Ottessa Moshfegh says she writes to explore why people do weird things. The daughter of a Croatian mother and Iranian father, she was a serious piano student who knew she didn't want to be a pianist when she felt the call to write - and not just write, but be bold.

We spoke to her before her reading at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass.

Episode Music: Kevin MacLeod, "Trio for Piano, Violin and Viola"
Credit Music: Uncanny Valleys, "Curious or Disconcerting"
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Workshop 37: Ottessa Moshfegh

A peek into how great writers conjure and craft their work. From creative rituals to guilty distractions, writers reveal what it really takes to get pen to paper.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Test Trailer 
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Test Trailer

After more than two years and 60 episodes, the 10 Minute Writer’s Workshop is signing off to make room for new projects and podcasts. Thanks to everybody who has listened and learned from the show. 
As we dream up our next undertaking, we want to hear from you aspiring writers and literature lovers out there. What sorts of things do you do to keep yourself creatively engaged? Are there exciting writerly events happening in your community? Do you lead a book club, or a writers workshop of your own? Let us know! You can reach us several ways:
Send us a message on Facebook: @10MWW
Twitter: @10minutewriters
Or send an email to: wordofmouth@nhpr.org 
We’re not sure what the future holds (creativity takes time, after all!) but to hear about upcoming projects involving Virginia Prescott, follow her @Verginger. 
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Workshop 61: The Last Line

Some of you may know Manoush Zomorodi as host of the podcast Note to Self from WNYC. She is also, now, an author. Her book Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self came out of her own experience and curiosity about the creative process and confronting digital distractions - one of the biggest challenges for writers. She asked her audience to help her figure out what it would mean to let all of that go and to learn to shut down in order to build your creative juices up. Bored and Brilliant is the result, and it begins with an extreme case of writer’s block – what Manoush refers to as “a blankness.”
Episode music by Ryan Andersen
Follow us on Twitter @10MinuteWriters and find Manoush at @manoushz and @NoteToSelf
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Workshop 60: Manoush Zomorodi

Conventional, linear narratives are not really Jennifer Egan’s thing. She's a shape-shifter of fiction – jumping through time, space, voices and forms. She's written a graphic novel, a short story composed of tweets, and, in the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, a kind of novel-as-concept album. Jennifer Egan takes on historical fiction in her newest novel, Manhattan Beach. We called her at her home in Brooklyn to ask about her process and how she begins her unpredictable novels.
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Workshop 59: Jennifer Egan

Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink, co-creators of the phenomenally popular Welcome to Nightvale podcast, the “Nightvale Presents” series of podcasts, and New York Times bestselling co-authors of the new novel, It Devours, their second book set in the fictional world of Nightvale. We caught up with them at the 2017 Boston Book Festival. Episode Music by Disparition
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Workshop 37: Ottessa Moshfegh

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