Exploring Identity, Memories, Free Will, and Writing Struggles

John Jeremiah Sullivan is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and has written for Harper's, The New Yorker, and GQ. He is the author of Pulphead and the forthcoming The Prime Minister of Paradise: The True Story of a Lost American History.

“I love making pieces of writing and trying to find the right language to say what I mean. It's such a wonderful way of being alive in the world. I mean, your material is all around you. ... I'm lucky that it has stayed interesting for me. It hasn't faded. The challenges of writing, they still glow.”

Show notes:

• Sullivan on Longform
• Sullivan’s GQ archive
• Sullivan’s New York Times Magazine archive
• 10:00 “Uhtceare” (Paris Review • May 2021)
• 28:00 Pulphead (FSG Originals • 2011)
• 30:00 The Best American Essays 2014 (Mariner Books • 2014)
• 30:00 “The Ill-Defined Plot” (New Yorker • Oct 2014)
• 50:00 “Man Called Fran” (Harper’s • Sept 2023)
• 50:00 “The Final Comeback of Axl Rose” (GQ • Aug 2006)
• 50:00 “Upon This Rock” (GQ • Jan 2004)
• 50:00 “Peyton’s Place” (GQ • Oct 2011)
• 50:00 “Leaving Reality” (GQ • Oct 2011)
• 54:00 “Pulp Fever” (Daniel Riley • GQ • Nov 2011)

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