The Scratch Interview #9: Kristen Millares Young on Insisting on Your Own Writing
"People look at me, at my journalism career, and they're like, ‘Oh, it looks great.’ Brand names. Laws passed. And I'm like, ‘But where's the pay?’"
The Scratch Interview #8: Deesha Philyaw on Literary Community, Part II
“The last thing we need when we're trying to make art is to feel ashamed by what we don't have, and yet here we are.”
The Scratch Interview #8: Deesha Philyaw on Committing the Cardinal Sins of Publishing, Part I
“So despite short stories ‘not selling,’ I just found other things so that I could keep writing my short stories.”
The Scratch Interview #7: Kim Cross on Caregiving and Freelancing
“Freelance rates, by the way, haven't gone up since 1985. That's when magazines started paying $2 a word.”
The Scratch Interview #6: Lydia Kiesling on Fiction and Finances
"I've found I'm not making big progress on fiction unless I go away from my house and say, ‘I am now going into isolation.'"
The Scratch Interview #5: Colette Shade on Y2K and the Limits of a Millennial Writing Career
“In order to have a society — frankly, a democracy — we have to have these areas that are protected from the market.”
The Scratch Interview #3: Why Can’t Writers Seem to Quit Substack? (Roundtable)
And why haven’t I done it yet?
The Scratch Interview #2: Angela Garbes on Money, Memoir, and Elastic-Waist Pants
“Anything that I spend my money on is better than cocaine.”
The Scratch Interview #1: An Anonymous Author and Tax Preparer Answers Our Questions
On self-employment, taxes, and shame.
