The Lives of Writers

Michael talks with Kevin Maloney about getting married to the same person a few times, working as a web developer for about fifteen years, looking to dead writers for a way to live, interest in Eastern philosophy and the doomed quest to jump to wisdom, writing with a true voice and sense of humor, THE RED-HEADED PILGRIM (Two Dollar Radio), learning from plotless work to write a book with a plot, the comic giving way to sadness, writing a really good middle, blending the autobiographical and the fictional, seeking the maybe impossible path to spiritual being, and more.Kevin Maloney is the author of The Red-Headed Pilgrim (Two Dollar Radio, Jan 2023), Horse Girl Fever (CLASH Books, 2024), and Cult of Loretta (Lazy Fascist, 2015).Podcast theme: DJ Garlik and Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Amy Fusselman about releasing a book, harboring a secret in childhood that created a belief in writing, becoming comfortable sharing personal work, the story of Ohio Edit and other publishing projects, accidental humor in her first four books on challenging topics, writing humor on purpose and trying stand-up, her first novel THE MEANS, the personal seeds of fictional invention, making bold moves on the page without apology, call backs and threading, lists, and much more.Amy Fusselman is the author of five books. Her latest, The Means, is her first novel. Her previous four books, all nonfiction, have been translated into several languages. Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and many other places. She lives in New York City with her family and teaches creative writing at NYU.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Chelsea Martin about putting together books as a kid, going to art school, becoming a writer in the small press community, essay as therapy, her essay collection CACA DOLCE, her novel TELL ME I’M AN ARTIST, the line between personal and familial responsibility, the guilt of doing what you want, trying to see yourself in others, defining yourself against others, raising kids in a way you may not be able to relate to, the use of artifacts in the novel, comic sensibility, and more.Chelsea Martin is the author of the novel Tell Me I’m An Artist (Soft Skull Press, 2022), the essay collection Caca Dolce (Soft Skull Press, 2017), and several other books, including the novella Mickey (Curbside Splendor, 2016). She lives in Spokane, WA with her husband and child.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Nuar Alsadir about remote psychoanalysis, finding a path as a thinker and writer, her two collections of poetry, her book-length essay Animal Joy (Graywolf Press), spontaneous outbursts of laughter, losing an early version of the book, free association as form and process, balancing the personal and intellectual, the research and writing processes, laughter as manipulation, the parallels of laughter and empathy, free range writing play, and more.Nuar Alsadir is the author of Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation (Graywolf Press) and the poetry collections Fourth Person Singular (Pavilion Poetry), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, and More Shadow than Bird (Salt Publishing). She lives in New York City and works as a psychoanalyst. Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Erin Langner about working in museums, getting into art and writing and museology, her essay collection Souvenirs from Paradise (Zone 3 Press), the space between reality and fantasy, tourist cities, historical cities as myth, Vegas as a mirror for the self,  internal experience of artifice and spectacle, attempting to touch the real, memorializing tragedy, mapping the structure of the book, personal essay as museum, and more.Erin Langner is the author of the debut essay collection Souvenirs from Paradise, which is out now from Zone 3 Press. She is a regular contributor to Hyperallergic and METROPOLIS magazines, and her writing has also appeared or is forthcoming in publications including Fourth Genre, december, The Offing, and The Normal School. She works on exhibitions and publications at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Adrienne Marie Barrios about working from home, becoming a writer and editor, starting Reservoir Road Literary Magazine and CLOVES Literary, getting diagnosed with autism later in life, Leigh Chadwick, the making of TOO MUCH TONGUE (Autofocus Books, 2022), collaborating in a digital space, existential anxiety with levity, her forthcoming WE DON'T KNOW THAT THIS IS TEMPORARY (Redacted Books, 2023), fears around publishing very personal writing, and more.Adrienne Marie Barrios is author of the prose poetry collection Too Much Tongue (Autofocus, 2022), written collaboratively with the poet Leigh Chadwick, and her debut poetry collection We Don't Know That This Is Temporary (Redacted Books, 2023). She serves as co-editor-in-chief of Reservoir Road Literary Review and editor-in-chief of CLOVES Literary.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik and Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Sarah Fawn Montgomery about blue collar roots, a teacher who fostered a passion for literature, writing poetry while procrastinating, previous books including QUITE MAD: An American Pharma Memoir, her new essay collection HALFWAY FROM HOME, losing her father while finishing the book, connecting the personal to the conceptual, collection organization as Tetris, writing effective entry points to brief sections of writing, efficiently capturing specificity, a novel on submission, and more.Sarah Fawn Montgomery is the author of Halfway from Home (Split/Lip Press). She is also the author of Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir (OSU Press) and the poetry chapbooks Regenerate: Poems of Mad Women (Dancing Girl Press), Leaving Tracks: A Prairie Guide ( 2017), and The Astronaut Checks His Watch ( 2014). Her poetry and prose have appeared in Brevity, Crab Orchard Review, DIAGRAM, Electric Literature, LitHub, New England Review, The Normal School, Passages North, Poetry Foundation, The Rumpus, Southeast Review, Terrain, and numerous other journals and anthologies. Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Andrew Bomback about writing on the morning train, life as an academic doctor, his path to reading and writing literature, specializing in kidneys, the influence of David Shields and Amy Fusselman, his Object Lessons book Doctor, the artifice of medicine, his new book Long Days, Short Years, struggles with three-year-olds and anger, the role of rehearsal in parenting, communicating with kids about our failures, and much more. Andrew Bomback is the author of Long Days, Short Years: A Cultural History of Modern Parenting (MIT Press, 2022). He's also the author of Doctor (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018). An Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, his essays have appeared in the Atlantic, Los Angeles Review of Books, McSweeney's, and elsewhere.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Guest host Sara Rauch talks with Kristine Langley Mahler about space-out time, her work with Split/Lip Press, discovering creative non-fiction, finding a writing community online, submitting to lit mags, her essay collection CURING SEASON, formal experimentation and structure as processing elements, immersion and vulnerability, adolescence, and more.Kristine Langley Mahler is the author of the debut essay collection Curing Season: Artifacts (WVU Press, 2022). She directs Split/Lip Press. Her next book, A Calendar is a Snakeskin, will be out with us here at Autofocus sometime next year.Sara Rauch is the author of XO (Autofocus Books, 2022) and What Shines from It: Stories (Alt Current, 2020). sararauch.comPodcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Ryan Rivas about the story of Burrow Press, finding his way as a writer, the Orlando literary community, the making of the mixed media book NEXTDOOR IN COLONIALTOWN (Autofocus Books, 2022), neighborhood photography, Colonialtown, the suburban gothic, selecting and arranging found text from nextdoor[dot]com, whiteness, the book as art object, and more.Ryan Rivas is the author of Nextdoor in Colonialtown (Autofocus 2022). He is the Publisher of Burrow Press, and the Coordinator of MFA Publishing at Stetson University’s MFA of the Americas creative writing program. A Macondo Writers Workshop fellow, his work has appeared in The Believer, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012, and elsewhere.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause"