Get to Know Our Friend Jess Walter

A Deeper Dive With Our Most Recent Guest

A Conversation with Jess Walter

A writing tip, book recommendation, and other great insights from Jess that were not covered in our on-air interview, which you can WATCH or LISTEN to now!

For any aspiring writers out there, would you please share a short bit of writing advice?
I have musician friends who never say they’re going to work. They say they’re going to play. Most of us started writing with a sense of play—word play, the joy of telling a story, the musicality of prose and poetry. I do things to remind myself every day that I love to write: I sit down at the computer with a cookie and a latte in the morning; I tune out the world (no emails or texts); I put on music in the background; I read aloud what I’ve done, looking for the melody; and if I’m stuck on something, I switch to another song for a while.

What is the last book you raved about and what did you love about it?
On the advice of several readers, I finally read Trust by Hernan Diaz. I loved its shifting reality, its formal invention and its canny commentary on capitalism. I think it should have won the Pulitzer Prize. (What? It did? Oh, good, I’m glad they didn’t wait around for my opinion.)

What can you tell us about your work-in-progress?