Allegra Goodman [Host: Holly Pelesky]

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 essay collection, Cleave, from us at Autofocus Books. She also writes fiction and poetry and co-edits Vast Chasm literary magazine.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- a recently empty nest

-- writing routines

-- holding the thread

-- growing up in Honolulu

-- the seven-year-old novelist

--  a literary family

-- Little House in the Big Woods

--  writing short stories at Harvard in the 80's

-- a story as a ship in a bottle

-- living with a novel

-- words as tools vs words as jewels

-- writing as performance with a delay between the audience

-- Allegra's new coming-of-age novel SAM

-- evolving consciousness as plot

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- process changing over time as a writer

-- studying Shakespeare and writing the Markowitz stories

-- throwing away hundreds of pages

-- versatility

-- writing about interests in different keys

-- multimedia research

-- imaginative research

-- startling humor

-- Tolstoy

-- new reading recommendations

-- laws, rituals, and rules

-- observing the Sabbath 

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- writing things when ready to write them

--  courage

-- working through uncertainty

-- the hugeness of coming-of-age

-- the prospect of being a moon lady

-- self-deception

-- not pushing

-- forthcoming books

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.