Sam Lipsyte is the author of many beloved books, a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and faculty member at Columbia University’s MFA program. Gabe and Sam dig into his recent non-fiction piece in The New Yorker which is, in part, about the classes he took from the legendary editor Gordon Lish.* They also discuss Sam’s recent novel, No One Left To Come Looking for You, which is a Gen X masterpiece. Gabe and Sam also talk about Public Enemy, his father’s relationship with Muhammad Ali, and Sam's love of the word Antwerp.

*Gordon Lish, as editor, is responsible for helping launch many of your favorite writers, including: Amy Hempel, Barry Hannah, Diane Williams, Ben Marcus, Garielle Lutz, Raymond Carver, Christine Schutt, Will Eno, and Brian Evenson.

Jude Brewer was executive producer and editor for this episode

Buy Sam Lipsyte’s recent novel No One Left to Come Looking For You

Buy Sam’s recent novella Friend of the Pod

Read Sam’s recent nf piece in The New Yorker, “A Lesson for the Sub”

Listen to Sam’s noise-punk band Dungbeetle from early 90’s

Read Sam's By the Book interview in NYT

Read Sam’s essay about his father, the legendary sportswriter

Rate/review Kurt Vonnegut Radio (this is how you help our show live)

Find Gabe on Twitter and Instagram and email

More episodes:

Sinead O’Connor

George Saunders

Kurt Vonnegut

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices