Phong Nguyen, novelist

F***ing Shakespeare

Today on the show, Phong Nguyen, an absolute treasure trove of Twain trivia, author of The Adventures of Joe Harper. We do talk lots about writing dialect and the editors that love/hate it, why three-quarters of your way into writing a manuscript is the absolute sweet spot, and how living in Missouri and not Brooklyn is actually a blessing for the working writer. There’s the key, kids, get out of your big city cultural meccas and get thee to the Midwest! Our most prized nugget to come out of the show: Nguyen suggests Holden Caulfield should be rewritten as a 2019 incel, and we are here for it.

Buy The Adventures of Joe Harper and more of Phong’s books:

• Roundabout: An Improvisational History

• Pages from the Textbook of Alternate History

• Memory Sickness, and Other Stories

He has also gushed more with Full Stop about Joe Harper.

Check out a few of his stories published elsewhere:

• a reprint of “Ho Chi Minh in Harlem” in Hyphen

• “Senior Paper: On Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Micah Lipshitz” in issue no. 1 vol. 11 of Pank Magazine

• “Demographic Futures” in issue no. 3 vol. 92 of Prairie Schooner

• “Two-Step and Wannabe” in issue 77 of Painted Bride Quarterly

Phong has also been a keynote speaker for Writefest in 2019 and on The Chattahoochee Review’s Guest Author Series for Alternate History.

Visit his website for more works circulating or much-needed writing prompts, and/or check out his Twitter for vlogs and wonderful nuggets of knowledge.

Photo credit: Sarah Nguyen

US Cover, Outpost19