Tucker Leighty-Phillips [Host: Emily Costa]

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Emily Costa interviews Tucker Leighty-Phillips.Tucker Leighty-Phillips is the author of Maybe This Is What I Deserve, which won the 2022 Fiction Chapbook Contest from Split/Lip Press and was published this year. His work has appeared in Smokelong, X-R-A-Y, Wigleaf, HAD, Booth, and elsewhere. Emily Costa is the author of Until It Feels Right (Autofocus Books, 2022). Her work can be found in X-R-A-Y, Hobart, Barrelhouse, Wigleaf, and elsewhere. She is currently working on a novel sort of about her father's video store, as well as a book of short stories.____________PART ONE, topics include:-- working for an Appalachian arts and culture organization-- getting a puppy just after the flood in Kentucky this summer-- reading earlier but not writing until later-- traveling around with bands-- graduating with a BA at 28 and going into an MFA for the stipend-- Tucker and Emily getting published early on in similar places-- preferences of writing short or long-- fun and play____________PART TWO, topics include:-- winding down promotion for Tucker's award-winning chapbook-- writing childhood and kids in fiction-- grocery stores and critters sneaking into the book-- the truths in Tucker's fiction-- reclaiming past shame-- correlation/causation of writing and healing____________PART THREE, topics include:-- the media Tucker consumed while writing the stories--  the worst season of Frasier-- Columbo and the types of tv shows in your life-- more about Tucker's work with Appalshop-- new projects____________Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.