Finding Your Voice as a Woman Writer Raised on Books by Men

Julie Buntin and I first met when Electric Literature shared an office with Catapult in the mid-2010s. She was a book editor and the director of Catapult’s beloved educational program; I had recently become Electric Literature’s Executive Director. I was an aspiring writer with a few short stories; Julie was about to publish her debut novel, Marlena, to critical and commercial acclaim. We hit it off as two hard-working, mostly type-A people with the same cynical sense of humor that protects over-eager emotions, and began trading work after we both left the city. Julie to Ann Arbor where she was teaching at the University of Michigan and writing her sophomore novel, Famous Men; me to upstate New York where I was working on my debut novel, Slush, which will be published next summer. Julie is my most trusted reader. I have long felt like I can say anything to her; that nothing is too strange, or dark, or vulnerable, or naïve. If I am working out a difficult opinion, she can help me artic...