How Carmen Maria Machado Paid the Bills While She Wrote the Book
“I wrote in my email browser so it looked like I was writing an email.”
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Carmen Maria Machado’s debut story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, was a finalist for the National Book Award and has since been optioned by FX. Machado has worked as a caregiver and in retail, at both a sex shop and a luxury bath goods store. She currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. Here’s how she made ends meet.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Medium: Did you write as a child?
Carmen Maria Machado: Oh yeah. I wrote poems, little books that I made. In maybe third or fourth grade, we learned how to send a letter. My godmother gave me personalized stationery with jungle animals on it, and I figured out how write to publishers, because their addresses are right inside of books. Once I sent a fan letter for an author, but I also would send chapters and say, “If you want more, please send back to me.”
Did anyone ever want more?
No. But I did have one author write back, which was very exciting.
Does this mean you went to college to study writing?
When I said I was going to be a writer, my dad freaked out. He was worried that I wouldn’t have any security or health insurance. He said, “If you want to write but also have a job, be a journalist.” So I applied to the journalism program at American University. Of course, I did one semester of journalism classes and was like, “This is terrible.”
So I ended up a photography major. My father was having a heart attack daily, I’m sure. In every moment, I was choosing the least marketable major imaginable.
Did you take any fiction classes?
Basically, there was only one fiction writing class. I took Creative Writing 101, and then I took the same MFA-style workshop over and over again. My professor, Harvey Grossinger, would just give me new readings. The workshops scratched an itch that I really wanted to scratch.
