Most beloved book from childhood
I don't remember becoming especially attached to any one book.
Social media you most use
Maybe Substack: https://taolin.
Sally Rooney or Ottessa Moshfegh
I haven't read any Rooney. I enjoy Moshfegh.
Unrequited love or fast hot affair – better for writing?
For me, unrequited love has generated much more writing. I don't think I've ever had a "fast hot affair."
Literary character you most identify with
Li in Leave Society.
Favorite Bret Easton Ellis book
White, his nonfiction book.
Writer you’d like to meet irl
I don't know.
Library or bookstore
I like both.
Best decade for books
I don't know.
Do you have a substack
Fav book-to-film adaptation
American Psycho.
Oldest novel you’ve read
Les Misérables (1862) maybe.
Writer on social media you most closely follow
Gabi Abrão.
short story you think about most
In my twenties when I thought about short stories: "1993–94" by Curtis Sittenfeld, "You're Ugly, Too" by Lorrie Moore, “China” by Charles Johnson.
Literary agent
Julie Flanagan at CAA.
Last classic novel you couldn’t get through
Not a novel but Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. I thought it would be meticulously written, but it's openly a rambling, unorganized series of thoughts and observations, from what I remember. He talks about how he wished he had more time to write it out more organized and how he's just sort of rambling. I thought it was funny.
Do you keep a journal, handwritten or typed
Both.
poet
Matthew Rohrer, Michael Earl Craig.
Sober or intoxicated
I've been using caffeine in the morning and cannabis at night lately.
Best live reader
I don't know—maybe Matthew Rohrer.
Go to podcast
Matt Beall, Danny Jones, Joe Rogan, Suzanne Giesemann.
Favorite memoirist
I don't know but I love these memoirs about going out of body, i.e. astral projection:
Journeys Out of the Body (1971) by Robert Monroe
My Travels in the Spirit World (1927) by Caroline D. Larsen
The Projection of the Astral Body (1929) by Sylvan Muldoon
And these other memoirs:
Bad Lawyer (2021) by Anna Dorn
Gamelife (2015) by Michael Clune
New yorker or Paris review
Both.
Writer you wish followed you on social media
I don't know.
Playwright
The only play I've read and enjoyed is Exit, Carefully by you: https://www.hobartpulp.
Fiction or nonfiction
I read mostly fiction until I was about 30. Since then, I've read mostly nonfiction. I still enjoy fiction. I read about 12 percent fiction, 85 percent nonfiction, 3 percent poetry now, I estimate.
Writer who made you want to be a writer
Don Delillo with White Noise. Lorrie Moore. Kafka.
