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Otherppl with Brad Listi

709. Melissa Febos

Otherppl with Brad Listi

Brad Listi

Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.8554 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2021

⏱️ 127 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melissa Febos is the author of the essay collection Girlhood (Bloomsbury). It is a national bestseller.  Her other books include the critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart (St. Martin’s Press 2010), and the essay collection, Abandon Me (Bloomsbury 2017), which was a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist, a Publishing Triangle Award finalist, an Indie Next Pick, and was widely named a Best Book of 2017. A craft book, Body Work, will be published by Catapult in March 2022. The inaugural winner of the Jeanne Córdova Nonfiction Award from LAMBDA Literary, her work has appeared in publications including The Paris Review, The Sun, The Kenyon Review, Tin House, Granta, The Believer, McSweeney’s, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Elle, and Vogue. Her essays have won prizes from Prairie Schooner, Story Quarterly, The Sewanee Review, and The Center for Women Writers at Salem College. She is a four-time MacDowell fellow and has also received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The Barbara Deming Memorial Foundation, The BAU Institute at The Camargo Foundation, The Ragdale Foundation, and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, which named her the 2018 recipient of the Sarah Verdone Writing Award. She co-curated the Mixer Reading and Music Series in Manhattan for ten years and served on the Board of Directors for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts for five. The recipient of an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, she is an associate professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Launched in 2011. Books. Literature. Writing. Publishing. Authors. Screenwriters. Life. Death. Etc. Support the show on Patreon Merch www.otherppl.com @otherppl Instagram  YouTube Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

All right, everybody, how you doing? Welcome to The Other People Show. My name's Brad Listy. I'm in Los Angeles. I appreciate you tuning in and very pleased to share today's episode with you. My guest is Melissa Fibos. She's an old friend of mine, and I've talked with her before on this show, and I'm delighted to have her back.

0:24.2

She is celebrating the publication of a new essay collection called Girlhood out on Bloomsbury.

0:30.4

It is a national bestseller.

0:35.3

Very happy for Melissa Fibos.

0:37.3

She is now an associate professor at the University of Iowa, which is a relatively new development.

0:45.0

She's teaching in their non-fiction writing program.

0:50.5

Her other books include the critically acclaimed memoir Whipsmart and another essay collection called Abandon Me, which was a Lambda Literary Award finalist back in 2017.

1:03.1

Melissa also has a craft book due out next spring on Catapult.

1:07.6

It is called Bodywork.

1:10.1

So my conversation with Melissa Fibos is coming up momentarily.

1:16.3

And once again, her new essay collection is called Girlhood.

1:20.6

Today's episode is brought to you by Restless Books, publisher of the award-winning new novel, Catch

1:25.8

the Rabbit by Lana Bostasich.

1:28.5

Catch the Rabbit is a hypnotic novel set in post-war Bosnia.

1:31.6

It's about a couple of female friends on a road trip in search of a long, lost brother.

1:38.1

Catch the Rabbit is about how we remember the past.

1:41.0

It's about all the ways in which two people can hurt and misunderstand one another.

1:45.7

Alexander Heyman calls it, quote, smart, energetic, passionate, announcing a major talent.

1:52.0

And publishers weekly in a starred review says, quote, this unforgettable tour to force surprises at every turn.

1:59.7

Catch the Rabbit by Lana Bostasich.

2:02.4

Available now from restless books.

2:08.1

All right.

...

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