{"id":35287,"date":"2024-06-21T09:28:43","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T13:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/?p=35287"},"modified":"2024-06-21T10:07:09","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T14:07:09","slug":"elwin-cotman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2024\/06\/21\/elwin-cotman\/","title":{"rendered":"Bite into a burrito with writer Elwin Cotman in Episode 228 of Eating the Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s time to return to Balticon<\/a> for another conversation with a fascinating writer, following last episode’s chat with Alex Jennings<\/a>. This time around my guest is Elwin Cotman<\/a>, with whom I slipped away for dinner at the nearby R&R Taqueria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cotman’s short story collection\u00a0Dance on Saturday<\/em>, published by Small Beer Press, was one of the finalists for the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award. His latest short story collection,\u00a0Weird Black Girls<\/em>, was released two months ago as this episode goes live.<\/p>\n

He’s also the author of three other books: the poetry collection The Wizard\u2019s Homecoming<\/em>, plus the short story collections The Jack Daniels Sessions EP<\/em>\u00a0and Hard Times Blues<\/em>. His writing has appeared in Grist<\/em>, Electric Lit<\/em>, Buzzfeed<\/em>, The Southwestern Review<\/em>, and The Offing<\/em>, plus many others venues. He\u2019s worked as a video game consultant and writer for Square Enix. His debut novel The Age of Ignorance<\/em>\u00a0will be published by Scribner in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We discussed why forcing science fictional elements into non-science fictional stories can weaken them, the interdimensional cross-genre story cycle he hopes to write someday about a wrestling family, the way the novella is his natural length, why he loves Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age stories, how to create compelling metaphors and similes, the way rereading Tama Janowitz’s Slaves of New York<\/em> helped him with the connective tissue of his own sentences, the reason Mary Gaitskill is the world’s greatest living writer, and much more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how you can join us at R&R Taqueria<\/a> — <\/p>\n

1) Subscribe at Apple Podcasts<\/a> — or wherever<\/a> you choose to consume your podcasts — where I hope you’ll be tempted to sample a few of the 227 previous episodes.<\/p>\n

2) Listen via the RSS feed of http:\/\/eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com\/rss<\/a> on the device of your choice.<\/p>\n

3) Or simply use the embed below.<\/p>\n