The Lives of Writers

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Sara Rauch interviews John Milas. John Milas is the author of the gothic horror novel The Militia House , which came out this year from MacMillan. He served on active duty in the Martine Corps and deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length essay  XO , from us at Autofocus Books. She’s also the author of the story collec...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Holly Pelesky interviews Stephanie Austin. Holly Pelesky is the author of the essay collection, Cleave , from us at Autofocus Books. She also writes fiction and poetry and co-edits Vast Chasm literary magazine. Stephanie Austin is the author of Something I Might Say , a short essay collection now available from WTAW Press. Her work has been published in...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Michael Wheaton interviews Katharine Coldiron. Katharine Coldiron is the author of Ceremonials, an SPD bestseller; Plan 9 from Outer Space , a monograph; and Junk Film , a collection of critical essays. Her work as a critic has appeared in the Washington Post, the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, the Houston Chronicle, Brevity, the Believer, and...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Jeff Alessandrelli interviews Joshua James Amberson. Joshua James Amberson is the author of Staring Contest: Essays About Eyes (Perfect Day Publishing), How to Forget Almost Everything: A Novel (Korza Books), a series of chapbooks on Two Plum Press, as well as the long-running Basic Paper Airplane zine series. He lives in Portland, Oregon where he runs...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Mistie Watkins and Amy Watkins interview each other. Mistie R. Watkins is the author of the prose poetry collection HIRAETH (Autofocus Books, 2023).  She lives in Orlando with her kiddo, two dogs, and two rats. You can find her work in Burrow Press Review, The Drunken Odyssey, and Autofocus or follow her on Instagram at mistie_thebogwitch. Amy Watkins i...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Emily Costa interviews Tucker Leighty-Phillips. Tucker Leighty-Phillips is the author of Maybe This Is What I Deserve , which won the 2022 Fiction Chapbook Contest from Split/Lip Press and was published this year. His work has appeared in Smokelong, X-R-A-Y, Wigleaf, HAD, Booth, and elsewhere.  Emily Costa is the author of  Until It Feels Right (Autofoc...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Michael Wheaton interviews Emma Catherine Perry. Emma Catherine Perry is the author of Blocks World , which is out today from Great Place Books. Her poetry is published in Fence, Nashville Review, Quarterly West, and elsewhere. She currently lives in Moscow, Idaho where she supports other writers in her capacity as Associate Director of the Writing Cent...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Erin Slaughter interviews Dan O'Brien. Dan O’Brien is a playwright, poet, and essayist whose books include the poetry collection Our Cancers and the nonfiction work A Story That Happens . His newest poetry collection, A Survivor’s Notebook , is out today from Acre Books. And both his lyrical memoir From Scarsdale: A Childhood and a new collection of pla...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Sara Rauch interviews Emerson Whitney. Emerson Whitney is the author of Daddy Boy (McSweeney’s 2023), Heaven (McSweeney’s 2020), and the poetry title, Ghost Box (Timeless Infinite Light, 2014). Emerson’s work has appeared in The Paris Review, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books and elsewhere. Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length es...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Holly Pelesky interviews Suzanne Ohlmann. Suzanne Ohlmann is the author of Shadow Migration: Mapping a Life (University of Nebraska Press) and a registered nurse. Her work has been published by the Associated Press, Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, Longreads , and Texas Monthly. Holly Pelesky is the author of the essay collection, Cleave , from...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Michael Wheaton interviews Emily Adrian. Emily Adrian is the author of Everything Here Is Under Control and The Second Season , as well as two critically acclaimed novels for young adults. Her work has appeared in Granta, Joyland, Los Angeles Review of Books , and The Millions . She is also a co-editor of the new press Great Place Books . Michael Wheato...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Aaron Burch interviews Andrew Porter. Andrew Porter is the author of the novel In Between Days and two short story collections, The Theory of Light and Matter and, most recently, The Disappeared .  Porter’s short stories have appeared in One Story, Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, The Missouri Review, and Prairie Schooner , among others.  Aaron Burc...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Sara Rauch interviews Christine Sneed. Christine Sneed is the author of the new story collection Direct Sunlight in addition to three novels and two previous story collections, most recently Please Be Advised and The Virginity of Famous Men . She is also the editor of a collection of short fiction, Love in the Time of Time's Up .  Sara Rauch is the auth...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Holly Pelesky interviews Allegra Goodman. Allegra Goodman is the author of two stories collections and many novels, including Intuition, The Cookbook Collector , The Chalk  Artist, and most recently SAM . Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere, and she’s been a finalist for the National Book Award. Holly Pelesky is the author of the es...

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers , Jeff Alessandrelli interviews Brandon Shimoda. Brandon Shimoda is a yonsei poet/writer, and the author of eight books of poetry and prose, including Portuguese , The Desert, The Grave on the Wall, and most recently Hydra Medusa , which is out now from Nightboat Books. He is also the curator of the Hiroshima Library, an itinerant reading room/collection...

Michael talks with Aaron Burch about longhand, episode 10 of this podcast, Aaron’s help getting Autofocus and The Lives of Writers noticed, HAD/WAS, Short Story Long , slowing down, A Kind of In-Between , sounding like yourself, constraint, the How to Write a Novel anthology, teaching writing by thinking about other crafts, how books might come together, and more. Aaron Burch is the author of A Ki...

Guest host Emily Costa talks with Shannon McLeod about writing (or not) over summer break, watching kids learn to read, pushing against and accepting your tendencies, NATURE TRAIL STORIES (Thirty West, 2023), "borecore," walking (and noticing), birds, loneliness, writing short vs. long, reality TV, writing communities, and more. Shannon McLeod is the author of the collection Nature Trail Stories (...

Guest host Sara Lippmann talks with Seth Rogoff about collaboration, a triangle of place (Berlin, Prague, Maine), a relationship with seminal texts, the old testament, THE KIRSCHBAUM LECTURES (Sagging Meniscus, 2023), decentering meaning, making choices for or against expectation, handwriting (and not outlining), working with former NBA player Kendrick Perkins, and more. Seth Rogoff is the author...

Guest host Erin Slaughter talks with Emma Bolden about leaving academia, editing for Screen Door Review, asexuality, southern influence, writing across genres and modes, her memoir THE TIGER AND THE CAGE (Soft Skull Press, 2022), fractal form, writing about other people, writing about embodied trauma, confessional literature, endometriosis, and more. Emma Bolden is the author of The Tiger and the...

Guest host Lena Crown talks with Jessica E. Johnson about miner parents, trees, biology and literature, meaning making, mechanism, metaphor, her new book METABOLICS, the book-length poem form, accumulation, research as authority, place and context, writing the body, troubling the notion of a self, figures and diagrams, and more. Jessica E. Johnson writes poetry and nonfiction. She's the author of...

Guest host Sara Rauch talks with Katherine Indermaur about life changing with a ten-month-old, poetry and sound, editing for Sugar House Review, poetry on the page, her book I|I , the page as mirror, the sheffer stroke, the mirror in history, the mirror in her life, implicating the reader, going from chapbook to full-length, the ways we talk about ourselves, and more. Katherine Indermaur’s first f...

Guest host Jeff Alessandrelli talks with Nazli Koca about growing up in Turkey, finding a writing community in Berlin, developing a life through writing, coming to the US for an MFA, writing her debut novel THE APPLICANT (Grove Atlantic, 2023), using the diary form, fictionalizing the autobiographical, the novel's release at the time of the earthquake in Turkey, and more. Nazli Koca is the author...

Guest host Jeff Alessandrelli talks with Eileen Myles about living between New York and Marfa, poetry as daily (and not daily) practice, sobriety, vernacular writing, putting together a new and selected, their new poetry collection A WORKING LIFE, aesthetic criticism, touring, Bobby Vee, translators, and more. Eileen Myles' books include  Pathetic Literature ,  For Now  (an essay/talk about writin...

Michael talks with Tyler Gillespie about finishing a dissertation, living again and building community in Florida, growing up queer in a Southern Baptist community and becoming a reader and writer, holding onto faith outside of that context, getting sober, concurrent interests in poetry and journalism, his new poetry collection the nature machine! , working on a comedy EP during lockdown, his rela...

Guest host Jeff Alessandrelli talks with Arda Collins about feeling freer about writing after having kids, becoming a poet, hiding her prose, Charles Simic, working on documentaries, the Iowa workshop, her first collection IT IS DAYLIGHT (2009), her new collection STAR LAKE (2022), the years between the books, the links between the books, and more. Arda Collins is the author of Star Lake (2022) an...