Interview with Jami Attenberg of #1000wordsofsummer

and some good writing news

Photo by Jami Attenberg on Instagram

Before we get to the interview, I just wanted to share that I won a $500 Emerging Talent Award from

Evelyn Skye

’s Substack, CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY! This was a huge surprise, and I used a portion of it to register for a Master Class by Jami Attenberg herself, who consented to this interview for which I’m grateful.

First, a little about Jami: she is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including The Middlesteins, All Grown Up and a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. She is also the creator of the annual online group writing accountability project #1000wordsofsummer, which inspired the recently published USA Today bestseller 1000 Words:A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. Her tenth book, publishing September 24, 2024, is A Reason to See You Again. She lives in New Orleans. You can find her online regularly at Craft Talk.

Q: How did you establish #1000wordsofsummer and did you expect it to take off as it did?

I did write a definitive essay on this topic for Poets & Writers, which gives you a more thorough story, and then, of course there's the book itself. But I can tell you briefly that it just started very innocently between my friend Anne and I wanting to just kickstart our writing projects, so we decided to write 1000 words a day. And then I tweeted about it and a few hundred people responded that they wanted to do it, too. So I just picked a date, set up a mailing list and everything very organically evolved from there. 

Q: Who are your literary influences?

Well Toni Morrison was the queen, certainly.  I'm always going to read a Meg Wolitzer book. I remember Mary Gaitskill being an early influence. Lately I've really been keen on Susan Choi. I'm always going to love all kinds of poetry. Honestly I could keep going. There's just a lot of good writing out there and I can be highly influenced by even just one great sentence.

Q: Are you looking forward to coming to Chicago for the How to Carve Out a Creative Life Master Class through StoryStudio Chicago in October, and can you touch on what you’ll be covering?

I AM in fact looking forward to coming to Chicago. I can't wait! I haven't been there in five years and it is my hometown and there's a lot of nice people I can't wait to see. I will be talking about the #1000wordsofsummer project, and I will be leading a few writing exercises, and also I will be answering lots of questions. I also like to talk about what motivates people to write, acknowledging the value of our voices, and how to clear away distractions so we can focus on our work. I love teaching these workshops so much. I hope people are as excited about it as I am!

Thank you again, Jami, for answering my questions! Just a few reminders: her tenth book, A Reason to See You Again, launches on September 24. That’s next Tuesday, everyone! If you want to attend her Master Class on October 29, you can register here.