Listen to a replay of 2025's other 3rd most popular episode (it was a statistical tie)!

Bestselling author and literary agent Betsy Lerner spoke with me about being a “late bloomer,” what 35 years in publishing has taught her, and portraying mental illness in her debut novel SHRED SISTERS.

Betsy Lerner is the author of the popular advice book to writers, The Forest for the Trees, and the memoirs Food and Loathing and The Bridge Ladies. With Temple Grandin, she is the also co-author of the New York Times bestseller Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns and Abstractions.

Her debut novel, Shred Sisters, is described as “... an intimate and bittersweet story exploring the fierce complexities of sisterhood, mental health, loss and love.” The book was longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a New York Times Notable Book of 2024, and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and Best Book of the Year So Far, among many other accolades.

Betsy received an MFA from Columbia University in Poetry and was selected as one of PEN’s Emerging Writers. She also received the Tony Godwin Publishing Prize for Editors. After working as an editor for 15 years, she became an agent and is currently a partner with Dunow, Carlson and Lerner Literary Agency.

[This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to⁠⁠ ⁠ulys.app/writeabook⁠⁠⁠ to download Ulysses, and use the code FILES at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."]

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In this file Betsy Lerner and I discussed:

Getting kicked out of film school

How "No Bad Dogs" inspired her to write The Forest for the Trees about writer personalities

Working with punk rock icon Patti Smith

The secrets behind her writing process

Why she wants to have dinner with filmmaker Greta Gerwig

And a lot more!

Show Notes:

⁠betsylerner.com⁠

⁠Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency⁠

⁠Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner⁠ (Amazon)

⁠The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner⁠ (Amazon)

⁠Betsy Lerner Amazon Author Page⁠

⁠Kelton Reid on Twitter

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No bad dogs

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