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Writers and artists routinely reckon with anxiety and loathing as part of their creative process. Author and comedian Sara Benincasa, writer and illustrator Mari Naomi, and novelist Shanthi Sekaran, in conversation with writer and literary organizer Michelle Tea, discuss with humor and honesty the role fear has played in their work and their creative process. Be part of a larger discussion of how we learn to manage the stress of daily life.
Sara Benincasa is a comedian and the author of Real Artists Have Day Jobs (William Morrow 2016) as well as the books DC Trip (Adaptive 2015); Great (HarperTeen 2014); and Agorafabulous: Dispatches From My Bedroom (William Morrow 2012). She also wrote a very silly book called Tim Kaine Is Your Nice Dad (2016). She is currently adapting DC Trip as a film with producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa (Little Miss Sunshine); Agorafabulous! for TV with Diablo Cody; and Great for TV with Muse Entertainment.
MariNaomi is the award-winning author and illustrator of Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 (Harper Perennial, 2011), Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories (2dcloud/Uncivilized Books, 2014), Turning Japanese (2dcloud, 2016), I Thought You Hated Me (Retrofit Comics, 2016), and Estrus Comics (self-published, 1998 to 2009). Her work has appeared in over sixty print publications and has been featured on numerous websites, such as The Rumpus, The Weeklings, LA Review of Books, Midnight Breakfast, Truth-out, XOJane, BuzzFeed, PEN America and more.
Shanthi Sekaran‘s new novel, Lucky Boy, was hailed by author Tom Barbash as “an ambitious, compassionate and intelligent book with new things to say on the timely subjects of motherhood, fertility, class, and identity.” She teaches creative writing at California College of the Arts and is a member of the Portuguese Artists’ Colony and the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. She is the author of the novel The Prayer Room. Her work has appeared in Best New American Voices and Canteen and online at Zyzzyva and Mutha Magazine.
Author and literary organizer Michelle Tea is the author of ten books of memoir, fiction, and poetry, most recently the speculative memoir Black Wave. Her award-winning memoir Valencia was made into a feature-length film with the help of 21 directors, including Jill Soloway, Cheryl Dunye, and Silas Howard. She is the editor of Amethyst Editions, an imprint of Feminist Press. Her writing has appeared in Harpers, The Believer, n+1, Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, xoJane.com and many other print and web publications. She lives in Los Angeles.
