4 weeks ago
3
This week’s installment of Ten Questions features Lucas Schaefer, whose debut novel, The Slip, is retired contiguous from Simon & Schuster. The novel, replete with cases of fluid and mistaken identity, follows the communicative of a missing teenage lad and explores the transformative powerfulness of boxing. Set successful the summertime of 1998 successful Austin, Nathaniel Rothstein is sixteen years aged and a caller look astatine Terry Tucker’s Boxing Gym. Under the guidance of Haitian-born ex-fighter David Dalice, helium begins to consciousness much comfy successful his ain skin—until, that is, it’s nary longer his own. Then 1 night, helium vanishes. Across the city, Charles Rex, present known arsenic “X,” has been undergoing his ain teen transformation, trolling the telephone enactment hotline that his parent works. More than 10 years later, Nathaniel’s uncle Bob receives a shocking tip, starring him to unfastened his ain probe into his nephew’s disappearance. The hunt that follows involves a formed of characters that comprise a daring representation of enactment and contention successful America. Elizabeth McCracken writes, “How tin a publication beryllium uproarious and thought provoking, devil-may-care and philosophical, arsenic afloat of beingness successful each its ugliness and quality and strangeness arsenic Lucas Schaefer’s The Slip? Complicated and comic, this is simply a caller astir what it means to agelong to beryllium otherwise, with a enigma astatine its heart, arsenic good arsenic emotion and ruthlessness and the benignant of brainsick imaginativeness missing lately from American fiction.” Lucas Schaefer holds an MFA from the New Writers Project astatine the University of Texas successful Austin. His work has appeared successful One Story, the Baffler, Slate, and different publications. He lives with his household successful Austin.
1. How agelong did it instrumentality you to write The Slip?
I began moving connected the publication successful 2013, truthful implicit a decade. When I archetypal started The Slip, I thought I was penning a linked communicative collection. All my stories were galore thousands of words implicit what typically constitutes a abbreviated story. I’d spell onto Duotrope and hunt for magazines publishing 11,000-word abbreviated stories. Do you cognize which magazines were doing that? None of them, due to the fact that that is not a abbreviated story! Eventually I realized, Lucas, you are not tidy, you are not concise, you are a novelist and this is simply a novel. But it took maine a second.
2. What was the astir challenging happening astir penning the book?
The Slip has a enigma astatine its center—a missing boy—and determination are galore intersecting plotlines that instrumentality spot implicit galore years related to that halfway mystery. So, the large situation was structural. How bash we archer this story, and successful what order? I was precise fortunate to person an editor, Tim O’Connell, who profoundly understands structure. The publication helium initially bought was similar a location made of beauteous bully worldly that hadn’t been enactment unneurotic right. There was immoderate bully hardwood flooring but it sloped a little, and the windows were shiny but didn’t adjacent each the way. So, helium helped maine teardrop it each isolated and rebuild.
3. Where, when, and however often do you write?
When I’m moving connected a project, I effort to constitute each day, usually successful the mornings. I find if it’s not going well, I’m precise preoccupied with connection number and however agelong I’m penning for each session, and if it is going well, I don’t truly care. And I ever constitute astatine home, with brownish sound on. Every present and past I’ll effort penning astatine a java store oregon a barroom and invariably extremity up with nary words down and needing to pee.
4. What are you speechmaking close now?
My hubby and I person a seven-month-old, truthful presently There Are Cats successful This Book by Viviane Schwarz (Candlewick, 2008) and Good Thing You’re Not an Octopus!(HarperCollins, 2006) written by Julie Markes and illustrated by Maggie Smith, a beautifully illustrated publication astir each benignant of bug determination is. It’s beauteous catch-as-catch-can erstwhile it comes to big reading, but successful my spare moments I’m speechmaking Abdulrazak Gurnah’s caller novel, Theft (Riverhead Books, 2025), and The Imagined Life (Knopf, 2025) by Andrew Porter.
5. Which author, successful your opinion, deserves wider recognition?
It’s been amusive to spot and beryllium a portion of a caller harvest of Austin writers emerging successful the past fewer years. In the archetypal fractional of 2025 alone, Callie Collins published Walk Softly connected This Heart of Mine (Doubleday), and Ashley Whitaker had Bitter Texas Honey (Dutton), and Carrie R. Moore’s abbreviated communicative collection, Make Your Way Home (Tin House), which I’m ace excited about, is coming successful July. Alejandro Puyana, the large Fernando Flores—there’s a batch happening successful Austin. I’m not definite it’s a question of wider recognition—plenty of these books are getting well-deserved attention—but Austin has a thriving literate scene, truthful it’s bully to spot it progressively represented successful publishing, too, and I anticipation it’s a inclination that continues.
6. What is the biggest impediment to your penning life?
I finished the last walk of The Slip possibly a week earlier the commencement of our son, and since past person been successful baby-rearing and publicity mode, truthful I haven’t yet had the acquisition of penning earnestly portion raising a kid but…I foresee challenges! That said, I ever constitute amended erstwhile I person a acceptable of hours to get the occupation done alternatively than an full time to portion away, truthful possibly it’s excessively soon to say.
7. What is 1 happening that your cause oregon exertion told you during the process of publishing this publication that stuck with you?
When I sold the book, I wasn’t fixed a work date. Tim, my editor, took a existent It’ll beryllium acceptable erstwhile it’s ready approach. It wasn’t 1 happening helium said, but an full attitude: Let’s instrumentality our clip and get this right. That is simply a existent gift. As a writer, you enactment truthful hard to get the publication woody and past you’re hopeless to get the happening retired into the world. But making thing arsenic bully arsenic it tin beryllium is much important than making it fast. I was precise fortunate to person radical successful my country who believed that, and who gave maine the clip and abstraction to marque the publication the champion mentation of itself.
8. If you could spell backmost successful clip and speech to the earlier you, earlier you started The Slip, what would you say?
I wasn’t penning earnestly successful my twenties, and didn’t commencement grad schoolhouse until I was thirty, and past I took 12 oregon truthful years connected The Slip, and I ever felt truthful behind. So, I deliberation I’d conscionable say, “It’s fine.” Take your time. I was truthful definite different radical were judging my tortuous path, and the information is nary 1 cares. We’re each dealing with our ain nonsense and not paying that overmuch attraction to anyone else’s. I’d besides archer myself, “It’s not adjacent that tortuous!” I utilized to deliberation that my way to work was, like, epic, but arsenic I’ve met much writers implicit the years, I’ve realized it was beauteous typical. A publication takes a agelong clip to write, and a agelong clip to publish. So, you know, instrumentality a breath!
9. Outside of writing, what different forms of enactment were indispensable to the instauration of The Slip?
When I archetypal moved to Austin successful 2006, I started moving retired astatine Lord’s Boxing Gym and spent galore afternoons and evenings determination implicit 5 oregon six years. One fantastic happening astir Lord’s—and this is thing I tried to replicate with the boxing gym successful my novel—was that it felt similar everyone was there. There were men and women, radical of each property and contention and accomplishment level and assemblage benignant and personality. It was some an perfect instauration to boxing and boxing gyms, and to my caller city. This was successful my pre-serious penning days, truthful I didn’t cognize I would 1 time constitute a caller acceptable mostly astatine a boxing gym successful Austin, but those years and experiences were indispensable to the instauration of The Slip.
10. What’s the champion portion of penning proposal you’ve ever heard?
I don’t cognize if this is advice, per se, but I’ve benefited from penning mentors who person encouraged us—their students—to thin into our idiosyncrasies, into immoderate makes america us. I emotion erstwhile you unfastened a publication and cognize who wrote it without looking due to the fact that the dependable oregon the benignant is truthful distinct. We face capable corporate-ish, everything-sounds-the-same dreck retired determination successful our regular lives that I deliberation america fictioneers person a work to not adhd to it.
