Brittany Ackerman, the author of The Brittanys, discusses writing her debut novel while working in a sports bar in LA, the stigma of "real jobs," and how to pursue writing while working in the service industry.

Brittany Ackerman is a writer from Riverdale, New York. She earned her BA in English from Indiana University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Florida Atlantic University. She has led workshops for UCLA’s Extension, The Porch, Catapult, HerStry, Write or Die, and Lighthouse Writers. She currently teaches writing at Vanderbilt University in the English Department. She is a 3x Pushcart Prize Nominee and her work has been featured in Electric Literature, Jewish Book Council, Lit Hub, The Los Angeles Review, No Tokens, Joyland, and more. Her first collection of essays The Perpetual Motion Machine was published with Red Hen Press in 2018, and her debut novel The Brittanys is out now with Vintage. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

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In this episode, we talk about:

• Brittany’s entry into restaurant life
• Experiences in different kinds of restaurant settings, like fine dining, a sushi restaurant and a Packer’s bar
• Customer and co-worker pet peeves
• Personal growth through serving jobs
• The stigma of “real jobs” and Brittany’s thoughts on societal perceptions of restaurant jobs versus traditional office jobs and how each has its own value and challenges.
• Advice on how to pursue writing while working in the service industry, including making a strict writing schedule and using serving experiences as literary material.
• How she wrote her novel, The Brittanys, by utilizing a restaurant schedule

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In the Weeds is a podcast and a weekly newsletter created by Kailey Brennan DelloRusso | subscribe here for letters on novel writing, the creative process, and working in the service industry.

Where else you can find me

As the editor in chief of Write or Die Magazine

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On Instagram: @kaileydellorusso

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