Every Book You Write Is a Mystery feat. Rebecca Makkai, MA English ’04

For some, finding your career, life, and purpose can be a lifelong task. But Rebecca Makkai knew she wanted to be a writer since she was 7 years old. But it wasn't until graduate school that her journey took her to Middlebury.

Rebecca Makkai is the Chicago-based author of the novels I Have Some Questions for You, The Great Believers, The Hundred-Year House, and The Borrower, as well as the short story collection Music for Wartime. The Great Believers was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and received the ALA Carnegie Medal and the LA Times Book Prize, among other honors. Makkai is on the MFA faculties of Sierra Nevada College and Northwestern University, and she is the Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago.

She joins host & President of Middlebury Laurie Patton to discuss her teaching career, overcoming writer's block, her time at Bread Loaf, dabbling in other genres or mediums for inspiration, and her deep personal roots to Vermont. 

MiddMoment is a production of Middlebury College and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

On building a character

20:57: I know a lot of writers who start with character. They start with a vibe on a certain character, and then the work early on that they have to do is figuring out how to push that character into action. What is this character going to do? What will they get up to? For me, I start almost always with plot. I start with the main things that I want to have happen. I don't have it all worked out necessarily, and then I need to work backwards from there to reverse engineer a character. I need to think about who is the character, who would be the most susceptible to these circumstances, who would be the most vulnerable to this, or the most changed by the events of the novel.

A skill that any artist should have

10:38: One of the best skills any artist can have is the ability to distinguish between being stuck for reasons of craft and being stuck for psychological reasons.

The similarity between painting and writing a short story

18:20: When you write a short story, it's like painting a picture on the head of a pin to get everything in there. And when you write a novel, it's like painting this giant mural; when you're working on it, you're too close to see the whole thing.

Show Links: