Justin taylor riding with the ghost
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Justin Taylor on Pursuing “Imaginative Empathy” in Memoir
Welcome to I’m a Writer But, where two writers-and talk to other writers-and about their work, their lives, their other work, the stuff that takes up any free time they have, all the stuff they’re not able to get to, and the ways in which any of us get anything done. Plus: book recommendations, bad jokes, okay jokes, despair, joy, and anything else we’ve got going on that week. Hosted by Lindsay Hunter and Alex Higley.
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In this episode, Justin Taylor (Riding with the Ghost) joins us to talk about recording his own audiobook; taking a frank, fair look at his father and himself as a son; finding a narrative in a personal/true story; how writing memoir helped re-teach him how to write a novel; what being a professor gives to him in his own practice; and more!
From the episode:
Justin Taylor: The more time you spend with a character, the more you find yourself rooting for them, even if you’ve set them up a
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Justin Taylor is the author of the novel Reboot, the memoir Riding with the Ghost,the novel The Gospel of Anarchy, and two collections of short fiction: Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever and Flings. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Bomb, and Bookforum, among other publications. He has taught writing at the graduate and undergraduate level in programs all over the country, including Columbia University, N.Y.U., the University of Southern Mississippi, and the University of Montana. He is a contributing writer to the Washington Post’s Book World, and the Director of the Sewanee School of Letters. He lives in Portland, Oregon. The cat’s name is Emma. Please use the contact form below if you’d like to get in touch.
Represented by Susan Golomb of Writers House.
For publicity inquires related to Reboot please contact Elka Roderick at Pantheon Books.
Contact Justin
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On transforming inspiration from others into your own work
First off, were you a child actor?
Yes.
I was expecting you to say, “No,” and then I was going to ask about your research process. Do you mind talking about the child actor stuff and how it may have inspired this?
No, not at all. I grew up in South Florida. That’s where I was born. And there was and maybe still is quite a bit of film and print, fashion, TV–all kinds of industry stuff. Miami Vice was filming down there in those days. And so, when I was an infant, my mom was told by another mother in a new mom’s group that this business existed and that they were always looking for little models. The woman said, “Not only will they pay you, but your baby can keep the clothes.”
That’s what sold my mom on it. I think I was six months old and they took some headshots or full body shots, I guess. I mean, of a baby. Then when I was a little older, four or five or six, because I was a good reader, I could memorize lines, which was a pretty valuable commodity because a lot of times that’s the hardest part of working with
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