Day Jobs
10 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 28 ratingsConversations with writers, artists, and other creative people about how they make a living.
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Episodes
Dave Housley
March 04, 2020 02:37 - 1 hour - 58.5 MBI talk to writer Dave Housley (This Darkness Got to Give, Howard and Charles at the Factory) about how he's managed to write and publish several books while holding down a 9-to-5 job in web development, running a magazine (Barrelhouse) and not neglecting his family.
Wendy Fox
December 19, 2019 04:23 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBI talk to novelist Wendy Fox (If The Ice Had Held) about finding time to write two books while working full-time for the tech industry, Denver vs. Seattle, and her mixed feelings about book contest fees.
Elisa Gabbert
October 24, 2019 15:30 - 1 hour - 57.7 MBPoet and essayist Elisa Gabbert (The Word Pretty, The Unreliability of Memory) talks about balancing her writing career with a full-time job in SEO content management, how she chooses which projects to work on, her decision not to have children, and why she misses poetry blogs.
Susan Muaddi Darraj
July 31, 2019 10:00 - 1 hour - 63.6 MBI talk to writer Susan Muaddi Darraj (A Curious Land: Stories From Home) about the stigma she sometimes feels as a community college professor, and why she believes so strongly in community college education. We also talk about going to Catholic school as a non-Catholic, her father's poetry, what happens when you get retweeted by Hillary Clinton, and why she gets up every morning before the sun. You can read Susan's article about community college stigma at Inside Higher Ed.
Megan Volpert
July 17, 2019 12:39 - 1 hour - 57 MBI talk to poet and writer Megan Volpert (Boss Broad, Straight Into Darkness) about her job teaching high school English and journalism, her tendency to overwork herself, and how she never imagined herself having a stable adult life.
Ryan Eckes
March 27, 2019 18:01 - 1 hour - 60.8 MBI talk to poet, teacher, labor organizer, and 2016 Pew Fellow Ryan Eckes about the ethics of working for a university, the difficulties of labor organizing, and how his socialist politics influence the way he thinks about both his writing and his day jobs. His latest collection of poetry, General Motors, is available from Split Lip Press. You can also learn more about Ryan on his website, or follow him on Twitter @ryaneckes.
Tyrese Coleman
February 13, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 63.5 MBI talk to Tyrese Coleman, author of How to Sit (Mason Jar Press), which was recently named a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award. She's also a lawyer for the USDA, and a mother of twins, so we had lots of things to talk about in terms of work-life balance, and how to make space for your creative work while juggling a career and a family. Tyrese's website: https://tyresecoleman.com/ Tyrese on Twitter: @tylachelleco Buy Tyrese's book from Mason Jar Press: http://www.masonjarpress.xyz/c...
Annie Wilson
January 30, 2019 18:40 - 1 hour - 62.2 MBAnnie Wilson is a dancer, performer, choreographer, and bartender. She was a 2017 Pew Fellow, and her dances have been staged at the Philly Fringe Fest, JACK in Brooklyn, and Bryn Mawr College. She teaches me about the world of experimental dance, and gives me some new ways to think about movement, performance, and human bodies. Plus what she loves (and doesn't) about bartending, why she works as an independent choreographer instead of forming a company, and why she has no interest in adjunc...
Christopher Gonzalez
January 16, 2019 18:51 - 52 minutes - 48.6 MBChristopher Gonzalez is a fiction writer and literary journal editor who also works full-time in digital production for a big New York City publisher. We talk about why he chose production work over editorial, what his family thinks about his creative pursuits, and how growing up in a house where money was often tight helped shape his relationship to work. You can find Chris on Twitter @livesinpages, or check out his website, which includes links to some of his published work (though sadly...
Bud Smith
January 02, 2019 11:00 - 58 minutes - 66.6 MBThis conversation with Bud Smith brought me so much joy. Bud is a writer who's published several books and also works full-time in heavy construction. We talked about writing on your phone during breaks, getting your coworkers to read good books, how wrong-headed it is to think of certain jobs as "brainless," and why Bud's girlfriend broke up with him after he wrote his first novel.
Gina Myers
December 12, 2018 00:02 - 55 minutes - 64.3 MBFor the inaugural episode of Day Jobs, I talk with poet Gina Myers (Hold It Down, A Model Year) about balancing her creative work with a 9-to-5 job in university communications. We also talk about her former jobs, including temporary factory work and adjunct teaching, and how the need for surgery forced her to find a job with healthcare benefits. Plus: the costs of poetry book contests, Submittable fees, and why her current coworkers think she's an enigma.