The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

How Bestselling Author & Literary Agent Betsy Lerner Writes

Feb 28, 2025

38:22

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.

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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