Jami Attenberg [Host: Drew Hawkins]

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Drew Hawkins interviews Jami Attenberg.

Jami Attenberg is a New York Times bestselling author of now eight books of fiction, including The Middlesteins and All Grown Up; a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You; and 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. She is the founder of the annual #1000WordsofSummer project, and maintains the popular Craft Talk newsletter year-round. Jami's new novel is A Reason to See You Again.

Drew Hawkins is a writer and journalist in New Orleans. He's the producer and host of Micro, a podcast for short but powerful writing. You can find his work on NPR, The Guardian, Scalawag Magazine, HAD, and elsewhere. His essay, "Bottom of the X," came out recently in the summer 2024 issue of Autofocus.

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Full conversation topics include:

--Jami's 10th book, A Reason to See You Again

-- ground rules for the new book

-- first lines

-- family games

-- loss

-- time in the novel

-- phones and social

-- perspective and interiority

-- "screen time" for characters

-- New Orleans

-- a perfect writing day

-- 1,000 words

-- readings
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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.