Abby L. Vandiver

How did you become a writer?

I used to be a lawyer, I became ill and needed something to do other than lie in bed and worry about what was wrong with me, so I started writing. And then I just stuck with it after I got better. 

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

I don't have any writing influences. I learned I wrote well when I was in college and never thought of it as being a career. I just happened upon it (or perhaps it happened upon me).

When and where do you write?

My favorite spot to write is at a desk, and probably on a desktop. My favorite and most productive time to write is mornings. But I do write anywhere and anytime and on anything. Laptops, the back of envelopes and receipts, in notebooks. I'm not picky.

What are you working on now?

I am writing a cozy, editing a women's fiction and plotting out a domestic mystery.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I don't believe in writer's block, so no. There are times I get stuck on how my story should go. As creatives, I think writers always have a story in their heads, so how could we be stuck?

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

You can't edit your own work!

What’s your advice to new writers?

Finish your WIP (and don't take seven years to do it!)

Abby L. Vandiver, also writing as Abby Collette, is a hybrid author who has penned more than twenty-five books and short stories. She has hit both the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller lists. As Abby Collette she is the author of the Ice Cream Parlor mystery series, about a millennial MBA-holding granddaughter running a family-owned ice cream shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and the Books & Biscuits mystery series. The first book, starring a set of fraternal twins who reunite and open a bookstore and soul food café, is called Body and Soul Food. Writing as Abby L. Vandiver, she is the author of the Logan Dickerson Mysteries, featuring a second-generation archaeologist and a nonagenarian, as well as the Romaine Wilder Mysteries, pairing an East Texas medical examiner and her feisty, funeral-home-owning auntie as sleuths. Abby spends her time writing, facilitating writing workshops at local libraries and hanging out with her grandchildren, each of whom are her favorite.

Hanna Halperin

How did you become a writer?

I’ve been writing stories since I was a kid. I would make up extra chapters of the books that I was reading in school and then I started making up my own. I took as many writing classes as I could because it was the thing I was most excited about. After college I took a few workshops with Sackett Street Writers Workshop and that’s when I learned about MFA programs. I got fixated on wanting to do one. At Wisconsin I wrote more in a relatively short time period than I ever had before, and I loved it. I felt really lucky to be writing and talking about books all the time. I’m always happiest when I’m in the middle of a draft. Since then I’ve been working and writing and it’s a balance that works for me. 

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Mary Gaitskill, Deborah Eisenberg, Jhumpa Lahiri, Joan Silber, Lorrie Moore. I used to read a lot of The Best American Short Story collections and fall in love with stories—then authors—that way. Every time I read a book and am struck by it, I feel like it influences me or encourages me or gives me a sort of permission I didn’t even realize I was waiting for. I don’t know if that will ever stop and I hope it doesn’t. A few of those books in the past few years have been A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell and Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan. 

When and where do you write?

Before the pandemic I worked a lot in coffee shops. Now I mostly work in my apartment, either at my desk or on my couch. When I’m really engrossed in a project, I write all day, but mornings are always most productive. I work part-time so I don’t write on the days I’m working or teaching. I usually spend a good part of my weekends writing.

What are you working on now?

I’m editing my second novel. I would describe it as a portrait of a relationship having to do with addiction and codependence and obsession. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

I go through periods—sometimes long ones—where I’m not writing anything but I don’t think of it as writer’s block. I’m soaking things in and reading and living. What inevitably happens is that I’ll return to writing sooner or later, and it’s always exciting when I do. 

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Different advice hits differently at different times, I think. Most recently: Stay off social media. 

What’s your advice to new writers? 

If it’s feeling weird or vulnerable or scary to write it, keep going! There are certain things that only you can write—try writing those things. Strangely enough, those will be the parts that resonate with someone else. 

Hanna Halperin is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her stories have been published in The Kenyon Review, n+1, New Ohio Review, Joyland, and others. She teaches fiction workshops at GrubStreet in Boston and works as a domestic violence counselor. Something Wild is her debut novel out now from Viking.

Courtney Zoffness

How did you become a writer?

I was enamored by language and storytelling at a young age and went on to major in English as an undergraduate. After college, I worked briefly in journalism, then pursued graduate school for fiction. It feels important to note that it took over 15 years from MFA to published book, but I just kept doing this thing I loved to do. Which means I’m either obstinate or nuts.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Early influences were authors who showed me that you could tell propulsive stories in beautiful prose: Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston. I think I’ve learned from nearly every book I’ve read since, even if a text is just revealing a technique I may not wish to use.

When and where do you write?

I don’t adhere to a set schedule, in part because the nature of my life doesn’t permit it. I have a full-time job and two young kids, one of whom wakes before 6 AM. That said, I squeeze in writing time every week, where I can: during slow office hours or on my commute or, sometimes, after the kids are in bed. I’m most productive in the summer.

What are you working on now?

I’m back to writing fiction, my first literary language. I’m still not sure yet what shape the project will take…

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I used to, especially when I was a much younger writer and overeager to be in the world. That kind of desperation was paralyzing. These days my challenge is finding time in my schedule to tend to various ideas.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

I appreciate every teacher and mentor and writer-friend who said some variation of “don’t give up.” Who promised that the stick-with-it-ness would pay off.  

What’s your advice to new writers?

See above?

Courtney Zoffness is the author of the critically acclaimed Spilt Milk (McSweeney’s), named a best debut memoir of 2021 by BookPage. She won the 2018 Sunday Times Short Story Award, the largest international prize for fiction, as well as fellowships from The Center for Fiction and MacDowell. She directs the creative writing program at Drew University.