Episode 94: Elizabeth Wetmore on following your own path

Marginally | a podcast about writing, work, and friendship

We are so excited to talk to Elizabeth Wetmore today, the author of the novel Valentine, which we loved. We also love her story about working on a book as long as it needs, and how she's balanced many jobs while believing in her writing all along, even when she's been, in her own words, "late to the game in every possible way." So this episode features a fantastic practical discussion about making all of that work, from being led by your love for characters and place to asking for help.

We also discuss the responsibility she felt in writing a diverse cast of characters in a West Texas setting, how she got the place right, and about writing about a place you deliberately left.

Before devoting herself to writing, Elizabeth variously tended bar, taught English, drove a cab, edited psychology dissertations, and painted silos and cooling towers at a petrochemical plant. For a time, she lived in a one-room cabin in the woods outside of Flagstaff, Arizona while she worked as a classical music announcer. A native of West Texas, she is most at home in the desert, near the sea, or on the side of a mountain. She now lives in Chicago.

She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and two fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, and numerous other residencies and awards.

As always, we'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review us in your podcast app, as this helps other listeners find the show.

Visit our website, marginallypodcast.com, for complete show notes and to get in touch.

Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast.
Theme music is "It's Time" by Scaricá Ricascá.

Have a question you'd like us to try to answer, or a topic you'd love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work!

If you like Marginally, you should check out #amwriting, with Jess and KJ, where two much more experienced writers talk through their processes with each other and celebrated guests.