This month, we present our conversation with writer Jean Hannah Edelstein about the all-too-often unspoken realities of making a living – one of which is that it’s not often done with writing. We also talk about the glories of being an underachiever at the day job while still using writing skills (check out episode 35 with Caroline Donahue for more about choosing a day job that leaves you with enough mental and physical space to pursue writing), how a rigid writing schedule doesn’t work for everyone, and giving yourself permission to be a writer.
Jean is a Brooklyn-based writer who’s a frequent freelance contributor to many publications including The Guardian, The Pool, and Elle. Her day job is in marketing, working with tech companies like Etsy, her current position. Her forthcoming memoir, This Really Isn’t About You, about grief, family, immigration, love, cancer and one very special colonoscopy, among other things, will be published by Picador in the UK in August, 2018. We first found Jean through her TinyLetter Thread, which we highly recommend. You can sign up for it and read more about Jean at jeanhannahedelstein.com and follow her on Twitter @jhedelstein.
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Theme music is “It’s Time” by Scaricá Ricascá.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Jean’s book, This Really Isn’t About You
Her Twitter thread we referenced
Hail the Maintainers on Aeon https://aeon.co/essays/innovation-is-overvalued-maintenance-often-matters-more
Recommended memoirs/essays:
David Sedaris
New Yorker essays
John McPhee’s Draft No. 4