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Working: Learning From the Letters of Two Great Artists

Slate Daily Feed

Slate Podcasts

News, Business, Society & Culture

41.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2023

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, host June Thomas talks to poet Chip Livingston, who recently compiled a collection of letters titled, Love, Loosha: The Letters of Lucia Berlin and Kenward Elmslie. It documents the friendship between the writer Lucia Berlin, who is now well-regarded for her short stories but was underappreciated during her lifetime, and the poet and librettist Kenward Elmslie. In the interview, Chip shares how he put the collection together and talks about his personal relationships with both Berlin and Elmslie. He also explains how the book can serve as a useful depiction of what it’s like to live as an artist. After the interview, June and co-host Isaac Butler talk more about what we can learn from the letters of great writers. They also discuss overly confessional writing and how to determine the audience for your work. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Chip talks about how his love of poetry blossomed in part thanks to his friendship with Kenward Elmslie. Do you have a question about creative work? Call us and leave a message at (304) 933-9675 or email us at [email protected]. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:42.0

Lucía thought it was a miracle anytime anyone wrote something. You know, that's sort of like how I try to approach every student writing before I get into like, hey, you know, this doesn't make any sense or you know, you have too many fragments.

1:07.0

You know, first I'm like, this is a miracle. Welcome back to working. I'm your host, Isaac Butler.

1:16.0

And I'm your other host, June Thomas.

1:19.0

June, I believe this is the first time this year that we have seen each other. It's over Zoom. I'm looking at a blurred out image of, it's a living room, I think.

1:30.0

How are you doing so far? How's the year been?

1:33.0

It's been good. I'm in the kind of final weeks before my first book delivery deadline. It's been really cold.

1:44.0

And so it's been actually quite good to be in a place where the sensible thing is to stay in and huddle down and just be at your desk.

1:54.0

So that's been good. Speaking of cold, dark, but cultured places, how is your trip to London?

2:00.0

It was great. It was warmer in London than it was in New York because there was that like Arctic snap or whatever it's called.

2:07.0

And so it was in the fifties in London and it was like seven in New York, which did not make me afraid for the future of the planet at all.

2:14.0

No, it's all few things about London. The sun rises at eight a.m. and sets at three p.m. for the day is very short.

2:21.0

Yes. People drink too much and groceries are shockingly cheap.

2:27.0

But enough about me. Let's talk on whose voice we heard at the top of the episode.

2:31.0

Well, Isaac, that was Chip Livingston. And he's a poet, a writer of short fiction, a teacher and an editor.

2:38.0

Oh, that's fascinating. So why did you want to talk to Mr. Chip Livingston?

2:42.0

Well, it was something that he edited. He recently compiled a collection of letters that were exchanged between writers who see a Berlin and Kenward Elmsley.

2:53.0

Now, not going to pretend that I had ever read those writers. In fact, I hadn't even heard of Kenward Elmsley.

...

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