The Book I HAD to Write

In this episode, I talk with author, professor, journalist, and rabbi Jay Michaelson. After publishing nine other books of nonfiction and poetry, and hundreds of stories for publications like Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, and New York magazine, Michaelson has just come out with his first work of fiction, The Secret That's Not a Secret.

We discuss the nearly 20-year journey behind the writing of this book, and how the tensions between sexuality and religious beliefs in the lives of its Orthodox Jewish characters reflect some of Jay’s own journey.

As an expert on Kabbalah and heretical (historic) figures like Jacob Frank, Michaelson has made a career of carving out a space for mystical imagination beyond patriarchy and heteronormativity.

Finally, we also talk about how writers pick between esoteric and more mainstream topics when choosing between book projects, and how current events—including the rise of authoritarianism and the Oct 7th Hamas attacks— reveal and the intersection of religion and politics today.

Some of my biggest takeaways

* Writing fiction gave Jay Michaelson access to describing experiences and inner states not always accessible through nonfiction.

Michaelson began the first versions of some of these stories almost 20 years ago, and he’s written 8 books of nonfiction alongside the development of this collection.

And though those books deal with many of the same subjects—Jewish mysticism, the interplay between sexuality and religion, and so on—he was able to depict their inner reality in ways that feel deeper or more liberating than he was able to in nonfiction:

I now have written [several] non-fiction books and hundreds of articles. And that does come very naturally and easily to me. And yet I really feel like…this really is the book I'm the most proud of. It feels the closest to my way of seeing the world, even though it's fiction…And I think a lot of that is that….there's a lot of imagination in this book and that was so freeing.

* The book represents Jay's own journey of self-discovery and the evolution of the stories over two decades.

Michaelson talks about the fact that when he started writing these stories, he himself was closeted—not just sexually, but in terms of his ability to be honest with himself about the writing he wanted the freedom to do:

“When I was finishing up college, deciding what I wanted to be when I grew up, there were two main choices on the agenda. My experience of the closet for me was, it wasn't just about sexuality. It was like closeted from all kinds of desires.

And so for me, it was like being an English lit professor or being a lawyer and trying to save the world. And being a writer….that was like the dream that wasn't mine to reach for.”

* The book delves into the tension within Orthodox Jewish communities and their potential for spiritual liberation.

Recent American Jewish fiction has featured plenty of Orthodox Jewish characters, but most often these depict people who have left the restrictive confines of their faith.

By contrast, the characters in this collection remain in their Orthodox environment, but are seeking spiritual and sexual liberation:

"[The stories] deal with gay orthodox men who are wrestling, sometimes quite literally, with the tension between their sexuality and their religious beliefs."

By focusing on the sensory details and physical depictions of these struggles, Michaelson transforms abstract spiritual conflicts into immersive experiences.

* This book’s exploration of Kabbalistic thought is connected to Michaelson’s previous scholarship on heretical figures like Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676) and Jacob Frank (1726-1791).

The interview also touches upon Michaelson's broader academic and journalistic work, which considers the significance of Jacob Frank and other heretics who diverged from orthodox religious traditions. It suggests that these historical figures may reflect a desire for a spiritual revolution that could have lasting impacts on contemporary socio-religious dynamics.

“One of the things that Jacob Frank also did was preach a kind of a teaching of liberated sexuality and sexuality as spiritual messianic experience…as a kind of, the world to come, the messianic age, through a kind of spiritualized sexual act or ritual. And that's in the book, definitely.”

* This was very much a book Michaelson had to write—but it also made him think consciously about choosing smaller and more esoteric projects versus writing bigger, more mainstream books.

Some of Michaelson’s previous books, such as God vs. Gay, where very much written with a mainstream audience in mind—an attempt to write an activist book that would appeal to as large an audience as possible. By contrast, Michaelson understood his story collection might draw a smaller readership. The calculus of personal passion vs readership is one that many seasoned writers have to make:

“There are times where I've chosen consciously, that book God vs. Gay was an example, where I chose to write a more mainstream book and I wanted to do something with it with a larger audience and I was lucky I found a somewhat larger audience…

But when it comes time to think about the next book I have to write, which is where I am now…I have one [idea] that I think would [potentially attract] a larger audience, and then there's like the other one that I sort of want to do anyway, even though it wouldn't [attract as large] an audience. And it's such a question of what our creative hopes and ambitions are, I think, as well as financial ones.”

Discussed on this episode

* Buy The Secret that is not a Secret at Bookshop.org | Amazon.com | Ayin Press

* The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth, by Jay Michaelson

* Jay Michaelson’s website

* Jaymichaelson.substack.net

* ‘Deprogramming" the Trump Cult,’ CNN appearance on how people develop conspiratorial and group-think beliefs... and how they can be coaxed out of them, July 6, 2023.

Show Credits

This episode was produced & mixed by Magpie Audio Productions. Theme music  is "The Stone Mansion" by BlueDot Productions.

Last fall, administrators at Gettysburg College announced the shuttering of the prestigious Gettysburg Review. This just seemed like the latest in a long string of magazines and journals that have closed the past few years.

Curious about what’s going on, I called Travis Kurowski, a leading expert on literary magazines, to help me understand what was happening. Today’s podcast features the interview we recorded in the immediate aftermath of the news last October.

But, Kurowski, who has also appeared on CNN.com and elsewhere, was able to shed light on broader themes and trends. We discuss why an entire ecosphere of literary journals—supported for nearly 100 years by institutions of higher ed—may also be in deep trouble.

And we explore the ways in which recent tech has changed reading habits, and why that will continue to doom some journals, even as others are adapting themselves to stay relevant to 21st century literary culture.

This conversation is well worth listening to for anyone who wants to publish in—or is concerned about the well-being and future of—literary magazines and journals.

Some of my biggest takeaways from this interview

* Outside prestige isn’t enough to save storied journals like The Gettysburg Review.

While many writers took to social media to point out that most of the world wouldn’t know about Gettysburg College if it wasn’t for the Review, that argument didn’t seem to matter much to administrators.

The problem was, rather, one of economics…and the readiness with which both college administrators and corporate interests are willing to cut arts funding.

As with pretty much every business in the world, the pandemic gutted operating revenues at Gettysburg; it has been running significant deficits recently—a $6.7 million deficit in 2021 alone.

When the college was looking for expense lines to cut, they focused on those (like the Review) which, they claimed, didn’tdirectly enhance student life.

That last argument is a highly dubious one, by the way. Plenty of students learned a ton about literary publishing thanks to helping to produce the Review over the years. But this is the story that the administrators told themselves and the rest of us.

* The sustainability of literary journals—especially those connected with colleges and universities—feels more fragile than ever.

Literary journals have been associated with higher ed for almost a century. Often these journals were seen as prestige projects, aimed at enhancing the institutions beyond its walls—even as these journals were often subject to the vagaries of institutional budgets, priorities, and department allegiances.

"Literary journals have been on higher education campuses for...almost 100 years now...and sometimes they get cut from the budgets," Kurowski says.

The difference today? Higher ed is facing greater economic pressures than ever before. Bloated administrations and a major decrease in enrollments—what Kurowski calls “the cliff of 18-year-olds”—are shrinking budgets.

And with college and university budgets facing bleak prospects for the foreseeable future, the days of university-funded literary journals and similar prestige projects may be behind us.

* Many literary journals haven’t adapted to the digital “literary economy”…and they’re getting left behind.

It won’t be news that the way we consume media has radically changed even in the span of a decade or two.

With the advent of the internet and mobile technology, readers have migrated, en masse, to the digital landscape.

And that has major implications for old-school print literary journals:

“You walk down any hallway, anywhere in your house, right? And we're just staring at their phones. We’re reading differently, we’re writing differently, we’re talking differently online. But our literary journals kind of look the same as they did 50 or 70 years ago,” Kurowski says.

By way of example, Kurowski points out that when he went to look at the Gettsyburg Review website to prep for our interview, he wasn’t able to click on any of the poems or short stories.

So it’s really necessary for journals to reassess how readers today (and beyond) are accessing their content.

* Readers are no longer reading cover-to-cover…and journals need to embrace that change.

The problem goes beyond clickable websites. The very way we consume print magazines has profoundly shifted—something that publishing expertJane Friedmanhas explored extensively.

In her book The Business of Being a Writer, Friedman argues that the digital revolution has brought about the “disaggregation” of media. She means that journals are no longer consumed whole, cover-to-cover, but experienced in pieces, sometimes on platforms or in environments disaggregated, or pulled out, from their original format.

Today, you can engage with the New Yorker through its website, podcast, app, or even live, as with its New Yorker festivals. In other words, the magazine has unbound—or disaggregated—itself.

Similarly, lit journals may have to learn to move beyond their print editions if they want to connect with new readers today. “You don't want to focus too much on the container but rather the content,” Kurowski says.

* Additionally, journals need to do a better job of “community building” …and those that are doing so are succeeding.

Kurowski underscores the importance of creating community beyond the physical pages of the journals. The value of literary journals today goes well beyond the content they feature…and has a lot to do with the cultural experience they can offer.

“If a journal is not doing that, if they're not creating a brand, creating a community, creating an experience…it's going to be hard for them to fit into the 21st century, where content is essentially expected to be free,” he says.

He cites publications like The Georgia Review and even the newly-revived The Believer magazine as examples of journals that have successfully reconceptualized what it means to be connect with readers today.

About My Guest

Travis Kurowski is an associate professor of creative writing at York College. He’s the editor of Paper Dreams: Writers and Editors on the American Literary Magazine, winner of an Independent Publisher Book Award, and co-editor of Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century (Milkweed).

Further reading/discussed on this episode

* Paper Dreams: Writers and Editors on the American Literary Magazine, edited by Travis Kurowski (Atticus Books)

* Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century, coedited by Travis Kurowski, Wayne Miller, and Kevin Prufer.

* The Little Magazine in Contemporary America, coedited by Ian Morris and Joanne Diaz.

* “Are Literary Journals in Trouble?” by , July 18, 2023.

* Get the latest updates about literary magazines and journals from the wonderful by

* Check out my own essay, “What is the future for literary journals?”

Credits

This episode was edited and produced by Chérie Newman at Magpie Audio Productions. Theme music is "The Stone Mansion" by BlueDot Productions. 

Why would anyone want to jumpstart their memoir? For one thing, you’re tasked with plumbing your memory for sometimes difficult material. Added to that is the burden of turning out writing that often feels underwhelming—so much less than we know we can do. For recovering perfectionists, the combination can be daunting.

In today’s episode of The Book I Had to Write, UK-based author Amity Reed and I discuss strategies for starting a book that we picked up at a recent generative memoir bootcamp led by writing coach Katie Bannon.

(Learn more about Katie Bannon by reading her post, 5 Reasons To Write Your Taboo Stories, or her reported essay, “I couldn’t stop pulling my hair, What was wrong with me?” published recently in the Washington Post).

We talk about the importance of staying in drafting mode, letting go of perfectionist tendencies, the benefit of doing plenty of “scaffolding” before writing, and embracing a flexible approach to structure. We also discuss the value of accountability and finding a writing practice that works for your schedule and temperament.

Amity Reed is an author and midwife. Her first book was called Overdue. It’s part memoir and part manifesto—a look at her experiences in maternity care in the UK. She’s currently working on a second book, also a memoir. She lives on the south coast of England with her husband and two children. 

Some of our biggest insights and takeaways

Keep focusing on lower the stakes: In an episode two weeks ago, described being a “recovering perfectionist.” I can cop to that label too. In my case, it meant spending more than my fair share of time over the years writing and rewriting beginnings and then running out of time; or else not really getting to the things I most wanted to.

How ‘slowing down and letting go’ helps with perfectionism: Amity talks about how, at one point, she felt the need to have a perfectly polished sections before moving forward. But she realized this approach hindered her progress. One big transformation happened when she embraced the idea that writing a memoir is a long-term commitment, and that it will take time.

Scaffolding exercises really help—even if you haven’t written a word of your book. Katie’s generative memoir bootcamp was filled with exercises to help participants better understand the building blocks of literary memoir. We came up with character traits, sketched out possible narrative arcs, and developed a potential list of key scenes, among others.

One big takeaway from the week is that doing some planning work even at the beginning stages of drafting can be incredibly helpful in both sharpening the focus and creating more of an arc from the outset.

Your book’s structure is going to evolve…if you let it. In our conversation, Amity describes how, initially, she tried to force her writing into a predetermined structure. But she soon realized that it was constraining her creativity. With guidance from Katie Bannon, Amity explored alternative structures, drawing inspiration from art, poetry, and philosophy. She learned that the structure doesn't have to be explicitly spelled out for the reader but can be an implicit guide for her writing process.

Build in some accountability through co-writing groups and some kind of writing schedule. Accountability is crucial for writers, especially when working on a long-term project like a memoir. Amity says found support and accountability through Zoom writing groups that provided her with a place to share progress, set goals, and hold each other accountable.

As for me, I recently signed up for a co-writing “container”—a Zoom co-writing group, led by author , that meets three times a week for two hours over 12 weeks. It’s still early days, but I’ve found that knowing I have to show up at least those hours every week has allowed me to produce many more super-rough pages than I would’ve otherwise during a very busy time.

Further reading/discussed on the show

* Overdue: Birth, burnout and a blueprint for a better NHS, by Amity Reed Bookshop (UK) | Amazon (UK)

* “The Illusion of the First Draft,” by Katie Bannon, Brevity magazine

* “Five Reasons to Write Your ‘Taboo’ Stories,” by Katie Bannon

* Katie Bannon’s Generative Memoir Bootcamps

Credits

This episode was edited and produced by Chérie Newman at Magpie Audio Productions. Theme music is "The Stone Mansion" by BlueDot Productions. 

In this week’s episode of The Book I Had to Write, I talk with Margo Steines, the author of Brutalities: A Love Story.

This memoir-in-essays documents her journey through a series of extreme experiences including her time as a pro dom, a welder on a high-rise crew, her addictions to exercise, her interest in MMA fighting, and more.

We talk about her journey to discovering the power of the braided essay—in her case, a combination of memoir, essay, research, and reporting—that allowed her to write about several difficult experiencees “in conversation with one another.”

We also discuss other key issues for anyone engaged in memoir: about her commitment to truth in her writing, the challenges of self-exposure, finding confidence in one's writing, and how to write about difficult material without retraumatizing yourself.

Some of my biggest takeaways:

How pain can reveal an authentic self: The concept of pain and its role in self-discovery is a central theme in Brutalities. Steines explores her own fascination with physical extremes, such as her enthusiasm with MMA fighting and her dedication (bordering on addiction) to intense physical exercise, even (most difficult for me) an early fascination with being hit in the face.

I admired Steines’s approach to truth-telling in her work. In an author's note at the beginning of Brutalities, Steines described the challenges of writing memoir and the limitations of memory.

Writing about violence and physical extremes is hard work… Steines says mining her own experiences was emotionally and psychologically challenging.

…yet it was the emotional intimacy of her current relationship that proved even harder to render: “The parts that were the hardest to write were actually the memoir, interstitial pieces about my partner... It felt like it broke me open in a certain way,” she says.

Writing can be both a means of self-exposure and self-acceptance: “Once I tell the truth on the page, I can't redact it to myself anymore,” she says.

Steines’s needed the unconventional form of the braided essay to get closer to her own truth. She describes the braided essay as a hybrid of memoir, essay, cultural criticism, and immersion journalism. This form allows her to bring together multiple strands of thought and experience, creating resonance between seemingly unrelated ideas.

Speaking of structure, finding the final form for her book also proved challenging. Steines had to navigate the balance between narrative storytelling and idea exploration, ensuring that each essay contributed to the overall theme of the book.

As a teacher, one of her jobs is helping writers find a sense of agency in their own writing. She tells me she believes that writers already possess the resources they need within themselves and that her role as a teacher is to provide hard skills and belief in their own convictions.

Writing about trauma without retraumatizing oneself is key for writers of difficult personal material. She’ll be broaching that subject at an AWP panel this February. She acknowledges the importance of self-care and (somatic experiencing) therapy in navigating the emotional challenges.

Check out more of Margo Steines’s work

* Buy Brutalities: A Love Story via Amazon | Bookshop | W.W. Norton

* “Run Home,” The Sun, August 2023

* “A Very Brutal Game,” The Sun, November 2020

* “Depredations,” Brevity magazine, January 17, 2020

Show Credits

This episode was compiled by Paul Zakrzewski and produced by Magpie Audio Productions. Theme music  is "The Stone Mansion" by BlueDot Productions.

In the Season 3 launch, Jeannine Ouellette, author of the memoir The Part That Burns and creator of the Writing in the Dark newsletter, shares insights into her writing process, her extraordinary year on Substack, and the unique blend of craft, wisdom, and kindness that makes her a beloved teacher of creative writing.

Key Takeaways

* Writing around a difficult topic can hinder the writing process, and embracing your need to write about it can lead to growth as a writer.

* Writing from the perspective of a child in memoir offers a unique vantage point; and force writers to consider the limitations of what they can understand.

* “Defamiliarization,” or casting a strange light on objects and experiences, is a technique that can make writing more engaging and wake readers up to new perspectives.

* Lowering stakes and embracing mistakes can lead to more exciting and authentic writing.

* Writers should be aware of the distinction between internal and external details in their writing and strive to find a balance between the two.

* Understanding what your piece is really about (or what Ouellette calls “aboutness”) ois crucial for guiding the revision process and ensuring the work resonates with readers.

Discussed on this Show

* Writing Child Narrators: If you’re writing a memoir about childhood and want a thorough discussion of how to approach writing from the child’s perspective, read Jeannine’s essay “That Little Voice: The Outsized Power of a Child Narrator” (Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies)

* For another perspective on writing about childhood, check out my essay: https://bookiwanttowrite.substack.com/p/such-such-are-the-joys

* Annie Ernaux/Flat Writing: French Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux has described her style as “l’écriture plate” or “flat writing”— a voice that is “…flat, but not quite affectless…[striving] for balance between feeling and reporting, writing with almost sociological objectivity,” according to the Paris Review. Read more.

* “What Substack Taught Me About Nimbleness, Improvisation, and the Absolute Necessity of Mistakes,” by Jeannine Ouellette, Brevity Magazine, June 22 & 23, 2022. Part 1 | Part 2.

Find Jeannine Ouellette Online

* On Substack: https://writinginthedark.substack.com/

* At her writer website: https://www.jeannineouellette.com/

* The Part that Burns (Split/Lip Books, Moon Palace Books, Bookshop, Amazon, or your favorite independent bookstore!)

Credits

This episode was edited and produced by Chérie Newman at Magpie Audio Productions. Theme music is "The Stone Mansion" by BlueDot Productions. 

For this final post of 2023, here’s one from the archives — perhaps the most popular episode of The Book I Had to Write podcast.

In this segment, I talk with Sari Botton, the author of the memoir/essay collection …And You May Find Yourself, and the founder of Oldster magazine.

Back around 2010, Sari started an interview series at The Rumpus called “Conversations with Writers Braver Than Me.”

By definition, memoir and essays inevitably include stories about the people in our lives. But figuring out what the lines are – who we feel we can write about and how to do it – that takes time. And lots of real-world practice.

However, when she herself was first working on memoir, Sari says she felt paralyzed by the fear of hurting those closest to her.

Over the course of a dozen years, Sari grappled extensively with how to give herself permission to write about herself and others. As her 2022 memoir-in-essays, And You May Find Yourself..., started coming together during the pandemic, she landed on a different way to understand this issue.

Writing about herself is really an act of defiance, she says. Women, and particularly women writing memoir, are often derided for first-person writing.

Or, as she writes in the foreword to her book: “I remembered that my voice matters. I’m using it now, to take up space, to say, ‘I was here.’”

In this interview, we also talk about Gen X identity, and about Oldster magazine, which was then a newer project for Sari, and is now an extremely-popular Substack aimed at exploring of how we live inside our aging bodies.

Sari Botton is also the editor of two anthologies, the award-winning GOODBYE TO ALL THAT: WRITERS ON LOVING & LEAVING NY, as well as the NYT bestselling followup NEVER SAY GOODBYE: WRITERS ON THEIR UNSHAKEABLE LOVE FOR NY.

In case you’re curious, here are some related from this episode

And You May Find Yourself...  available from Bookshop | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

After Fifteen Years, I Stopped Panicking, Started Declawing, and Finally Published My Memoir, by Sari Botton (Catapult)

Conversations with Writers Braver than Me by Sari Botton (The Rumpus)

 Oldster Magazine

Working on a memoir? Here are some additional resources for how to handle writing about others

A Big Shitty Party: Six Parables of Writing about Other People, by Melissa Febos

Other People’s Secrets: An Interview with Kerry Cohen by Paul Zakrzewski, (Brevity Magazine)

The Truth of Memoir: How to Write about Yourself and Others with Honesty, Emotion, and Integrity, by Kerry Cohen Bookshop | Amazon

“Other People’s Secrets” (essay) by Patricia Hampl, collected in I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory

Credits

This episode was edited by Paul Zakrzewski and produced by Magpie Audio Productions. Theme music  is "The Stone Mansion" by BlueDot Productions

I’ve just wrapped up season 2 of The Book I Had to Write, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the show.

I’ll be back in the fall with a new season that I hope you’ll love. But before I do that, I have a big favor to ask...

I’ve created a short survey and would love for you to fill it out.

In a world of many podcasts, including many books podcasts, I want to be sure I’m doing all I can to reach the kind of listener who's writing life I can impact, inform & inspire!To do that I need YOUR help. I really want to learn more ABOUT you and what you’re looking for in a show like this one.

Plus, if you complete the survey by Tuesday, August 8th, you'll be entered into a draw for one free 1:1 "Instant Clarity Session" (value $350) --  a highly-focused, supportive call to help you get clear on a writing project or publishing question. You'll leave with immediate actionable steps that will move you forward. 

>>>  Click here to fill out the TBIHTW survey

About this Episode 

Back in the 1990s, Leah Eichler, then a young reporter, interviewed her grandmother extensively about her experiences as an Auschwitz survivor. In this episode, Leah discusses her book-development journey working with coach & TBIHTW host Paul Zakrzewski. If you’ve been overwhelmed by a book you want to write – but aren’t sure where to start – this is the episode for you.

Discussed On This Episode:

·       The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, by Daniel Mendelsohn

·       My uncle often went missing. I worried about the day he wouldn’t come back, The Globe and Mail, Oct 8, 2021

·       Esoterica Magazine   

 Important Moments

How Leah's interview with her grandmother in the 1990s resulted in the "bubbe tapes"

How the book coaching process helped Leah evolve her idea

Influence of Daniel Mendelsohn's The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million

Highlights of Leah's June "roots" trip to Hungary to research her grandmother's story

Leah's recent publication successes with an essay about tattoos & intergenerational trauma; and another essay about being in a interracial marriage and competing historical traumas

Leah's background as a journalist and its impact on writing her memoir

Leah's work as creator and editor of Esoterica Magazine

Credits

This episode was edited and produced by Chérie Newman at Magpie Audio Productions. Theme music is "The Stone Mansion" by BlueDot Productions. 

"There's a big gap between the dream and the published book--what's happening there?" asks book coach Joelle Hann (aka the Brooklyn Book Doctor). Joelle joins host Paul Zakrzewski to talk about why writers face resistance when they start their books, the sense of power that happens when you finish, & the big shifts happening in Big 5 publishing right now.

Looking to season 3, we're going on a journey! We'll be tweaking the show format, quests, and types of guests to provide help & inspiration as you navigate your book writing journey. Have ideas? Drop me a line.

Discussed On This Episode:

Millions of Followers? For Book Sales, ‘It’s Unreliable’, The New York Times, December 7, 2021.

The Brooklyn Book Doctor’s Book Proposal Academy

Joelle Hann's personal website

Key Takeaways

Writing about your specific topic, like yoga, can provide a lens to explore larger cultural questions

Book coaching can include developmental editing, but at its core it's about guiding writers through mindset challenges and expectation management.

Clients approach book coaches at all stages of the book-writing journey, from initial idea to rough drafts to completed manuscrips

First-time book writers often face the fear of perfectionism, and their motivation can crash after the initial excitement.

Managing mindset and understanding the challenges inherent in writing is crucial for a successful book-writing journey.

Credits

This episode was edited and produced by Chérie Newman at Magpie Audio Productions. Theme music is "The Stone Mansion" by BlueDot Productions. 

Paul interviews writer, scholar, and archival expert Julija Šukys, author of Siberian Exile: Blood, War, and a Granddaughter’s Reckoning. Part way through this project, Šukys received documents that pointed to her grandfather’s possible complicity in Holocaust-era war crimes. Their conversation traces this major discovery and how it changed her work-in-progress. They also discuss the need to find the right form for your book, the allure of archival research, and the power of short, sharp essay-like books.

Get all the important takeaways

>>  Click here to get the full show notes, links and resources, and the complete transcript.

Discussed On This Episode:

• Jane: A Murder by Maggie Nelson
• Dear Memory, by Victoria Chang
• Ongoingness by Sarah Manguso
• Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde

Buy the Book

Siberian Exile: Blood, War, and a Granddaughter’s Reckoning is available from University of Nebraska Press | Bookshop.org | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Credits

This episode was edited and produced by Chérie Newman at Magpie Audio Productions. Theme music is "The Stone Mansion" by BlueDot Productions.