Fictionalizing Real Life w. LISA KO

Episode 30

Lisa Ko is the author of The Leavers, a novel that won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction, the 2018 PEN/Hemingway Award, and the 2017 Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award. Her writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2016, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She lives in New York City.

This episode is sponsored by Scrivener. 

Discussed In This Episode

The American immigration horror show. Writing from the news. Complicating the notion of motherhood. Are the outliners lying? “I have to write it to figure out it doesn’t work.” Showing belonging and alienation through place. “What is it like for people to see you as this person that you don’t believe you are?” Roxane Gay on why presuming autobiography in fiction impoverishes the reading experience. Fact-checking your fiction. What are you prioritizing? Promoting your work and vulnerability hangovers. When the work doesn’t feel yours anymore. Document chaos. Working on your characters = working on yourself.

Recommended Reading

The Leavers, Lisa Ko

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