On Episode 147 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Jonathan Escoffery, and the two discuss, among other topics, Jonathan’s early relationship with language and literature, his initial interest in literature and viewing those works now as stereotypical and/or racist, his writing process and thoughts on varying points-of-view, the wild ride that has been recent weeks and months with the book receiving so many accolades, and themes of identity, race and racism, home, and of course, survival, in his linked story collection.



Jonathan Escoffery is the author of the linked story collection, If I Survive You, a National Book Award Nominee, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, and an Indie National Bestseller. If I Survive You has been named a ‘best’ or ‘most anticipated’ book by Entertainment Weekly, Oprah Daily, Good Morning America online, Goodreads, BuzzFeed, Vulture, L.A. Times, Shondaland, TIME, The Root, Vanity Fair, Kirkus, The Millions, BET, O Quarterly Magazine, Real Simple, and elsewhere.

His stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Oprah Daily, Electric Literature, Zyzzyva, AGNI, Pleiades, American Short Fiction, Prairie Schooner, Passages North, and elsewhere.

Jonathan has taught creative writing and seminars on the writer’s life at Stanford University, the University of Minnesota, the Center for Fiction, Tin House, Writers in Progress, and at GrubStreet in Boston, where, as former staff, he founded the Boston Writers of Color Group, which currently has more than 2,000 members. He is a 2021-2023 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.


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The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.

Please tune in for Episode 148 with Chen Chen, who is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, and the forthcoming book of essays, In Cahoots with the Rabbit God. His debut book of poems, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. He teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast.

The episode will air on October 21.

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