Jeff quit his job at the age of 47 to return to college for his MFA, and his first novel, Other People’s Children, emerged from that decision. His second novel, Like It Never Happened, was just released in March 2024. In addition to his two novels, Jeff’s writing has been published in The Sun, Booth, Harpur Palate, and Publishers Weekly. He was the winner of the Madison Review’s Chris O’Malley Prize in Fiction and a finalist for the Missouri Review’s Jeffrey E. Smith Editor’s Prize.

Among other things, Jeff and Carter discuss shifting trends in the publishing industry, separating yourself from a business/academic mindset when writing, and the positive side of reading reviews. At the end of their conversation, they make up a chilling story using a line from The Fireballer by Mark Stevens.