I'm a Writer But

Nayantara Roy discusses her debut novel, The Magnificent Ruins, new genres, divorce novels, the essay that inspired the novel, the problematic choices her main character made, allowing her main character to choose neither love interest, finding the right agent, breaking all the rules of a debut novel, working in television, and so much more! Nayantara Roy is the author of the debut novel, The Magn...

Author Sara Levine (The Hitch, forthcoming from Roxane Gay Books) has chosen as her 90s Book Club topic the elusive writer Jane Shapiro, author of After Moondog and The Dangerous Husband. After going down many rabbit holes, Sara found Jane’s agent, we emailed them, and Jane agreed to join us on the podcast! Jane discusses her career, publishing in the 90s, new work, Donald Antrim, and where she’s...

Nora Lange discusses her debut novel, Us Fools (Two Dollar Radio), finding absurd moments to celebrate if by “celebrate” we mean “awaken,” passing anxieties down to our children, writing about the 80s farm crisis, research, committing and recommitting to the project of her novel despite life upheavals, and so much more! Nora Lange's writing has appeared in BOMB, Hazlitt, Joyland, American Short Fi...

Richard Mirabella discusses his debut novel, Brother and Sister Enter the Forest, as well as sibling dynamics, the deft forward motion of the novel, the influence of Throwing Muses’ album Purgatory/Paradise on the structure of the novel, writing “skeletal drafts,” fairy tales, Rachel Glaser fandom, and more! Richard Mirabella is a writer and civil servant living in Upstate New York. His stories ha...

Welcome to IAWB Presents 90s Book Club, a special podcast from I’m a Writer But (where writers discuss their work, their lives, their other work, the stuff that takes up any free time they have, all the stuff they’re not able to get to, and the ways in which any of us get anything done) in which Lindsay Hunter is joined by a variety of her favorite freaks to talk about influential moments from the...

Acamea Deadwiler discusses her debut memoir, Daddy’s Little Stranger, along with writing about her childhood self, writing trauma while maintaining humor, lending grace and complexity to her family members, the nature of memory, Gary, Indiana, and so much more! Acamea Deadwiler is a memoirist and essayist who received critical acclaim from Publishers Weekly for her book, Single That. She has been...

Alisa Alering discusses their debut novel, Smothermoss, growing up on a farm, writerly trickery, place, southern Pennsylvania, how unlimited access to the outdoors as a child influenced their writing, what time means to a mountain, the energy of the natural world, the real-life tragedy that features in the novel, setting the novel in the 1980s, starting the novel as a collage, and so much more! Al...

Lindsay is joined by Ryan Bradford as they discuss the weird but forgotten horror anthology, Grim Prairie Tales, starring James Earl Jones's wig, James Earl Jones, and Brad Dourif. Ryan Bradford is a writer and web editor at San Diego City Beat. His writing can be found in vice, paperdarts, and monkeybicycle. He’s also the rummer for the band Forest Grove. He’s also a huge horror fan and a teacher...

Joanna Pearson discusses her debut novel, Bright and Tender Dark, as well as branding, homesteading online, Tressie McMillan Cottom, the weirdness of Threads and Goodreads, eerie vibes, using murdered-girl tropes while subverting them, unresolved creepiness in the novel, Rachel Monroe fandom, and more! Joanna Pearson’s debut novel, BRIGHT AND TENDER DARK (Bloomsbury, 2024), is an Indie Next Pick a...

Barrie Miskin discusses her debut memoir, Hell Gate Bridge, motherhood, depression, how the book began as a form as therapy, writing a fast draft, working with Sarah Perry and Elizabeth Ellen, literary talismans, plumbing dark places as she wrote, hiring a publicist, and more! Barrie Miskin is the author of HELL GATE BRIDGE: A Memoir of Motherhood, Madness and Hope, out today! from Woodhall Press....

Emma Copley Eisenberg discusses her debut novel, Housemates, Philadelphia, BODIES, the spectrum of Ottessa Moshfegh to Grace Paley, structure, road trips, the historical figures who inspired the novel, and more! Emma Copley Eisenberg is the author of the novel Housemates and the narrative nonfiction book The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, which was named a New...

Craig Willse discusses his debut novel, Providence, as well as writing family systems, grief, the many times he rewrote the book, layering in tension, rewarding the reader with sex, the danger of projection, and more! Craig Willse is a teacher and freelance editor living in Los Angeles. A 2021 Lambda Literary Fellow, Craig has recent work in HAD, Joyland, and Fence. His first novel, Providence, is...

Today, live from Exile in Bookville in Chicago, Shze-Hui Tjoa discusses her debut memoir, The Story Game, as well as excavating her childhood from buried trauma, crafting her sister into a listener character in the book, pushing past profound dissatisfaction, the submission process, making space for being corny, and more! Plus audience questions! Shze-Hui Tjoa is a writer from Singapore who lives...

Morgan Talty live-comments on his own Goodreads review, then discusses his debut novel, Fire Exit, as well as why he enjoys interacting with his online reviewers, the expectations people bring to indigenous fiction, being an objective reader of his own work, building emotion around an idea, balancing darkness with tenderness, Alice Munro, writing from the perspective of a white man, and more! Morg...

We're live from the beautiful Fine Arts Building in downtown Chicago at Lindsay's favorite bookstore, Exile in Bookville! Kimberly King Parsons talks about her debut novel, We Were the Universe, a mother’s right to disassociate, drugs, horny moms, “a quick squirt,” her painstaking sentence-making, Garielle Lutz, her favorite music, deserving her novel’s ending and more! Plus audience questions! Ki...

Ferdia Lennon discusses the historical background of his debut novel, Glorious Exploits, skepticism and the divine, reading the classics, coming back to writing, using contemporary Irish dialect to write a novel set in the Peloponnesian War, and more! Ferdia Lennon was born in Dublin to an Irish mother and a Libyan father. He holds a BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and an...

Lucas Mann discusses his essay collection, Attachments, as well as Brad Pitt, being a dad but not a dumb dad, intentions vs. writing, fooling himself into writing, the usefulness of delusion, writing as excavation, Dr. Becky, his bookstore in Providence, Riffraff, and more! Lucas Mann is the author of the new collection, Attachments: Essays on Fatherhood and Other Performances, as well as Captive...

Temim Fruchter discusses her debut novel, City of Laughter, the Jewish folklore and queer joy that informed it, the circular/non-linear structure to be found in Jewish folklore and in her novel, writing in different timelines and generations, hosting Pete’s Reading Series, ultrafemme queerness, and more! Temim Fruchter is a queer nonbinary anti-Zionist Jewish writer who lives in Brooklyn, NY. She...

Alexandra Tanner talks about her debut novel, WORRY, along with sibling dynamics, current slang (we don’t know what it is), allowing for characters to have free will, writing a harsh yet recognizable mother character, editing a “fragmentary, formless book” into the shape it has today, Amy Klobuchar (IYKYK), the nihilism in her favorite narratives, and more! Alexandra Tanner is a Brooklyn-based wri...

Amy Shearn discusses her new novel, Dear Edna Sloane, as well as unplugging, being a woman writer of a certain age, the notion of creating content vs. making art, working with an indie press vs. a bigger publisher, her “saucy” upcoming novel, and more! Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here, as well as two fort...

Juli Min discusses her debut novel, Shanghailanders, as well as starting with place, working toward the backward-in-time structure, writing sisters, writing “mean” characters, the notion of home, the work of writing historical fiction, how becoming a mother made her fearless as a writer, the Shanghai lit scene and more! Juli Min is a Korean-American writer based in Shanghai. She holds an MFA in fi...

Julia Hannafin discusses their debut novel, Cascade, as well as the research she did into the Farallon Islands, writing from life, bird shit, grief, working with Great Place Books, the difference between writing for TV and writing novels, and more! Born and raised in Berkeley, Julia Hannafin now lives in Los Angeles. They have written episodes for television. Cascade is her debut novel. Learn more...

Clare Beams (The Garden) discusses the fascinating medical history behind her new novel, writing a “ghost story,” crafting a sympathetic villain and an unlikable main character, finding inspiration and darkness by re-reading The Secret Garden as an adult, and more! Clare Beams’s new novel, The Garden, will be published by Doubleday in April of 2024. It has been longlisted for the 2024 Joyce Carol...

Daniel Sweren-Becker discusses his new novel, Kill Show, as well as using the oral history format, finding the right balance of red herrings to tantalize but not torture the reader, true crime, the way truth can be shaped and manipulated, white man’s fragility, and more! Daniel Sweren-Becker is an author, a television writer, and a playwright living in Los Angeles. He graduated from Wesleyan Unive...

Katya Apekina discusses her new novel, Mother Doll, as well as using humor as a coping mechanism and a vehicle for intimacy, sex scenes, giving a ghost a voice, being inspired by her grandmother’s memoirs, generational trauma, time as something stacked rather than something sprawling, ambiguous endings, and so much more! Katya Apekina is a novelist, screenwriter and translator. Her novel, The Deep...