Jami Attenberg
Jami Attenberg
countless graduate literary pitch published pursue seemed send writers
I didn't go to graduate school, where all the important writers seemed to be getting their start. I didn't pursue getting published in literary magazines. I didn't even send out countless pitch letters and manuscripts to agents.
men talk women
I don't know much about any of the Hasidim because the men won't talk to me because I'm a woman, and the women won't talk to me because, while I am Jewish, I'm not Hasidic.
agent ambivalent art believes business entitled looking love people work
I always tell people this when they're looking for an agent - they should love your work. You are entitled to work with someone who believes in you. Why do business with someone who is ambivalent about you and your art?
fights kids picked threw
I did get in a few fights in school. Kids threw around anti-Semitic slurs, not knowing necessarily what they meant. It was probably just something they picked up somewhere, as kids do.
color hide
For years I'd thought my color was black: deep, dark, thoughtful, mysterious. Black, you can hide behind. But now I know it is red.
dozen drove forth
For years I drove cross-country, back and forth a dozen times, sometimes on book tour, sometimes just to get lost and found.
act morning wake
I can act like a boy as much as I want, but when I wake up in the morning, I'm still a woman.
behind donald family french fried growing local looked mind office onion saw trump
When I was growing up in Chicago, my family and I used to go to a local chain, Hackney's, for burgers and their French fried onion loaf. I probably haven't been to one in 25 years, and yet, I once saw Donald Trump from behind in an office building and the first thing that flashed in my mind was his hair looked like that onion loaf.
When does an object become a symbol? All I know is you cannot force it.
died
My grandmother died when my mother was just 11 years old, and consequently, my mother never learned how to cook particularly well.
food hit maybe
Maybe I wouldn't hit three fast food restaurants in a day, but I could hit one in a day. I try not to do that.
easily love peter
My love can be easily bought with a steak from Peter Luger's.
biggest feed people resource twitter
My Twitter feed is probably my biggest resource of news. Other people scour the web so I do not have to, and I thank them for it.
journals online
Many online journals get the most hits of the day during the lunch hour.