I'm a Writer But

Alex and Lindsay talk with Suzanne Cope (POWER HUNGRY: Women of the Black Panther Movement and Freedom Summer and Their Fight to Feed a Movement) about deep research, using her voice to amplify others, how the pandemic changed everything, and more!

Suzanne Cope, PhD is a narrative journalist and food studies scholar with a focus on food as a tool for social and political change. In addition to her book POWER HUNGRY, she has written about food, activism, and culture for the New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN, BBC, Washington Post among others. She also actively publishes, guest lectures, and presents in academic forums and teaches at New York University.

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Today we talk with Isaac Butler (THE METHOD: HOW THE TWENTIETH CENTURY LEARNED TO ACT) about how Jared Leto is not a Method actor!, something called "ekphrasis" that we pretended to understand, cutting his massive draft down, reading drafts out loud, the impulse to go into free indirect, tons of juicy details about Method and non-Method actors, the crossover between the Method and writing, the allure of research-heavy projects, and mooooooooore.

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Alex and Lindsay talk with Christian Tebordo (THE APOLOGY) about our mutual love of Gabe Habash’s STEPHEN FLORIDA; Nabokov always perched on his shoulder; Adam Levin’s theory of “optimal tension”; loving books without hooks; women as avenging angels as inspired by Knight Rider, yes, that Knight Rider; writing books that are unpublishable by the mainstream; feeling liberated by bad reviews; talking with his students about the possibilities of publishing; Chicago’s unique literary scene; and if you can believe it, more!

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Today we talk with Sara Lippmann (JERKS) about her great new collection, the annoying persistence of the Madonna/whore complex, rage, hope, motherhood, mosaic-y fiction (shoutout Kathy Fish), forgetting how to write a novel while writing stories and vice versa, her favorite story collections (Rebecca Schiff’s The Bed Moved; Nina McConigley’s Cowboys and East Indians; Danielle Lazarin’s Back Talk; Margaret Malone’s People Like You), taking breaks, and more!

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Today we talk with Mike Meginnis (DROWNING PRACTICE) about writing apocalyptic fiction without including the whole world, choosing the dumbest ideas, YMCA memories, writing about what scares you, writing from the perspectives of a 13-year-old girl and her mother, elf names, his great author photo holy shit did Alex and Lindsay start hitting on him??, his imaginary-gift-giving podcast he runs with his partner, Tracy Rae Bowling, and more!

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Today we talk with Joy Lanzendorfer (RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM) about her wonderful, very fun debut novel, big, complicated, bells 'n whistles books, unlikeable characters, ambition, women trying to make it, using a Ouija board as muse, and more. Most importantly, Joy tells us the insane, unbelievable story of how this book made it to publication.

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Alex and Lindsay talk with Leigh Stein (What to Miss When) about her new poetry collection, writing fast and furiously in the early months of the pandemic, the joy in editing at the sentence level, Summer House and other reality television, is it okay to write fiction about the pandemic yet? and more!

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Today we talk with Liv Stratman (CHEAT DAY) about writing about a subject that is so universal and also so personal, the expectations readers have for a book based on packaging, grappling with your intentions when writing versus what readers take from it, studying with Lorrie Moore! and Lynda Barry!, working on her second novel, messy books, working in the service industry, and more!

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Today we talk with Cara Blue Adams (You Never Get it Back) about her debut story collection, how she came to linking the stories, what it's like to put out a book that is so well received, workshops, submitting, terrible advice, good advice, impatient dogs, and more!

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Today we chat with JoAnna Novak (MEANINGFUL WORK; NEW LIFE) about putting out both a story collection AND a poetry collection in the same year, getting two (2!) MFAs, working every sort of job you can imagine, staying in the fight, and lots more.

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