The Lives of Writers

Michael talks with Meghan Phillips about bringing her first chapbook into the world, crafting a voice at the sentence level, pens & notebooks, the daunting task of novel writing, reading as a comfort, kids TV, filling in gaps of nostalgic pop culture, and more!Meghan Phillips is a writer and editor who was a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow in 2020. Her short fiction has been anthologized in Best Microfiction 2019, 2020, & 2021 and The Best Small Fictions 2019. Her sold out flash fiction chapbook Abstinence Only from is available right now for free as an e-book from Barrelhouse.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Sari Fordham about growing up in Uganda as an Adventist during a human rights crisis, environmental activism and reacting to climate change, getting to know her late mother through writing the memoir WAIT FOR GOD TO NOTICE (Etruscan Press), becoming a mother while working on the book, and more.Sari Fordham is the author of the memoir Wait for God to Notice (Etruscan Press). Her work has appeared in Chattahoochee Review, Brevity, Passages North, Best of the Net, and many other places. She teaches creative writing at La Sierra University.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Tope Folarin about his first trip back to Salt Lake City in 27 years, decolonizing art, the whiteness of autofiction in the critical sphere, directing The Institute of Policy Studies, his debut novel A Particular Kind of Black Man, the naming of main characters in autofiction, a next book in progress, and more.Tope Folarin is a Nigerian-American writer based in Washington DC. His debut novel, A Particular Kind of Black Man, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2019, and he has garnered many awards for his work, including the Caine Prize for African Writing and more recently the Whiting Award for Fiction.If you'd like to hear Tope Folarin talk more about autofiction and whiteness (and more), check out his previous conversation with Teresa Carmody and Ryan Rivas on the Autofocus YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc7T0yQ45fg.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Kara Vernor about animals, coffee, mugs, writing flash, writing from and not from the personal, first vs. third person narrators, drafting and revision based on genre, and more.Kara Vernor is the writer of the short collection Because I Wanted to Write You a Pop Song (Split Lip Press). Her fiction and essays have appeared in Ninth Letter, The Normal School, Gulf Coast, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and elsewhere, and she runs the @mugshot_writers Instagram account featuring photos and anecdotes of writers and their mugs. Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Selah Saterstrom about initiations into the medium of language and the study of creative writing, divinatory poetics and the writing process, her recent book Rancher (Burrow Press), healing and writing in community, and much more.Selah Saterstrom is the author of three novels (all from Coffee House Press), the collection Ideal Suggestions: Essays in Divinatory Poetics (Essay Press), and most recently the book-length essay Rancher (Burrow Press). She teaches and lectures across the United States, and is the director of Creative Writing at the University of Denver.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Avni Vyas about building an endurance for joy, the path to her first solo poetry collection, the presence of a father who passed, drafting ambidextrously, handwriting, speakers of poems in conversation, a vivid compact style, and more.Avni Vyas is a poet living and writing in Florida. Her new book of poems, Little God, is out now from Burrow Press. She is the essays editor at Honey Literary and poetry editor at The Offending Adam. You can find her on Twitter @AvniDangerfield and Instagram @singstooloud.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Berholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Betsy Bonner about being a poet by default, her memoir The Book of Atlantis Black (Tin House Books), writing about family and the mystery of a missing sister, collaging her sister's voice into her own narrative, mental illness & social media, the process of writing memoir through grief, whether there's closure, and more.Betsy Bonner is the author of the poetry collection Round Lake (Four Way Books) and the memoir The Book of Atlantis Black (Tin House Books), which is out now in paperback. She is a former director of the 92 Y Poetry Center, where she now teaches creative writing. She is a fellow of the MacDowell Colony and the T. S. Eliot House.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Michael Seidlinger about his path to writing, a love of horror, video games, his former press Civil Coping Mechanisms, his new book RUNAWAYS (Future Tense Books), the bonkers and broken system of publishing, falling back on a love of writing, processes based on the book, and more.Michael Seidlinger is a Filipino American author of My Pet Serial Killer, Dreams of Being, The Fun We’ve Had, and many other books. His newest, Runaways, is out now from Future Tense Books. You can find him online on Facebook, Twitter (@mjseidlinger), and Instagram (@michaelseidlinger).Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Jen Winston about launching their first book of essays, upkeeping a popular social media account, unlearning, bisexuality, writing a book on a tight deadline, incorporating different forms into essay writing, AOL Instant Messenger, the prospect of parenthood, and more.Jen Winston (she/they) is the author of the essay collection Greedy: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much, which is out now from Atria Books. Their writing has been featured in TheWall Street Journal, TheWashington Post, CNN, and more. You can follow Jen on Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter: @Jenerous. Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Todd Dillard about his every day, his family, video games, comic books, coming to poetry, his first collection WAYS WE VANISH, writing the personal surreally, short books, process, new work, and more.Todd Dillard’s debut poetry collection Ways We Vanish came out it 2020 with Okay Donkey Press, and he’s had work appear in The Offing, Electric Literature, The Adroit Journal, Fairy Tale Review, HAD, and here in Autofocus.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.