Brad Listi Thinks You Should Write as if You Were Already Dead
The author of “Be Brief and Tell Them Everything” on curating a fictional self and the writerly desire to capture the whole world with brevity
by Wynter K. Miller
Brad Listi has made a name for himself by talking to other people. On his podcast, Otherppl with Brad Listi, now in its tenth year, Listi has interviewed hundreds of writers. He’s known for asking questions not just about craft and literature but also about—well, everything. In my favorite episodes, he manages to ask inappropriate questions appropriately, usually within a conversation that appears to have no relevance to writing but actually turns out to be very relevant to writing. I think it’s fair to say that Otherppl is built upon the hypothesis that everything is relevant to writing.
Fittingly, Listi’s sophomore novel, Be Brief and Tell Them Everything, is an autofictious work of both breadth and depth. Structured as a non-linear series of vignettes, the novel opens in the life of a writer named Brad who can’t seem to finish the novel he’s been working on for twelve years. In the midst of this creative crisis, Brad’s six-month-old son is diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The diagnosis is devastating for all the obvious reasons, but it also serves to sharpen Brad’s persistent and pre-existing existential ennui. As he writes and rewrites his novel, he finds himself asking and re-asking a series of questions: Who am I? What happened? What should I do? Be Brief grapples with a diverse array of topics—fatherhood, disability, death, autobiography, creative failure—but it ultimately tells the story of an ordinary life. If readers are looking for Listi on the page, they will undoubtedly find him. That said, I suspect they will also find much more.
Listi and I connected via Zoom to chat about curating a fictional self and the writerly desire to capture the whole world with brevity. It was a pleasure to compel him to answer the sorts of questions he’s usually tasked with asking.
Marilyn’s 1975 autobiography My Story has been reissued by BearManor Media, with a special foreword by Marilyn’s daughter McKenna, and is available now. Buy it here. Read about the original book here.
My brand new podcast TACHI’S BASE is out. This is the first episode that introduces you to who I am, what I do and where I come from. Inside you’ll find a lot of relatable topics and truth to the phrase “Looks can be deceiving”. I originally created a podcast in 2019 and decided to go a different route.
This episode was recorded from 14/04/22 and released today on 15/04/22.
Enjoy!
This podcast is available on my SoundCloud and YouTube. See links below:
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