Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas. Drew Hawkins is a writer and journalist in New Orleans. He's the producer and host of Micro, a podcast for short but powerful writing. You can find his work on NPR, The Guardian, Scalawag Magazine, HAD, and elsewhere.Today's episode is brought to you in part by the podcast Micro, where today you can hear Maurice read on the new episode, available wherever you listen to podcasts like this one.____________Full conversation topics include:-- book tour -- a previous life as a lawyer and restaurant-owner-- becoming a writer-- overcoming imposter syndrome-- paces of production and practice-- distraction as being useful-- the reading you do while writing-- approaching novels and/or stories-- New Orleans-- the new novel THE AMERICAN DAUGHTERS-- research-- knowing who you are -- writing as a man about women -- jumping through time  and sound--  POV-- freedom and loss-- a forthcoming book_______________Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton, author of Home Movies.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Lena Crown interviews Richard Scott Larson.Richard Scott Larson is the author of  the memoir The Long Hallway  (UW Press). He has received fellowships from MacDowell and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and his creative and critical work has appeared in The Sun Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, Harvard Review, and other journals and anthologies.Lena Crown is a book editor for us at Autofocus Books. Her essays are published or forthcoming in The Rumpus, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Narratively, North American Review, The Offing, and elsewhere, and her poems have appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, The Boiler, Poet Lore, No Contact, and Variant Lit.____________Full conversation topics include:-- blocking out time to write-- doing residencies-- horror movies and mass-market fiction as a kid-- writing as a critic and with the NBCC-- the role of film in his life and the book-- a crisis of fiction-- memoir vs book-length essay-- the new memoir THE LONG HALLWAY-- gender, sexuality, and horror-- visibility and hiding queerness-- masks and Michael Myers in Halloween-- horror tropes appearing in memoir-- loneliness and observation-- film form-- fear and shame-- the Midwestern suburbs-- epiphany, revelation, and resolution (or lack of)-- examining our own cruelties-- writing about family-- the next book and gymnasts_______________Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton, author of Home Movies.

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Aaron Burch interviews Jason McCall.Jason McCall is the author of the essay collection Razed by TV Sets (Autofocus, 2024) and the poetry collections What Shot Did You Ever Take (co-written with Brian Oliu); A Man Ain’t Nothin’; Two-Face God; Mother, Less Child (co-winner of the 2013 Paper Nautilus Vella Chapbook Prize); Dear Hero, (winner of the 2012 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize and co-winner of the 2013 Etchings Press Whirling Prize); I Can Explain; and Silver. He and P.J. Williams are the editors of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. He holds an MFA from the University of Miami. He is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and he currently teaches at the University of North Alabama.Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection A Kind of In-Between and editor of How to Write a Novel: An Anthology of 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, both from Autofocus Books. He's also the author of several other books, including the novel, Year of the Buffalo. He is currently the editor of Short Story, Long and the co-editor of WAS (Words & Sports) and HAD. ____________Full conversation topics include:-- a recent bout with cancer-- the rhythm of art and community-- the pleasures of teaching-- realizing you can write about your cultural interests-- getting into history and mythology and storytelling-- getting into poetry after fiction-- approaching writing as a fan -- sports and pop culture-- the new essay collection RAZED BY TV SETS-- the contradictions of fandom-- collective celebration-- playing with your offhand-- new work about John Henry_______________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.