Inspired by our famous Writers at Work interviews, “My First Time” is a series of short videos about how writers got their start. Created by the filmmakers Tom Bean, Casey Brooks, and Luke Poling, each video is a portrait of the artist as a beginner—and a look at the creative process, in all its joy, abjection, delusion, and euphoria.

Today’s featured writer is Donald Antrim, whose first novel, Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, appeared in 1993.

Watch our previous “My First Time” interviews:

• Sheila Heti on The Middle Stories, her first collection
• Tao Lin on Bed, his first collection
• Christine Schutt on Nightwork, her first collection
• Branden Jacobs-Jenkins on his play Neighbors
• Gabrielle Bell on The Book of … series, her early cartoons
• J. Robert Lennon on his debut novel, The Light of Falling Stars