Gonzo essayist and creative non-fiction author — Kent Russell — dropped by to chat about his hybrid reportage on the margins of society, and the process of a big city, freelance journalist.

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Mr. Russell’s critically lauded first collection — I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son — was recently re-released in paperback, and Vanity Fair called it, “A ludicrously smart, tragicomic man-on-the-edge memoir in essays.”

The acclaimed writer has been compared to David Foster Wallace by The New York Times Book Review, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Tin House, The New Republic, Harper’s, GQ, n+1, The Believer, and Grantland.

Join us for this two-part interview.

In Part One of the file Kent Russell and I discuss:

• The Promiscuity of Freelance Writers
• Why You Should Overwrite Your First Drafts
• How to Research Your Stories Like RoboCop
• Why All Writing Is (Still) Rewriting
• A Writer’s Reliance on Cloud Word Processing

Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ...

Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes

• How Long-Form Journalist Kent Russell Writes: Part Two
• I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son – by Kent Russell
• Letter of Recommendation: Hangovers – Kent Russell for the NYTimes Magazine
• ‘Timid Son’ Celebrates Mambas And Manly Men – NPR Interview with Kent Russell
• Kelton Reid on Twitter

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