Jeff Alessandrelli interviews Michael Wheaton. Topics include: what in retrospect is quite obviously a mid-life crisis, pre-Autofocus experiences with literary community, figuring out a life in the arts, the move to autobiographical writing from fiction, deciding to become a publisher, HOME MOVIES, a planned community in Orlando, new and old media, and more.
On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Jeff Alessandrelli interviews Michael Wheaton.
Michael Wheaton is the author of the essay Home Movies (Bunny Presse, 2024). His writing has appeared in Essay Daily, DIAGRAM, Burrow Press Review, Rejection Letters, HAD, and other online journals. He publishes Autofocus Books and produces this podcast.
Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. His novel And Yet is being reissued this year by Future Tense Books. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.
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FULL INTERVIEW topics include:
-- what in retrospect is quite obviously a mid-life crisis
-- experiences with literary community before Autofocus
-- early life and reading and television and the arts
-- pursuing music for a little while a long while ago
-- writing fiction before, through, and after an MFA
-- the move to writing more autobiographically
-- becoming a parent and ways it changed the art
-- deciding to become a publisher
-- seeing yourself as more than one thing
-- HOME MOVIES and its earlier versions
-- discovering a writing process through the attempts
-- the "Office Hours" part of the book about a planned community in Florida
-- new and old media's effects and the difficulty of seeing them
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Podcast theme music by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.
The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.
Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.