The Lives of Writers

Christine Sneed [Host: Sara Rauch]

Episode Summary

Sara Rauch interviews Christine Sneed. Topics include: mainstream publishing, novels in drawers, Christine's new story collection DIRECT SUNLIGHT, beginning stories with titles, the comic potential of the every day, the enmeshment of character and plot, figuring it out as you go, and more.

Episode Notes

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Sara Rauch interviews Christine Sneed.

Christine Sneed is the author of the new story collection Direct Sunlightin addition to three novels and two previous story collections, most recently Please Be Advised and The Virginity of Famous Men. She is also the editor of a collection of short fiction, Love in the Time of Time's Up. 

Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length essay XO, from us at Autofocus Books. She’s also the author of the story collection, What Shines from it, from Alternating Current Press. Her book reviews and author interviews have been featured in the LA Review of Books, Newcity Lit, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- juggling teaching gigs

-- the fate of mid-list fiction writers

-- writing stories vs novels

-- novels in drawers

-- Christine's Substack, Bookish

-- mainstream publishing

-- sticking it out

-- poetry before fiction

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- life before the first book

-- 25 years of rejection from one mag

-- disappointment

-- Christine's new story collection Direct Sunlight

-- stories as windows

-- beginning with a title

-- layering details 

-- the comic potential of the every day

-- collecting a story collection

-- the truth, revealed

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- balancing formal inventiveness

--  associative logic

--  the enmeshment of character and plot

-- the stories of Alice Munro

-- the first couple lines

-- figuring it out as you go

-- dealing with disappointment

-- tuning out the outside world

-- new work

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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.