Dig Me Out with Amy Lee Lillard
Amy Lee Lillard is the author of a new book of short stories, Dig Me Out, from Atelier26 Books.
Her characters are “witchy, feral, ready to tear free,” Chanelle Benz writes. But where did Amy draw her inspiration? What drew her to the short story format?
Amy’s fiction and nonfiction has been published in LitHub, Vox, Barrelhouse, Foglifter, Epiphany, Off Assignment, and Autostraddle (among others). She was shortlisted for the 2017 Berlin Writing Prize and named one of Epiphany’s Breakout 8 Writers in 2018.
By day, Amy works as a copywriter and marketer (and has for over 20 years). Plus, she’s the co-creator and co-host of the funny and feminist podcast, Broads and Books.
In this Zoom call, Amy will walk us through her writing journey, from her experiences crafting unpublished novels to heading back to school for an MFA. She’ll talk about the process of finding the right writing format, the right publisher, and how you, too, can make space for a little more fiction in your life.
Agenda
Amy and DJ will take a deep dive into:
Finding Your Voice: What has Amy’s writing journey been like? How does she find inspiration for her characters? How did she settle on writing a book of short stories after years of writing novels? What drew her to graduate programs in fiction?
Finding Your Process: When does Amy find time to write? What is her creative process like? How does she edit her work? How does her day job influence her fiction? How did graduate school change her approach to writing creative fiction?
Finding Your Publisher: When did Amy start the publishing process? How did she pitch her book? How did she find the right publisher? What was the book tour like, and how did she navigate it?
Staying Inspired: What keeps Amy writing? How has her podcast influenced her writing life? Where will she go next?