New York Mercantile Library

I went on to get a teaching fellowship at Princeton and another one at Harvard, which turned into a regular gig.

Now I'm working with writing programs for fiction writers as well as nonfiction writers through the Center for Fiction in New York and other writing programs like that.

And I just really love it.

No, but you know, what's so encouraging is to see how many people are writing.

I can get through to writers, no matter what the issue is, a lot quicker when there's an understanding that I'm trying to do the same thing that they're trying to do.

And that's been really, I think if you go to some of the strongest relationships I have with authors, fellows from the Emerging Writer Fellowship, writers at the Blacklist, people from the Writer's Studio at the Center for Fiction, it's that.

uh that baseline first and so we may not agree on everything but they know where it's coming from they know uh where the care where the sternness uh where the love they know where it's coming from and and i think that is has always been really helpful for me in my work

I sometimes think that you understand the needs a little bit more poignantly than somebody who might be really experienced as an arts leader but may not know what it's like to be a poet um struggling to get their work seen or their voice heard um so that that kind of empathy is really is really um i think a superpower um in the work that we do it is very challenging to balance both both things um as we can i'm sure we'll get into but it's um but i love that i've um You know, I love that I can talk about poetry, you know, with a genuine love of the art to people that I meet at Poets House, which I forgot to mention that Poets House is also just a space you can go to and hang out and be, you know, and spend all day, you know, it's a free, it's a free space, you could just walk right into it and sit at a table and write a, you know, write your book.

And in a starred review, Kirkus declared the book "a nuanced, biting cautionary tale about how n- not staying present can erase our very selves." Jessica also publishes a weekly Substack, The Retro Report, where she shares vintage, mood-based recommendations.

In this file, Jessica, Molina, and I discussed the origins of her debut novel and how she snagged an agent, getting longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, her intense nostalgia for the before times, why you need to opt out of the imagined timeline of becoming an author, and a lot more.

Stay calm and write on.

And don't forget, you can always support this show by heading to writerfiles.fm, where you can also sign up for email updates and other resources for writers.

Well, we have to say congratulations on the, uh, debut.

Retro is so much fun and, um, has had such a, a great reception obviously.

And congrats on being longlisted for, uh, the Center for Fiction, uh, First Novel Prize.

That, that-

The second thing I found is actually being nominated or like long listed for quite a few awards.

California Book Award Silver Medalist, long listed for the Center of Fiction, First Novel Prize, and the VCU Cable First Novelist Award.

And it was nominated as Best Book of the Year by quite a few different publications, including Time, Vulture, Oprah Daily, People, Publishers Weekly, et cetera, et cetera.

But the most titillating piece of information I found in my travels.

Lisa Lee is the author of the debut novel, American Han, described by Jomana Khatib of the New York Times Book Review as one of the best things I've read in ages and named a most anticipated book by the New York Times, Time, Harper's Bazaar, LA Times, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Book Riot, Audible, and many more.

She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and awards from the Key West Literary Seminar, the Center for Fiction, Malay Arts, Hedgebrook, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Tin House, and others.

She holds an MFA from the University of Houston and a PhD in creative writing and literature from the University of Southern California.

She lives in Los Angeles.