This episode of Feed the Art brings you a conversation that host Catherine LaSota had with writer Lilly Dancyger in the summer of 2024, about Lilly's book First Love: Essays on Friendship (The Dial Press, 2024). Catherine and Lilly talk about the importance of being witnessed by fellow writers, showing up for your identity as an artist, writing into difficult material, and more. They discuss the structure of First Love and its interwoven threads, as well as Lilly's process of moving deeper into the work by questioning her own places of resistance. This is a wide-ranging and heartfelt conversation about the depths of friendships' impacts on our lives, and how we might approach writing about such things. Tune in for a wonderful conversation with a terrific writer, and some thoughts on Law & Order, and leather jackets, too!
(Content TW: friendship death/murder)

About our guest:
Lilly Dancyger is the author of First Love: Essays on Friendship, and Negative Space. Her work has been published by The New York Times, The Atlantic, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Guernica, Literary Hub, and more, and she writes the newsletter The Word Cave. Dancyger lives in New York City, and teaches at the Randolph College low-residency MFA program.
More about Lilly:
website: lillydancyger.com
newsletter: The Word Cave
Bluesky: @lillydancyger.bsky.social
Instagram: @lillydancyger

Thanks for listening to Feed the Art!
Learn more about Catherine LaSota's offerings as a creativity coach at catherinelasota.com.
Looking for more ways to feed your art? Join Catherine's occasional newsletter, full of stories, prompts, inspirations, and resources, here.
Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Pat Irwin for our theme music.