Episode 42: From the page to the stage with writer Alyssa Sorresso

Behind the Prose

I met Alyssa Sorresso at the Creative Nonfiction Writer’s Conference in 2015 (not 2014 as I think I said in the podcast). Alyssa’s essay had just been published in Creative Nonfiction, and she approached me after the magazine’s founder and the “Godfather of Creative Nonfiction” Lee Gutkind announced that I was looking for people to interview. Though one of her websites uses the word “tactless” (ironically paired with her middle name, Grace), that’s not the word that comes to mind when she introduced herself (poised and confident) or when I read her essay later (deliberate and intense). I asked Alyssa to be a guest on Behind the Prose, and she agreed. Finally, in October 2016, I scheduled the interview. Alyssa was almost a month into a self-funded sabbatical and she Skyped with me from a London flat. In this episode you’ll hear us discuss: what’s it like to work with Hattie Fletcher, managing editor of Creative Nonfiction;When personal is too personal for a personal essay; andWhy performing “live lit” may help your writing practice.