‘On Writing and Failure’ with Author Stephen Marche

The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

Former Shakespeare professor and author, Stephen Marche, spoke with me about how to roll with the punches, finding comfort in the history of writerly failure, and his candid guide on handling a lifetime of rejection, “On Writing and Failure.”

Stephen Marche is a novelist, essayist, and cultural commentator, and he was a contributing editor at Esquire, for which he wrote a monthly column entitled "A Thousand Words about Our Culture."

His latest is the book-length essay titled “On Writing and Failure: Or, On the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer.” The Midwest Book Review called it “... essential reading for anyone seeking to write for a living, be it as a novelist, essayist, poet, columnist, or any other writing genre."

Stephen Marche received a doctorate in early modern English drama from the University of Toronto and taught Renaissance drama at CUNY. He is the author of half a dozen books, and has written opinion pieces and essays for The New Yorker, the New York Times, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Walrus, and many others.

He is also the host of the hit Audible series How Not to F*ck Up Your Kids Too Bad, and the sequel How Not to F*ck Up Your Marriage Too Bad.

Stay calm and write on ...

[Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm]

[If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen]

In this file Stephen Marche and I discussed:

• Why his career has been more than a little weird
• How to get back up after you’ve been knocked down
• Why good writers offer advice and great writers offer condolences
• What the writing life offers the uninitiated
• Where to hang out with Shakespeare
• And a lot more!

Show Notes:

• stephenmarche.com
• On Writing and Failure: Or, On the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer by Stephen Marche (Amazon)
• Stephen Marche Amazon Author Page
• A Writer’s Lament: The Better You Write, the More You Will Fail - NY Times
• Stephen Marche on Facebook
• Stephen Marche on Twitter
• Kelton Reid on Twitter

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices