Episode 99 — Elizabeth Ellen

Summary: Elizabeth Ellen is today's guest. She's the author of FAST MACHINE, a collection of her best work from the last decade. She lives in Ann Arbor where she co-edits Hobart and oversees its book division, Short Flight/Long Drive Books. Raves Roxane Gay: "Ellen’s writing is amazing...The best thing about [it] is that it has big brass balls." And The Stranger says "You don't get to see this side of womanhood very often in fiction—tough, and bitter, and unashamed—and it requires something intensive like FAST MACHINE, a deep, repetitive series of brutal inquiries, to uncover those kinds of secrets. What Ellen is doing here is going deep inside herself and coming back with something small and glistening and vulnerable cradled in her hands. She's offering it to you. You should take it." Topics of conversation include: whiskey, Maker's Mark, Ann Arbor, Ohio, marriage, divorce, children, racquetball, Florida, Key West, court reporting, Hemingway, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, shyness, house parties, University of Cincinnati, panic attacks, breathing, The Hills, break-ups, Columbus, reptiles, hurricanes, head shops, hippies, Jim Morrison, alcoholism, bikes, Buckeye Lake, nitrous balloons, LSD, toe rings, breakdowns, pot, performance enhancing drugs, Michigan, Dorothy Parker, Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller, gender, Sofia Coppola, Somewhere, minimalism, George Saunders, Aimee Bender, internet literature, Pindeldyboz, Dave Eggers, Opium, Eyeshot, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, David Foster Wallace, Alt Lit, self-consciousness, plans, self-publishing, road trips, book tour, vans, Aaron Burch, Chelsea McClanahan, Chelsea Martin, trains, anxiety, work habits, and fairly long periods of dicking around. Monologue topics: Israel, Episode 100, neck pillows, whirlwind journeys, sleeping with your mouth open, haircuts.