Brandon Taylor Wrote 'Real Life' And 'Filthy Animals' For His Queer, Black Friends

It's Been a Minute

NPR

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🗓️ 21 September 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

Author Brandon Taylor used to spend most of his hours studying nematodes under a microscope as a grad student. He wrote his first novel over a period of five weeks, mostly while in a lab. That book, Real Life, was released in 2020 to much critical acclaim. He published his second book this year, a short story collection called Filthy Animals.

Taylor talks to Sam about his focus on the tensions of everyday relationships, writing from a Black and queer perspective and his intended audience of just a couple close friends.

This conversation is part of a collaboration between NPR and the Library of Congress National Book Festival. For more information about the festival, visit loc.gov/bookfest.

You can follow us on Twitter @NPRItsBeenAMin and email us at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR.
0:02.1	I'm Sam Sanders.
0:03.5	My guest today wrote his first novel,
0:05.8	in a science lab, in just five weeks.
0:08.7	When I had a long incubation step,
0:10.7	I would just write words, and then I would get up
0:12.9	and do the science and then sit down,
0:14.3	and while I was waiting, I'd write more words,
0:16.6	and the slowly but surely the book came together.
0:19.5	That's Brandon Taylor.
0:20.6	That first book is called Real Life,
0:22.4	and he wrote it while he was a grad student
0:24.3	in a biochemistry program.
0:25.9	I was studying stem cells and nematodes.
0:28.2	The main character in real life is named Wallace.
0:31.2	And Wallace also spends most of his time in a lab.
0:34.8	Wallace is a biochem grad student,
0:36.6	also studying nematodes.
0:38.6	And a strange thing happened when the book came out.
0:40.8	It brought together a community
0:42.3	that you have probably never thought about.
0:44.7	One of the delightful things about publishing this book
	...

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