First Person Present

A nor’easter that wasn’t, a “thanks for the orgasm” postcard, and an art fair squatting in the abandoned CBS News offices. In this episode, Josh and Dasha hit the Spring Break Art Show to talk about finding inspiration in other art forms, the dreaded artist statement, and why true geniuses always sound like dumbasses explaining their own work. Then, Reddit dot com returns with a writer who can’t write women because he only reads men—and the case for stretching your reading taste the way you’d get a toddler to try broccoli.

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Links:

Spring/Break Art Show

Peter Gynd, artist

Hyperallergic’s artist statement: “I’m an Asshole” 

Fonograf Editions Open Genre Book Prize 

Agnes Martin

Eraserhead, dir. David Lynch

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, dir. Jane Schoenbrun

“Volver, Volver” by Vicente Fernández, mariachi classic

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Study: brain health can improve at any age

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Theme music: “1982” by See Jazz

A stolen Margaritaville notepad, a semester spent teaching "Writing After AI" at the oldest writers' conference in the country, and the eternal question of whether you're supposed to outline your novel or just vibe your way through it. Josh and Dasha dig into what a stack of AI-generated writing controversies reveals about the culture wars, then take on a listener's plea for outlining advice (snowflake method, reverse outlining, and Freytag's Pyramid included) with a pit stop at clown school along the way.

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Links:

• "Clown for Writers," Substack post by Rebecca Van Laer
• "Shy Girl" AI authorship controversy, reported by the Irish Times
• "The Serpent in the Grove" Granta/Commonwealth Prize controversy, reported by Literary Hub
• Harper's Bazaar UK's 2026 Short Story Competition winner, "Back and Forth"
• Irish Times AI-generated op-ed controversy, reported by the Irish News
• Save the Cat (screenwriting method)
• Lost Highway, dir. David Lynch
• Deb Olin Unferth
• Gustav Freytag's Pyramid

Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Sparkling wine, the New York Knicks, and a pair of heels you absolutely cannot walk in. In this episode, Josh and Dasha get deep into the undefined territory of writer's voice—what's the actual definition, whether you can find it or whether it's already found you, and why trying to write like the writers you love might be the most seductive trap in the craft. Plus, a Reddit post from a self-described edgelord who writes Omegaverse fanfic and can't stop adding flowery language—and why their "problem" might not be a problem at all.

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Links:

Room to Dream by David Lynch

Fragmented narratives are broken, independent, and honest — Lit Hub

Omegaverse — Wikipedia

"Love Is a Piano Dropped from a Fourth-Story Window" by Dasha Sikmashvili

Plantain by Josh Boardman

Where I'm Calling From — Dasha's Substack post featuring Baby Bo's Cantina

Baby Bo's Cantina on Instagram (RIP)

Why Did I Ever by Mary Robison

Speedboat by Renata Adler

Pastoralia by George Saunders

Vices by Giancarlo DiTrapano

On the Joyce quote: "A man of genius makes no mistakes" — Oxford University Press Blog

Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz

A bottle of heretical French wine, a five-year taste arc, and a 1,000-page German novel put down out of sheer pettiness. In this episode, Josh and Dasha trace the evolution of a writing sensibility: from angular Hemingway sentences to something velvety and unnecessary, like a Californian Pinot Noir. Then: an anonymous listener asks how you know when a poem is done, and whether every word has to hit.

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Les Hérétiques wine

Spencer Wine, Ann Arbor 

Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy 

Shout out to Gabe Habash

Schattenfroh by Michael Lentz, trans. Max Lawton 

All Fours by Miranda July 

Zona Motel gossip column 

How long did it take to write Infinite Jest? 

Sylvia Plath's revised Ariel manuscript pages 

Virgil's unfinished lines in the Aeneid

Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Banana pudding guilt, a stalker, and a trip back to Michigan that refused to cooperate. In this episode, Josh and Dasha wade into the murky gap between a research trip and a writing residency—and why confusing the two might be the cruelest thing you can do to yourself. Then, the triumphant return of Reddit dot com, where writers explain “why they stop writing (only the truth).”

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Links:

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke

Rilke’s complete quote: “Verses are experiences”

Nick Drake by Richard Morton Jack

Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Trancendence of Alice Coltrane by Andy Beta

Lorrie Moore’s short story, “How to Become a Writer”

“The Goldfinch won a Pulitzer and it sucks,” Reddit thread by /u/edward_radical

The Dunning-Kruger effect

Theme music: “1982” by See Jazz

Recorded live on the busiest day of AWP 26 in Baltimore, Josh and Dasha drag a microphone onto the conference floor—ambient noise, raised voices, a missing scarf, and all—for the first of two episodes from the convention. In between the chaos, a conversation about what AWP actually feels like from the inside: the surprising generosity of writers in person versus online, the live blog Josh has been writing from the hotel room between days on the floor, and the way even a conference vlog can become an exercise in the real problems of life writing. Then the main event: a conversation with short story writer and educator Pamela Gullard, whose collection Lake Crescent and Other Spirits just landed her a finalist spot in the Foreword Reviews short fiction contest. 

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Links:

Pam Gullard’s Lake Crescent and Other Spirits

Barrett Warner’s Galileo Press

Brad Listi’s otherppl and DeepDive

Edgar Allen Poe’s “exhalation of the spirit”

Theme music: “1982” by See Jazz

Crowded trains, rolled manuscripts, and ten stolen minutes with a sleeping baby—Part 2 of First Person Present’s special Night Moves episode opens with an honest look at what a writing practice actually looks like when life refuses to cooperate. Dasha reports from the trenches of a major draft milestone, describing the particular satisfaction of physically wrestling with a printed manuscript on a standing-room-only subway car, and what it means when your writing window closes the moment you zip your bag. Josh reflects on the difference between long designated chunks and the daily incremental habit he's trying to reclaim. Together they push back on the romance of the four-hour writing session and the Paris Review mythology of artists with endless leisure—and make the case that accumulation, not marathon output, is what actually finishes books.

Then, a caller question about the hardest thing writers face when working close to home: writing about real people. Josh and Dasha dig into the Art Monster controversy, Knausgaard's My Struggle and the uncle who sued, the way people find themselves in fiction that was never about them, and why the person you least expect is almost always the one who ends up upset. They argue for removing every barrier when the work is being made (you can always not publish) while being clear-eyed that fallout is probably coming, and that the antidote to it is complication over thesis, nuance over score-settling. Also: Walter the dog has been depicted beautifully throughout, and he doesn't know how good he has it.

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Links:

Who Is the Bad Art Friend? - New York Times

Knausgaard’s Ruthless Freedom - Public Books

A take on Czesław Miłosz’s family quote by Julian Barnes - New Statesman

The Paris Review Interviews Archive

Sincerity, Irony, Autofiction - by Christian Lorentzen

Theme music: “1982” by See Jazz

Can subtlety be taught, or is it something a writer either has or doesn't? In this late-night edition of First Person Present, Josh and Dasha crack open a bottle of wine, announce a shift to biweekly episodes ahead of AWP, and wrestle with the question every writer dreads—what if the kind of writing you most admire isn't the kind you're built to produce? Dasha reveals her revision roadmap and an ambitious one-month timeline that Josh calls unreasonable. They revisit the old advice about protecting your writing time and find, now with a baby and a dog-cat war in the background, that it holds up more than ever—even if it means living with a dirty house. Then a Reddit question about Kazuo Ishiguro sends them into a real disagreement about subtlety, voice, and whether revising toward grace just produces murkiness. Joan Didion makes her official podcast debut, a mysterious book arrives in the mail the day after being wished for, and the wine does its job.

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Links: 

Levin’s Mowing Scene

Kirkus on Never Let Me Go — "With perfect pacing and infinite subtlety" 

Never Let Me Go at 20

Joan Didion, "Why I Write"

Notes to John by Joan Didion 

Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Full show notes on our website.

A snowstorm, a little free library discovery, and the eternal question of creative fidelity collide as Josh and Dasha experiment with something new: live Reddit questions about the craft.

But first, Dasha reports a development that would make Hemingway wince—she's started a short story while supposedly committed to a decade-long novel project. Is this creative adultery, or has she finally made peace with visiting what she delicately calls "the prostitute of the short story"? The conversation turns to inspiration versus observation, and why stumbling onto a beatnik anthology by Ed Sanders on the way to the train might be exactly the kind of randomness every writer needs.

Then, attempting to channel authors they've never read (and occasionally misgendering 😬), they tackle questions about writing fight scenes and generating ideas. The secret to a good fight scene? Constant reversals—borrowed wisdom from too many hours of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As for where ideas come from, forget the "what if" premise generator; try living presently with your notes app open.

Apologies in advance to Lee Child, Riley Sager, and anyone else caught in the crossfire of their confident ignorance.

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Tales of Beatnik Glory by Ed Sanders

The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway

"The Battler" / "Fifty Grand" by Ernest Hemingway (Men Without Women)

"A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fight Compilation

Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz

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The holidays are over, obligations are piling up, and the buffet of overthinking is open for business. In this episode, Josh and Dasha dive into the peculiar vertigo of early-year overstimulation—that state where thoughts loop like a broken record and writing about yourself only amplifies the chaos. Is this mania? Is this just being human? (Our one listener with a psychiatry degree better let us know.)

Jenny Offill's "Depression-era writer" approach to salvaging old work sparks a conversation about the folders we keep (whether you call it "failures" or "the well") and why nothing you write ever truly goes to waste. Sometimes the bucket comes up with exactly what you need.

Then, a caller frozen between memoir, autofiction, and essay collection gets unstuck. Genre, it turns out, is largely a marketing decision masquerading as an artistic one. The real question isn't what to call your book—it's whether labeling it is preventing you from finishing it. We explore the freedom of thinking "fiction" even when writing from life, the John D'Agata school of bending truth for emotional resonance, and the James Frey rehabilitation tour (now featuring AI-generated content, apparently).

Links:

Jenny Offill, Weather

Nicholson Baker, Vox

John D'Agata’s "What Happens There" and his subsequent interview

“A Million Little Lies” at The Smoking Gun

James Frey and AI

Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz