I'm a Writer But

Ben Purkert discusses the rich text of toxic masculinity, writing a novel that engages with authenticity and a character who has no idea who he is, the role Judaism plays in the book, poetry being his first love, the dearth of heterosexual male intimacy, writing complex female characters, and more!

Ben Purkert is the author of the debut novel, The Men Can’t Be Saved (Abrams/Overlook). His poetry collection, For the Love of Endings (Four Way Books, 2018), was named one of Adroit’s Best Poetry Books of the Year. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Slate, Poetry, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Tin House, and elsewhere. He holds degrees from Harvard and NYU, where he was a New York Times Fellow. He is the editor of Back Draft, a Guernica interview series focused on revision and the creative process. He currently teaches creative writing at Rutgers.

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Daniel Hornsby discusses his new novel, Sucker, as well as the difficulty of editing a book’s opening, tech hubris, writing a character who inhabits the punk/DIY world and is full of shit, caves are great but spelunking is idiotic, Celine Dion is a time lord, and so much more! 

Plus: Alex has returned for one ep only! Keep up with all things Great Place Books and Alex's novel True Failure!

Daniel Hornsby is the author of the novels Sucker and Via Negativa, and his stories and essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, The Missouri Review, and Joyland. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

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Isabel Kaplan discusses her bestselling novel, NSFW, writing an authentic codependent relationship, pushing past catharsis and resolution rather than crafting a traditional ending, her use of dialogue and conversation, querying agents at age 12, what it’s like to have a viral essay, and more! 

And: stay tuned at the end to hear excerpts from some exciting new small press releases from Grant Maierhofer and Shannon McLeod!  

Isabel Kaplan is the author of the national bestselling novel NSFW, which was a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and an Amazon “Best Book of 2022.” She is also the author of the viral Guardian essay “My boyfriend, a writer, broke up with me because I’m a writer” and the national bestselling young adult novel Hancock Park. She studied English at Harvard, holds an MFA in creative writing from NYU, and was born and raised in Los Angeles. 

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Today, Ben Hinshaw discusses his debut novel, Exactly What You Mean, as well as shaping this novel-in-stories, how parenthood changed his writing, locating and maintaining his authentic voice, his process, the weird feelings that accompany publication, and more! 

Ben Hinshaw’s writing has received an O. Henry Award and appeared in Granta, Harvard Review, Story, The Carolina Quarterly, The White Review and elsewhere. He earned his MA in creative writing at UC Davis and has received grants and scholarships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Bread Loaf, and the Community of Writers. Born on the island of Guernsey, Ben has lived in London, Nottingham and Northern California. He currently lives on Guernsey with his wife and daughters.  

Ben’s debut novel is Exactly What You Mean, published by Viking and selected for BBC Two's Between the Coversbook club. Exactly What You Mean was called "brilliant" and "remarkable" by The Sunday Times, "a notable debut from a smart and capable author" by Hilary Mantel, and "riveting and beautifully patterned" by Max Porter. 

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Today, Kathleen Hale talked about the extensive research and work that went into her new book, SLENDERMAN: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls, as well as how she rewrote its 680+ page manuscript, how being canceled brought her to the story, the Wisconsin justice system, and more.  

Kathleen Hale is a true crime author and TV writer based in Los Angeles. She is the author of four books. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, among other outlets. 

Hale’s article on Gabby Petito was Vanity Fair’s most read piece of 2022. It was optioned by FilmNation. 

Her fourth book, SLENDERMAN: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls, was optioned by Littleton Road Productions and sold to Peacock. SLENDERMAN was nominated for an Edgar Prize. It also won the 2022 Midland Writers Award for Non Fiction. 

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Today, Anne K. Yoder (The Enhancers) discusses her “poet’s novel”; writing a dystopian, cross-genre, fictional pharmaceutical packet; the long revision process; running the arts collective/press Meekling Press; and more!  

Anne K. Yoder is the author of the novel The Enhancers, which was selected as a must-read by Wired, Vulture, Nylon, and elsewhere. Her fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in Fence, BOMB, Tin House, NY Tyrant, and MAKE, among other publications, and has been recognized in Best American Nonrequired Reading. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks and is a member of the Chicago-based publishing and arts collective, Meekling Press. She writes, lives, and occasionally dispenses pharmaceuticals in Chicago. 

Amanda Goldblatt's novel is Hard Mouth.

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Today, Tania James discusses her new romp of a novel, LOOT, and how it helped her re-find her way as a writer, staying in it over a long career, researching 18th century Mysore and Europe, working with Knopf, and more! 

Tania James is the author of the novels The Tusk That Did the Damage and Atlas of Unknowns and the short-story collection Aerogrammes. Her fiction has appeared in Freeman’s, Granta, The New Yorker, O, The Oprah Magazine, One Story, and A Public Space. Tania has been a fellow of Ragdale, MacDowell, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Fulbright Program. She teaches in the MFA program at George Mason University and lives in Washington, D.C. 

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Today, Jessica Anne (Sex with My Family) and Joshua Bohnsack of Long Day Press talk about collaborating on this short, vicious, beautiful book; cows; maintaining rawness in the work; Jessica’s theater background informing her writing; endings; Long Day’s forthcoming manual on muskrat removal (!); and more!  

Jessica Anne is Neo-Futurist, Lit & Luz artistic associate, author of A Manual for Nothing, and Visiting Lecturer at Roosevelt University. Her new book is Sex with My Family.

Long Day Press is a Chicago-based novella and chapbook publisher. Since 2015, they have published boundary-pushing work with an emphasis on emerging Midwestern writers. Joshua Bohnsack's band is Kyle Francois and the Gold Dust. Listen here.

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Today, S.L. Wisenberg discusses her Juniper Prize winning essay collection, The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home, as well as inspiration, encountering herself when revisiting and revising her work, finishing, locating her fear as a prompt, and more! 

S. L. Wisenberg is editor of Another Chicago Magazine and author of the fiction collection, The Sweetheart Is In, and two nonfiction books, Holocaust Girls: History, Memory, and Other Obsessions and The Adventures of Cancer Bitch. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Holocaust Education Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council, Wisenberg works as a writing coach, editor, and creative writing instructor in Chicago. Her new book is The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home, which was the recipient of the Juniper Prize for Creative Nonfiction and was published by the University of Massachusetts Press. 

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Today, Jane Wong reads from her new memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, and discusses transforming her collection of essays into a non-linear memoir, “Wongmom.com,” working in poetry and prose, “writing up to the present,” writing the hard stuff, tonal shifts, and more! 

Jane Wong is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James Books (2021) and Overpour from Action Books (2016). Her debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, is forthcoming from Tin House in May, 2023.

She holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. Her poems can be found in places such as Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, Best American Poetry 2015, The New York Times, American Poetry Review, POETRY, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, and others. Her essays have appeared in places such as McSweeney's, Black Warrior Review, Ecotone, The Common, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and This is the Place: Women Writing About Home.

A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Artist Trust, Harvard’s Woodberry Poetry Room, 4Culture, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, Willapa Bay, the Jentel Foundation, SAFTA, Mineral School, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Loghaven, and others.

The recipient of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award for Washington artists, her first solo art show “After Preparing the Altar, the Ghosts Feast Feverishly” was exhibited at the Frye Art Museum in 2019. Her artwork will also be a part of “Nourish,” an exhibition at the Richmond Art Gallery in 2022. A scholar of Asian American poetry and poetics as well, you can explore "The Poetics of Haunting" project here.

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