{"id":86166,"date":"2015-05-29T10:56:37","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T14:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=86166"},"modified":"2015-05-29T10:56:37","modified_gmt":"2015-05-29T14:56:37","slug":"christine-schutt-on-nightwork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/29\/christine-schutt-on-nightwork\/","title":{"rendered":"Christine Schutt on <i>Nightwork<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bh7hx-eIyq0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/myfirsttime\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>My First Time<\/strong><\/a>\u201d is a new video series in which we invite authors to discuss the trials of writing and publishing that first novel, that first play, that first book of poems. Consider it a chance to see how successful writers got their start, in their own words\u2014it\u2019s a portrait of the artist as a beginner and a look at the creative process, in all its joy, abjection, delusion, and euphoria.<\/p>\n<p>We conclude our first installment today with <strong>Christine Schutt<\/strong>, whose first collection of stories, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Nightwork-American-Literature-Series-Christine\/dp\/1564782395\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Nightwork<\/em><\/a>, appeared in 1996, when she was forty-eight; John Ashbery said it was the best book of the year. Here, Schutt recalls her early attempts at writing, in her twenties, and the feedback she invariably received: \u201cYou can write very beautiful sentences and beautiful descriptions, but it may take you twenty years to figure out how to do a story &#8230; I thought, Twenty years, my god! I\u2019d be in my forties!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Be sure to watch the three other \u201cMy First Time\u201d interviews we\u2019ve posted this week:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/tag\/branden-jacobs-jenkins\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Branden Jacobs-Jenkins<\/strong><\/a> on his play, <em>Neighbors<\/em><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/27\/gabrielle-bell-on-her-book-of-series\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Gabrielle Bell<\/strong><\/a> on\u00a0<em>The Book of &#8230;<\/em> series, her early cartoons<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/26\/j-robert-lennon-on-the-light-of-the-falling-stars\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>J. Robert Lennon<\/strong><\/a> on his debut novel, <em>The Light of Falling Stars<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Later this summer, we\u2019ll introduce the next chapter in the series; this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/21\/introducing-our-new-video-series-my-first-time\/\" target=\"_blank\">trailer gives a preview of what\u2019s to come<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This series is made by the filmmakers <strong>Tom Bean<\/strong>, <strong>Casey Brooks<\/strong>, and <strong>Luke Poling<\/strong>; we\u2019re delighted to collaborate with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cMy First Time\u201d is a new video series in which we invite authors to discuss the trials of writing and publishing that first novel, that first play, that first book of poems. Consider it a chance to see how successful writers got their start, in their own words\u2014it\u2019s a portrait of the artist as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18205],"tags":[18209,2281,16549,18232,2282,1132,7906,17718,18206,124,18291,18292,8671,7845,10438,7905,7214,10113],"class_list":["post-86166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-first-time","tag-casey-brooks","tag-christine-schutt","tag-columbia","tag-debuts","tag-gordon-lish","tag-interviews","tag-luke-poling","tag-mfas","tag-my-first-time","tag-new-york","tag-nightwork","tag-noon","tag-short-fiction","tag-short-stories","tag-storytelling","tag-tom-bean","tag-videos","tag-writers-at-work"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - 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