October 8, 2025 • 29 mins
Christine Sneed, award-winning author and creative writing professor, reflects on her path from teenage poetry journals to national acclaim. She shares how humor, specificity, and emotional honesty shape her storytelling, the moment in Paris that cemented her identity as a writer, and why trusting your instincts matters more than chasing trends. Christine also opens up about the realities of publishing, the craft lessons she teaches her students, and the quiet persistence required to build a life in literature.
01:54 — What Inspired Christine to Start Writing
02:38 — The Epiphany Moment in Paris: “I’m Going to Be a Writer”
04:36 — Returning from France & Early Mentors
05:53 — Getting an MFA at Indiana University
06:59 — Balancing Life, Writing, and Early Struggles
07:24 — What is “Domestic Realism”?
07:51 — Writing Structure, Titles, and Episodic Thinking
08:47 — Narrative Structure & Flashbacks
09:44 — Christine’s Writing Process & Routine
11:28 — Writing Humor & Her Book *Please Be Advised*
13:58 — Corporate Life as Creative Fuel
15:52 — Writing *Little Known Facts* and Hollywood Dynamics
17:30 — Who She Writes For (and Why)
18:08 — Research & Writing from Different Perspectives
19:39 — Writing for Publication vs Writing for Passion
21:12 — The “First Pancake” Philosophy
21:33 — Teaching & How It Shapes Her Writing
22:56 — How to Create Specific, Real Characters
23:09 — Craft Advice & The Power of Detail
25:23 — The Importance of Organic Strangeness in Fiction
25:26 — Advice to Her Younger Self
26:36 — What It Means to Be Unapologetically Creative
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
I often begin a short story witha title, I think sort of
episodically in a way, and if I have a good title that often
will inspire an idea for a storyor a character specifically.
And once I get the first paragraph down, I I feel that
I'm able to kind of follow the thread.
(00:27):
Welcome to Unapologetically Creative, a podcast from the
Vermont College of Fine Arts, where we celebrate bold
artistry, transformative creativity, and the audacious
voices shaping the future of thearts.
I'm your host, Andrew Ram Sammy,and in this series we dive into
honest, inspiring conversations with artists who are pushing
(00:51):
boundaries and redefining what it means to create work that
resonates and endures. We're thrilled to welcome a
writer whose work captures the complexity, humor, and beauty of
modern life. Christine Sneed is an acclaimed
award-winning author. You're award-winning, right?
(01:11):
That's what they tell me. I threw that in there, didn't
even didn't even say that, but Iwas like, might as well just
throw it in there. And professor whose novels,
short stories, and essays explores themes of identity,
relationships, and the human desire.
For connection, her books include.
Little known facts, the virginity of famous men and
Please Be Advised which all showcases her sharp wit, keen
(01:34):
observational skills, and the ability to craft deeply
relatable characters. Christine's work has.
Earned her numerous. Awards.
Oh look, it is there and a loyalfollowing solidifying.
Her place as a. Leading voice.
In contemporary fiction, Christine, welcome to
Unapologetically Creative. Thank you for having me today.
I'm happy to be here. So what first?
Inspired you to start writing. What got you into writing?
(01:57):
Well, I think probably like a lot of people who started in
their formative years, it was a was kind of like a release
valve. I had ridiculous crushes on boys
who were not interested in me. So I began writing terrible love
poetry and keeping a journal. And you know, you, you sort of
eventually realize if you write long enough that it helps you
(02:19):
actually figure out what you think about things and also it
allows you to think more deeply about them.
So that that was really helpful and it still is.
I'm sure there were a lot of moments that led up to you kind
of realizing and becoming that you wanted to be a writer, but
was there a defining moment for you?
Yeah, there actually was. It was the year I was studying
(02:40):
in in France, my junior year in college.
I was in Strasbourg. I was a French major and I spent
the, you know, the requisite junior year abroad like a lot of
language majors do. And I was in it was, it's so it
sounds like such a cliche and I think it was, but I remember I
was in Paris 1 long weekend withmy friend Kate, who actually
(03:04):
dedicated my book Paris. He said to her, she got us she,
she was insisted about travelingon weekends and getting a year
rail pass and all that. And I didn't know anything about
that before I went abroad. But I remember we were, I think
we were in Notre Dame before it burned down, of course.
So it was long before that many,many years before the fire.
(03:25):
And I just, there was this moment.
It was literally like an epiphany, the light coming
through the windows, the Jesus light.
And I just thought I'm going to be a writer.
And, and I thought this is, it'strue.
Like this is really what I want to do.
So this was in the early 90s. And I still think about that
moment, obviously. So that I think I just thought,
you know, I don't have to ask for permission.
(03:47):
I can just start writing. And that I was already writing
it, as I mentioned long ago, youknow, as a, as a very young
girl. But I just realized you just sit
down and start writing. And then that's you obviously
have to be a serious reader too.I think to be a, at least if
you're writing poetry or literary fiction, I think it
really helps to be a reader. And I'd say I'm guessing most
(04:08):
writers are serious readers. But yeah, I didn't have to ask
anyone if I could do it. I just did it.
But I don't think girls, maybe especially are young women.
I, maybe young men are similar. Some of them are anyway that we
I think we always felt like we had to wait for someone to tell
us it was OK if we were going todo something a little risky,
(04:29):
like try to become a writer. Yeah.
Where did that moment take you? Where did that that land?
I, you know, my, I was, I went back to, to campus and after the
year in France, I had my senior year left, but I took a poetry
workshop with this really excellent poet who, you know, he
(04:51):
was just a really wonderful teacher to Roland Flint.
And that was the spring of my senior year.
And he accepted me into the workshop because you did have to
apply. And, you know, I kept in touch
with him after I graduated. And it just, you know, I started
making a life as a writer, thinking about writing.
And I took a shot a workshop at Ragdale with David Wojon.
(05:13):
In fact, he was on sabbatical from Indiana after his wife,
Linda Hall, had died tragically in a car crash earlier that
year. And he was teaching a fall
workshop. And I just remember him being
very instrumental in suggesting,you know, you, you want to go to
grad school. You I had told him that I wanted
(05:34):
to get an, a master's degree, but I didn't know anything about
an MFA. And he just said, well, you
don't want an MA in lit, probably.
I think you want an MA in MFA increative writing so that, you
know, incrementally. I just sort of figured it out
with the help of people like David Wojohn and other writers
too, who I met along the way. So you go and you get your MFA.
(05:54):
Where'd you get your MFA? Actually at Indiana, where David
was teaching at the time, and I,I loved Bloomington.
It was really those three years were great.
Describe what was that like? I remember this moment when I, I
was living in this neighborhood very close to UIC and Rush
Presbyterian Hospital. That medical school I think was,
(06:14):
is was really close to that. The campus was there.
I had his roommate who was studying to become a physical
therapist. So that's why we were living
right down and this neighborhood, which at that time
was actually not very good. I mean, I remember she got
mugged once. And so I'm laughing.
But you know, at the time it wasnot great.
But I was working and trying to figure it out in writing.
(06:37):
But I was looking at these poemsthat I'd written and thinking
how does anyone ever make a nameas a writer?
It just seems impossible. So I still think about that time
and and you just do it, one poem, one story, one essay, 1
screenplay at a time. And you can't give up.
If you really want to be a writer, you just keep writing.
(06:58):
So how did those experiences, and I'm sure other personal
experiences influence your work and how do you strike a bounce?
Because you, you, you mix a lot of fiction and reality in your
work, so. I, you know, I don't really
write autobiographical fiction. Like I certainly am writing
stories that they are domestic realism.
I'm not, I'm not writing speculative.
(07:19):
I have written stories that havesome speculative elements, but
very few. And when you say domestic
realism for folks that don't know what that is, what is that?
You know, it's someone who's just writing about everyday life
without any ghosts or vampires, or it's you're just sort of
recording the life as at least as the author experiences it.
(07:40):
So your characters are very nuanced, incredibly nuanced and
relatable. How do you go about creating
such vivid and authentic voices?Well, thank you for that
compliment. You know, I I'm just more or
less trying to follow an idea, avoice.
Often I maybe it's because I wasa poetry MFAI often begin a
(08:06):
short story with a title and twoof the three novels I've
published basically are sort of like they're novel, not novels
and stories. But some of the chapters have
been published independently, not as you know, novel chapter
is actually a short stories or flash fiction pieces.
So I think sort of episodically in a way.
(08:28):
And if I have a good title that often will inspire an idea for a
story or a character specifically.
And once I get the first paragraph down, I I feel that
I'm able to kind of follow the thread and.
And is that thread linear? Is it?
Usually there's some flashbacks,but pretty much I don't use a
(08:50):
lot of structural tricks, but I,you know, I, I admire people who
find and I, I think it really has to be organic.
Like if I, you know, I'm, if I am moving back and forth in
time, it's just a sort of occasional, like the, the fact
the character's thinking about something and in order to layer
in more context for it, I might have to include a reference to
(09:13):
something that happened in the past or our previous
conversation that 2 characters have had.
So it's, it really has to be sort of instinctive and organic.
But I mean, it's something that I've learned to do over, you
know, 30 years of serious writing.
And sometimes it works well and other times I, I have stuff that
I just like, no, this didn't work.
You know, you just have to kind of let yourself off the hook,
(09:36):
but also just not get too freaked out about the fact that
not everything you write is necessarily something you want
other people to to read. So what is your process?
What is, what does that look like?
Can you walk us through it? Well, I'll speak specifically
about a novel that I finished a draft of this past November that
I'm currently editing. And like I'm, I'm, I'm guess I'm
(09:58):
revising. Editing is usually less
aggressive. I think so.
I would start first thing in themorning a lot of times because
if I didn't get any work in before 10:00 in the morning, I'd
find many excuses to not to not do any writing that day.
So it just depends. Some days I'm able to do things
in the afternoon or in the evening, but I find that my
(10:22):
previous sort of feverish pace is less.
It's just not as easy to. And I just, I think since the
pandemic and I, I've heard otherwriters talk about this.
I think it's our attention spanshave gotten worse because being
at home and being online so muchstarting in March of 2020.
So but that's yeah, I mean, the main thing is I this morning,
(10:42):
for example, I was working on a number of things, but then
finally mid morning I started working on chapter 10 of this
book, which has got 20 chapters.And I don't know, like I, I
think I published the first chapter in 2023 in Beloit
Fiction Journal as a stand alonestory.
And I, I know some of the chapters are good and but it
obviously when you have a whole novel, it's like a country, you
(11:05):
know, there are parts that are skirmishing sometimes or cities
that are, you know, more healthythan other cities.
And it's just, there's so many things that you're dealing with
and it really is. It's amazing to me how anything
gets written that that's more than like 2 paragraphs.
(11:26):
Sometimes I feel that way. So you you like using?
Humor a lot in your craft and particularly in your book.
Please be advised which is a look at corporate America.
Oh yes, I loved writing this book and.
Tell us about that book and and and how.
It was so much. Fun was involved in all of that.
You know, I after I'd written this novel in 2017 that I
(11:52):
haven't published but I got a great agent for, and he then
went out with it. This is a story you've heard
probably other people talk about.
He was like, this is a really funny novel.
It's so good. Then he couldn't sell it because
probably. Well, a few things that of
course, humor is so subjective, so clearly you just need to find
(12:15):
the person who has a similar sense of humor.
But also being to be honest, youknow, I, I talk often about the
publishing industry because I teach a class about it and I,
I'm, I'm what's called a midlistauthor.
Most authors are midlist authors.
You know, if you're published bya, a big house, you're not a
bestseller. Usually great if you are.
It's definitely a wonderful thing.
(12:36):
But I had already published 4 books with Bloomsbury and, you
know, I wasn't a best seller, soI, he couldn't find anyone to
buy this novel. And I, I, it's just a sad story,
but it's also completely, you know, common.
And after I wrote that book, which every single day was
(12:58):
joyful, like I just sat down andwrote it.
And I, I really had never had that much fun in my life writing
an entire novel. So I thought, I need to continue
doing something that's fun. And I started writing these
memos that ended up becoming, you know, the the book.
Please be advised they were, they're flash pieces
essentially. And they seemed manageable.
(13:19):
So I just kept writing them. And I realized this is maybe
something I could turn into a novel.
So I'm not selling my goofy sex comedy, which was the book that
I got the sort of dream agent for.
And I'm I'm going to write something else that's for me.
And but I think corporate officepolitics, a lot of us have
worked in corporate offices or even I've worked in many
(13:41):
different offices. I've worked in university
offices, I've worked in retail nonprofits.
It's just been, you know, you the human character's the same
everywhere. So it was great fun to explore
our foibles and bigger flaws too.
How much of that was influenced by what you had experienced?
(14:03):
You know, none of it was actually taken directly from the
two years I worked in a corporate office right after
College in the in the loop, which is actually where my
company, my fictional company, is set at the at in that exact
office. I kept thinking about it when I
was working on it 30 years ago. I mean, I worked there from 93
to 95 right before grad school. But it's it just sort of I tried
(14:27):
to capture the sort of wacko mentality, like all, you know,
we were all in these jobs we didnot really like.
And most of us were underpaid, Ithink.
Yeah. So it was just, it was miserable
on some level, but it was also for me, it was just so
interesting as a young writer tosort of examine human character
(14:51):
up close and just my own foiblestoo.
Like what? What's wrong with me?
You know, why do I hate this so much?
Or maybe nothing's wrong with me?
So, so that it was really fun tothink about those years.
And and also a lot of the peopleI met were really nice people.
But it's all, you know, wheneveryou encounter people who drive
(15:11):
you crazy, you know, as I think it's Buddhists who say the
people who bother you the most have the most to teach you.
So it's as a fiction writer or any sort of creative writer.
It's those opportunities which are really formative, I think
for, for those of us who are keen on paying attention to, you
know, to those exchanges and, and just observing people up
(15:36):
close in an environment where every single day, five days a
week anyway, you have to presentyourself to earn your wage and
do work that perhaps does not interest you, but you do it
because you have to pay your electric bill and, and your car
payment. So little known facts.
Another book of yours explores the world of fame and family
(15:57):
dynamics. Yes it does.
What inspired this story? You know it, it was.
I can't remember exactly when, but I remember thinking at some
point about like, wouldn't it behorrible to be the son of
someone like Harrison Ford or Robert Redford?
When you become an adolescent and all of a sudden all the
girls in your life that you havecrushes on are like, Oh my God,
(16:18):
your dad is so cute and I wish Icould meet him.
And and just never knowing. Probably on in some part of
yourself if the girl that you'redating or the woman that you
marry, if you do get married, isshe just wishing you were her,
you know, that you were your father.
So that was really the seed for the book.
(16:38):
And and then I learned from a friend who works in Hollywood,
He said, oh, we have a saying onset that if you were bad in a
past life, you come back as a movie star's child.
And I'm like, this is exactly what I'm writing about.
So it was it's literary fiction.It's character driven.
I actually published several of the chapters.
One was in the Southern Review, another was in the New England
(16:59):
Review, one was in the Chicago Tribune's literary Supplement.
And then a couple of others. I can't remember now.
It's been a long time. But I was really thinking very
much about, you know, it is character driven even though it
has the backdrop of Hollywood. And I was also just thinking
about the myths that Hollywood sells US expensively.
(17:21):
Like we really think if we become rich and famous, we're
going to be happy despite all evidence to the contrary.
I know you're a filmmaker, so you, you know, you know what I'm
talking about. Yes, a lot of that.
So when you write a book like that or please be advised, who
are you writing for? I think everyone pretty much
who's interested in, I mean, Hollywood itself might not be
(17:41):
interested in Hollywood stories,but the rest of the planet is,
you know, So I just was writing,I wanted to kind of demystify
the the fabled Hollywood life and the life of a movie star
because for myself too, like I just wanted to understand, like
what is the fascination? Like, why are we so interested
(18:03):
in this? So that helped that book,
writing that book really helped me think about that.
Had you done any research? I mean, aside from just being a
consumer of Hollywood movies andalso independent films and
reading, you know, a lot of profiles about celebrities, but
also just as a fiction writer. I mean, that's one of my
favorite parts is just trying toimagine what it's like to be
(18:23):
someone else. I mean, I actually, I'm my
syllabi for fiction workshops. I have a quote from Ian McEwan.
He's like trying to be trying tounderstand someone else's point
of view is at the heart of our humanity or at the core of our
I'm paraphrasing, but I mean, that's the thing that I think
about all the time. It's like trying to understand
what it's like to be someone else.
That's what we get to do as writers.
(18:44):
You know, I mean, I, I think we should, there are obviously
thorny and understandably complicated ethical issues.
Like if you're trying to write from the point of view that
you're not someone who's, you know, I'm, I'm not a trans
woman. I, I can't write from that point
of view, probably with, with much with any real authenticity,
(19:06):
but I'm still curious about those people.
And you know, the fact that are those groups of any groups of
people that I think are there's just, there's so much complexity
and in so many of our cultural I'm, I wouldn't say like
juggernauts, but just the thingsthat have absorbed our our
(19:29):
sympathies and just the fact that we're trying to understand
like what it's like to be alive and in a really difficult time.
So when you write, are you writing with the intention of
being published? And if you write with the
intention of being published, the demands of the publishing
(19:50):
world are are shifting. So how do you stay true to your
kind of creative vision while atthe same time hoping that your
work will be picked up? You know, I, again, I think I
can't write to the market. I, I mean, that's something I've
heard from other people, whetherthey're writing fiction or
scripts, 'cause they'll, you know, I've heard this from
(20:12):
people who have been successful screenwriters.
They've said I have to write what I'm interested in.
And, and if I, I never tell students to go write to a trope
or, you know, if they don't wantto write 50 Shades of Grey like
novels, they shouldn't write them.
If they do, because they actually really like those
novels and they're excited to come up with their own variation
(20:34):
on those themes, go right ahead.But you can't chase the market.
So I, I think I do hope that work that I will, that I write
will get published, but I also don't know until it's done.
You know, I, I, I think a lot ofwriters, probably a lot of the
faculty, it's the same thing You're writing hoping that what
you write will be worthy of publication and then you will
then succeed to publish it. But you don't necessarily know
(20:56):
until you've written it and had enough distance from it for a
little, you know, At least for afew weeks or a year or however
long. You just don't know.
You know, Not every loaf of bread that a master Baker bakes
is one that they want sitting onthe in the case, you know?
Right. I call it the first pancake, or
when I play pickleball, the first pancake.
(21:18):
If I win, great, I won that day.If I didn't win that first game,
you didn't even know what happened, right?
So there's a lot of that, right?That people will never see.
As a professor and teacher, how has that influenced your
creative writing? It's helped, I think, because,
you know, having to give notes on student pages, whether it's
(21:39):
poetry or prose. I, you know, I have to
constantly think about like, well, what is what is it that I
really like in this piece and what might they make even more
interesting or maybe what needs to be cut or often it's the
opposite. I find that I'm asking students
to give me more detail. So because I think people, you
know, I hear this all the time. Oh, I don't want to bog people
(22:00):
down. And I want readers to be able to
relate to this character. And I'm like reminding them the,
you know, the universals in the particular I I don't want like a
boilerplate character. I want a uniquely developed,
just a sweet, generous character.
Or I don't even know if I said that right, It might be soo
generous, but I want someone whois only that character.
(22:22):
I don't want someone who could be a boilerplate for a specific
type of hero or, you know, just a guy who works in an office.
I want someone who is not a stereotype.
You know that we know that they like Twizzlers instead of Red
Vines and that they have a dog that has three legs.
(22:45):
And they named it Johnny becausethey had a dog when they were
six that was named Johnny. Or I, you know, whatever it is.
But I want to have very specificdetails.
And how do you push students to be able to do that, to come up
with that to make sure that the character is developed and their
specificity to your point where sometimes it may not show up,
(23:05):
but or you edited that out, but how do you push them that way?
You know, it's often about what are we reading?
What are we looking at? Like, what am I holding up as an
example of a really good story or a beautiful poem?
Or, you know, an essay that tells us something highly
specific about the writer's experience of maybe it's their
(23:29):
mother's illness or a plane tripto Alaska or, you know, I don't
know. But you know, it's often by
reading widely. But also, I think reading some
like a writer who you really admire reading all the things
they published. Like I read all of Dana
Spiotta's novels in 2024. She has five, I think.
(23:49):
And, you know, I read a couple and I just, it was like, this is
so good and these are great books and I just want to read
all her work. So I, I think writers,
especially, you know, newer writers, they really need to
sort of figure out like, what isit that attracts them, you know,
to what is it in someone else's writing that they just really
(24:12):
admire? What do they want to aspire to?
And it's just, you know, and a lot of it is sort of abstract
and you can't necessarily articulate why you like a writer
so much. But for me, it's almost always
about the fact that they use language in an interesting and
surprising way. And they just make the everyday
strange, the the element that John Gardner said we need.
(24:34):
We need strangeness and fiction for it to be good and life is
strange. I'm sure that I can't.
I think that's what he said in on Becoming a Novelist.
I'm pretty sure that's where I've read a few of his non
fiction books about writing. There's also The Art of Fiction
and I I think that nailed it, just that we need the strange
and good. If fiction is good, it's got
(24:55):
some element of strangeness because life is strange, you
know, as I said, like, and it's often like the fact that when
someone will write a bonker story and you're like, this is
just ridiculous. I'm like, oh, it actually
happened. And I'm like, well, fine, but it
also has to be persuasive. So that's the thing.
Like, how do you make good fiction strange and interesting?
(25:15):
But also there's a sort of internal logic that your reader
will go with that serves the story, so it has to be
convincing. Strange has to be organic.
It has to feel normal. So Christine, we're going to go
back to almost the beginning of our conversation and that the
Christine that was standing in Notre Dame and the light was
coming through the window. If you had to give that
(25:37):
Christine advice, knowing what you know today, what would you?
What would you tell her? This, I like this question.
I always think about, I mean, I think about this fair amount.
I mean, fortunately I haven't give it up, but that's probably
something that I would say to myself, just it's going to be
harder than you think. It'll be easy maybe for a little
while and then it's going to be hard and it might be easy again.
(25:58):
At some point you're just not going to know.
You just have to keep doing the writing and reading and, you
know, also not panicking If you,I, I tend to be someone who
tries to write every day and then I feel bad if I don't.
And there's just days when you can't do it.
So it whether you're just too tired or you sabotage yourself
because you end up doing all this other work that probably
(26:20):
could be put off for an hour or two, but you're like, oh, I have
to do it now. And then suddenly it's 6:00 at
night and you're just, there's nothing left.
You're just too tired so that I think that's the advice.
Don't worry so much and it will be hard.
What does it mean to be unapologetically creative?
I think it's just sort of not caring about what other people
(26:42):
say about how you choose to liveyour life.
I mean, obviously within reason,but I think you also just have
to learn to not care that much about like if you're not getting
the respect you think you deserve or if people are just
kind of like, yeah, whatever. So what, you're a writer.
I know a million writers that doesn't have any.
That shouldn't affect you. I mean, like, what does it
matter? But your opinions actually your
(27:05):
opinion of your work and your work ethic, those are those are
important opinions. So try not to worry about what
other people say. Easy to tell for me to say, but
it's I think that's really an important thing.
Like it's part of just sticking with it.
Don't let, don't let yourself bejudged.
Christine Sneed reminds us that good writing often comes with
(27:26):
adding more detail. Not less.
Her approach to storytelling is rooted in curiosity, honesty,
and the freedom to allow an ideawherever it leads.
Whether she's capturing the absurdity of office life or
imagining the pressures of growing up in the shadow of
fame, Christine shows us how humor and specificity can bring
(27:48):
characters to life. She's speaking openly. 3/2.
She speaks openly about the realities of of.
She speaks openly about the realities of the publishing
world, the value of reading widely, and the importance of
trusting your own voice. We hope her story inspires.
(28:09):
You to keep. Writing Keep observing and stay
true to what makes your creativevoice unique.
Let me do one more. How's this microphone?
I just literally got it. OK, good.
All right, here we go, 3/2. Christine Steed reminds us that
(28:33):
good writing often comes with adding more detail, not less.
Her approach to storytelling is rooted in curiosity, honesty,
and the freedom to follow an idea wherever it leads.
Whether she's capturing the absurdity of office life or
imagining the pressures of growing up in the shadow of
fame, Christine shows us how humor and specificity can bring
(28:58):
characters to life. She speaks openly about the
realities of the publishing world, the value of reading
widely, and the importance of trusting your own voice.
We hope her story inspires you to keep writing, keep observing,
and to stay true to what makes your creative voice unique.
(29:20):
Thanks for listening to Unapologetically Creative.
Be sure to follow the show and stay tuned for more insightful
conversations in the episodes ahead.
To learn more about the Vermont College of Fine Arts, visit
vcfa.edu.
I often begin a short story witha title, I think sort of
episodically in a way, and if I have a good title that often
will inspire an idea for a storyor a character specifically.
And once I get the first paragraph down, I I feel that
I'm able to kind of follow the thread.
(00:27):
Welcome to Unapologetically Creative, a podcast from the
Vermont College of Fine Arts, where we celebrate bold
artistry, transformative creativity, and the audacious
voices shaping the future of thearts.
I'm your host, Andrew Ram Sammy,and in this series we dive into
honest, inspiring conversations with artists who are pushing
(00:51):
boundaries and redefining what it means to create work that
resonates and endures. We're thrilled to welcome a
writer whose work captures the complexity, humor, and beauty of
modern life. Christine Sneed is an acclaimed
award-winning author. You're award-winning, right?
(01:11):
That's what they tell me. I threw that in there, didn't
even didn't even say that, but Iwas like, might as well just
throw it in there. And professor whose novels,
short stories, and essays explores themes of identity,
relationships, and the human desire.
For connection, her books include.
Little known facts, the virginity of famous men and
Please Be Advised which all showcases her sharp wit, keen
(01:34):
observational skills, and the ability to craft deeply
relatable characters. Christine's work has.
Earned her numerous. Awards.
Oh look, it is there and a loyalfollowing solidifying.
Her place as a. Leading voice.
In contemporary fiction, Christine, welcome to
Unapologetically Creative. Thank you for having me today.
I'm happy to be here. So what first?
Inspired you to start writing. What got you into writing?
(01:57):
Well, I think probably like a lot of people who started in
their formative years, it was a was kind of like a release
valve. I had ridiculous crushes on boys
who were not interested in me. So I began writing terrible love
poetry and keeping a journal. And you know, you, you sort of
eventually realize if you write long enough that it helps you
(02:19):
actually figure out what you think about things and also it
allows you to think more deeply about them.
So that that was really helpful and it still is.
I'm sure there were a lot of moments that led up to you kind
of realizing and becoming that you wanted to be a writer, but
was there a defining moment for you?
Yeah, there actually was. It was the year I was studying
(02:40):
in in France, my junior year in college.
I was in Strasbourg. I was a French major and I spent
the, you know, the requisite junior year abroad like a lot of
language majors do. And I was in it was, it's so it
sounds like such a cliche and I think it was, but I remember I
was in Paris 1 long weekend withmy friend Kate, who actually
(03:04):
dedicated my book Paris. He said to her, she got us she,
she was insisted about travelingon weekends and getting a year
rail pass and all that. And I didn't know anything about
that before I went abroad. But I remember we were, I think
we were in Notre Dame before it burned down, of course.
So it was long before that many,many years before the fire.
(03:25):
And I just, there was this moment.
It was literally like an epiphany, the light coming
through the windows, the Jesus light.
And I just thought I'm going to be a writer.
And, and I thought this is, it'strue.
Like this is really what I want to do.
So this was in the early 90s. And I still think about that
moment, obviously. So that I think I just thought,
you know, I don't have to ask for permission.
(03:47):
I can just start writing. And that I was already writing
it, as I mentioned long ago, youknow, as a, as a very young
girl. But I just realized you just sit
down and start writing. And then that's you obviously
have to be a serious reader too.I think to be a, at least if
you're writing poetry or literary fiction, I think it
really helps to be a reader. And I'd say I'm guessing most
(04:08):
writers are serious readers. But yeah, I didn't have to ask
anyone if I could do it. I just did it.
But I don't think girls, maybe especially are young women.
I, maybe young men are similar. Some of them are anyway that we
I think we always felt like we had to wait for someone to tell
us it was OK if we were going todo something a little risky,
(04:29):
like try to become a writer. Yeah.
Where did that moment take you? Where did that that land?
I, you know, my, I was, I went back to, to campus and after the
year in France, I had my senior year left, but I took a poetry
workshop with this really excellent poet who, you know, he
(04:51):
was just a really wonderful teacher to Roland Flint.
And that was the spring of my senior year.
And he accepted me into the workshop because you did have to
apply. And, you know, I kept in touch
with him after I graduated. And it just, you know, I started
making a life as a writer, thinking about writing.
And I took a shot a workshop at Ragdale with David Wojon.
(05:13):
In fact, he was on sabbatical from Indiana after his wife,
Linda Hall, had died tragically in a car crash earlier that
year. And he was teaching a fall
workshop. And I just remember him being
very instrumental in suggesting,you know, you, you want to go to
grad school. You I had told him that I wanted
(05:34):
to get an, a master's degree, but I didn't know anything about
an MFA. And he just said, well, you
don't want an MA in lit, probably.
I think you want an MA in MFA increative writing so that, you
know, incrementally. I just sort of figured it out
with the help of people like David Wojohn and other writers
too, who I met along the way. So you go and you get your MFA.
(05:54):
Where'd you get your MFA? Actually at Indiana, where David
was teaching at the time, and I,I loved Bloomington.
It was really those three years were great.
Describe what was that like? I remember this moment when I, I
was living in this neighborhood very close to UIC and Rush
Presbyterian Hospital. That medical school I think was,
(06:14):
is was really close to that. The campus was there.
I had his roommate who was studying to become a physical
therapist. So that's why we were living
right down and this neighborhood, which at that time
was actually not very good. I mean, I remember she got
mugged once. And so I'm laughing.
But you know, at the time it wasnot great.
But I was working and trying to figure it out in writing.
(06:37):
But I was looking at these poemsthat I'd written and thinking
how does anyone ever make a nameas a writer?
It just seems impossible. So I still think about that time
and and you just do it, one poem, one story, one essay, 1
screenplay at a time. And you can't give up.
If you really want to be a writer, you just keep writing.
(06:58):
So how did those experiences, and I'm sure other personal
experiences influence your work and how do you strike a bounce?
Because you, you, you mix a lot of fiction and reality in your
work, so. I, you know, I don't really
write autobiographical fiction. Like I certainly am writing
stories that they are domestic realism.
I'm not, I'm not writing speculative.
(07:19):
I have written stories that havesome speculative elements, but
very few. And when you say domestic
realism for folks that don't know what that is, what is that?
You know, it's someone who's just writing about everyday life
without any ghosts or vampires, or it's you're just sort of
recording the life as at least as the author experiences it.
(07:40):
So your characters are very nuanced, incredibly nuanced and
relatable. How do you go about creating
such vivid and authentic voices?Well, thank you for that
compliment. You know, I I'm just more or
less trying to follow an idea, avoice.
Often I maybe it's because I wasa poetry MFAI often begin a
(08:06):
short story with a title and twoof the three novels I've
published basically are sort of like they're novel, not novels
and stories. But some of the chapters have
been published independently, not as you know, novel chapter
is actually a short stories or flash fiction pieces.
So I think sort of episodically in a way.
(08:28):
And if I have a good title that often will inspire an idea for a
story or a character specifically.
And once I get the first paragraph down, I I feel that
I'm able to kind of follow the thread and.
And is that thread linear? Is it?
Usually there's some flashbacks,but pretty much I don't use a
(08:50):
lot of structural tricks, but I,you know, I, I admire people who
find and I, I think it really has to be organic.
Like if I, you know, I'm, if I am moving back and forth in
time, it's just a sort of occasional, like the, the fact
the character's thinking about something and in order to layer
in more context for it, I might have to include a reference to
(09:13):
something that happened in the past or our previous
conversation that 2 characters have had.
So it's, it really has to be sort of instinctive and organic.
But I mean, it's something that I've learned to do over, you
know, 30 years of serious writing.
And sometimes it works well and other times I, I have stuff that
I just like, no, this didn't work.
You know, you just have to kind of let yourself off the hook,
(09:36):
but also just not get too freaked out about the fact that
not everything you write is necessarily something you want
other people to to read. So what is your process?
What is, what does that look like?
Can you walk us through it? Well, I'll speak specifically
about a novel that I finished a draft of this past November that
I'm currently editing. And like I'm, I'm, I'm guess I'm
(09:58):
revising. Editing is usually less
aggressive. I think so.
I would start first thing in themorning a lot of times because
if I didn't get any work in before 10:00 in the morning, I'd
find many excuses to not to not do any writing that day.
So it just depends. Some days I'm able to do things
in the afternoon or in the evening, but I find that my
(10:22):
previous sort of feverish pace is less.
It's just not as easy to. And I just, I think since the
pandemic and I, I've heard otherwriters talk about this.
I think it's our attention spanshave gotten worse because being
at home and being online so muchstarting in March of 2020.
So but that's yeah, I mean, the main thing is I this morning,
(10:42):
for example, I was working on a number of things, but then
finally mid morning I started working on chapter 10 of this
book, which has got 20 chapters.And I don't know, like I, I
think I published the first chapter in 2023 in Beloit
Fiction Journal as a stand alonestory.
And I, I know some of the chapters are good and but it
obviously when you have a whole novel, it's like a country, you
(11:05):
know, there are parts that are skirmishing sometimes or cities
that are, you know, more healthythan other cities.
And it's just, there's so many things that you're dealing with
and it really is. It's amazing to me how anything
gets written that that's more than like 2 paragraphs.
(11:26):
Sometimes I feel that way. So you you like using?
Humor a lot in your craft and particularly in your book.
Please be advised which is a look at corporate America.
Oh yes, I loved writing this book and.
Tell us about that book and and and how.
It was so much. Fun was involved in all of that.
You know, I after I'd written this novel in 2017 that I
(11:52):
haven't published but I got a great agent for, and he then
went out with it. This is a story you've heard
probably other people talk about.
He was like, this is a really funny novel.
It's so good. Then he couldn't sell it because
probably. Well, a few things that of
course, humor is so subjective, so clearly you just need to find
(12:15):
the person who has a similar sense of humor.
But also being to be honest, youknow, I, I talk often about the
publishing industry because I teach a class about it and I,
I'm, I'm what's called a midlistauthor.
Most authors are midlist authors.
You know, if you're published bya, a big house, you're not a
bestseller. Usually great if you are.
It's definitely a wonderful thing.
(12:36):
But I had already published 4 books with Bloomsbury and, you
know, I wasn't a best seller, soI, he couldn't find anyone to
buy this novel. And I, I, it's just a sad story,
but it's also completely, you know, common.
And after I wrote that book, which every single day was
(12:58):
joyful, like I just sat down andwrote it.
And I, I really had never had that much fun in my life writing
an entire novel. So I thought, I need to continue
doing something that's fun. And I started writing these
memos that ended up becoming, you know, the the book.
Please be advised they were, they're flash pieces
essentially. And they seemed manageable.
(13:19):
So I just kept writing them. And I realized this is maybe
something I could turn into a novel.
So I'm not selling my goofy sex comedy, which was the book that
I got the sort of dream agent for.
And I'm I'm going to write something else that's for me.
And but I think corporate officepolitics, a lot of us have
worked in corporate offices or even I've worked in many
(13:41):
different offices. I've worked in university
offices, I've worked in retail nonprofits.
It's just been, you know, you the human character's the same
everywhere. So it was great fun to explore
our foibles and bigger flaws too.
How much of that was influenced by what you had experienced?
(14:03):
You know, none of it was actually taken directly from the
two years I worked in a corporate office right after
College in the in the loop, which is actually where my
company, my fictional company, is set at the at in that exact
office. I kept thinking about it when I
was working on it 30 years ago. I mean, I worked there from 93
to 95 right before grad school. But it's it just sort of I tried
(14:27):
to capture the sort of wacko mentality, like all, you know,
we were all in these jobs we didnot really like.
And most of us were underpaid, Ithink.
Yeah. So it was just, it was miserable
on some level, but it was also for me, it was just so
interesting as a young writer tosort of examine human character
(14:51):
up close and just my own foiblestoo.
Like what? What's wrong with me?
You know, why do I hate this so much?
Or maybe nothing's wrong with me?
So, so that it was really fun tothink about those years.
And and also a lot of the peopleI met were really nice people.
But it's all, you know, wheneveryou encounter people who drive
(15:11):
you crazy, you know, as I think it's Buddhists who say the
people who bother you the most have the most to teach you.
So it's as a fiction writer or any sort of creative writer.
It's those opportunities which are really formative, I think
for, for those of us who are keen on paying attention to, you
know, to those exchanges and, and just observing people up
(15:36):
close in an environment where every single day, five days a
week anyway, you have to presentyourself to earn your wage and
do work that perhaps does not interest you, but you do it
because you have to pay your electric bill and, and your car
payment. So little known facts.
Another book of yours explores the world of fame and family
(15:57):
dynamics. Yes it does.
What inspired this story? You know it, it was.
I can't remember exactly when, but I remember thinking at some
point about like, wouldn't it behorrible to be the son of
someone like Harrison Ford or Robert Redford?
When you become an adolescent and all of a sudden all the
girls in your life that you havecrushes on are like, Oh my God,
(16:18):
your dad is so cute and I wish Icould meet him.
And and just never knowing. Probably on in some part of
yourself if the girl that you'redating or the woman that you
marry, if you do get married, isshe just wishing you were her,
you know, that you were your father.
So that was really the seed for the book.
(16:38):
And and then I learned from a friend who works in Hollywood,
He said, oh, we have a saying onset that if you were bad in a
past life, you come back as a movie star's child.
And I'm like, this is exactly what I'm writing about.
So it was it's literary fiction.It's character driven.
I actually published several of the chapters.
One was in the Southern Review, another was in the New England
(16:59):
Review, one was in the Chicago Tribune's literary Supplement.
And then a couple of others. I can't remember now.
It's been a long time. But I was really thinking very
much about, you know, it is character driven even though it
has the backdrop of Hollywood. And I was also just thinking
about the myths that Hollywood sells US expensively.
(17:21):
Like we really think if we become rich and famous, we're
going to be happy despite all evidence to the contrary.
I know you're a filmmaker, so you, you know, you know what I'm
talking about. Yes, a lot of that.
So when you write a book like that or please be advised, who
are you writing for? I think everyone pretty much
who's interested in, I mean, Hollywood itself might not be
(17:41):
interested in Hollywood stories,but the rest of the planet is,
you know, So I just was writing,I wanted to kind of demystify
the the fabled Hollywood life and the life of a movie star
because for myself too, like I just wanted to understand, like
what is the fascination? Like, why are we so interested
(18:03):
in this? So that helped that book,
writing that book really helped me think about that.
Had you done any research? I mean, aside from just being a
consumer of Hollywood movies andalso independent films and
reading, you know, a lot of profiles about celebrities, but
also just as a fiction writer. I mean, that's one of my
favorite parts is just trying toimagine what it's like to be
(18:23):
someone else. I mean, I actually, I'm my
syllabi for fiction workshops. I have a quote from Ian McEwan.
He's like trying to be trying tounderstand someone else's point
of view is at the heart of our humanity or at the core of our
I'm paraphrasing, but I mean, that's the thing that I think
about all the time. It's like trying to understand
what it's like to be someone else.
That's what we get to do as writers.
(18:44):
You know, I mean, I, I think we should, there are obviously
thorny and understandably complicated ethical issues.
Like if you're trying to write from the point of view that
you're not someone who's, you know, I'm, I'm not a trans
woman. I, I can't write from that point
of view, probably with, with much with any real authenticity,
(19:06):
but I'm still curious about those people.
And you know, the fact that are those groups of any groups of
people that I think are there's just, there's so much complexity
and in so many of our cultural I'm, I wouldn't say like
juggernauts, but just the thingsthat have absorbed our our
(19:29):
sympathies and just the fact that we're trying to understand
like what it's like to be alive and in a really difficult time.
So when you write, are you writing with the intention of
being published? And if you write with the
intention of being published, the demands of the publishing
(19:50):
world are are shifting. So how do you stay true to your
kind of creative vision while atthe same time hoping that your
work will be picked up? You know, I, again, I think I
can't write to the market. I, I mean, that's something I've
heard from other people, whetherthey're writing fiction or
scripts, 'cause they'll, you know, I've heard this from
(20:12):
people who have been successful screenwriters.
They've said I have to write what I'm interested in.
And, and if I, I never tell students to go write to a trope
or, you know, if they don't wantto write 50 Shades of Grey like
novels, they shouldn't write them.
If they do, because they actually really like those
novels and they're excited to come up with their own variation
(20:34):
on those themes, go right ahead.But you can't chase the market.
So I, I think I do hope that work that I will, that I write
will get published, but I also don't know until it's done.
You know, I, I, I think a lot ofwriters, probably a lot of the
faculty, it's the same thing You're writing hoping that what
you write will be worthy of publication and then you will
then succeed to publish it. But you don't necessarily know
(20:56):
until you've written it and had enough distance from it for a
little, you know, At least for afew weeks or a year or however
long. You just don't know.
You know, Not every loaf of bread that a master Baker bakes
is one that they want sitting onthe in the case, you know?
Right. I call it the first pancake, or
when I play pickleball, the first pancake.
(21:18):
If I win, great, I won that day.If I didn't win that first game,
you didn't even know what happened, right?
So there's a lot of that, right?That people will never see.
As a professor and teacher, how has that influenced your
creative writing? It's helped, I think, because,
you know, having to give notes on student pages, whether it's
(21:39):
poetry or prose. I, you know, I have to
constantly think about like, well, what is what is it that I
really like in this piece and what might they make even more
interesting or maybe what needs to be cut or often it's the
opposite. I find that I'm asking students
to give me more detail. So because I think people, you
know, I hear this all the time. Oh, I don't want to bog people
(22:00):
down. And I want readers to be able to
relate to this character. And I'm like reminding them the,
you know, the universals in the particular I I don't want like a
boilerplate character. I want a uniquely developed,
just a sweet, generous character.
Or I don't even know if I said that right, It might be soo
generous, but I want someone whois only that character.
(22:22):
I don't want someone who could be a boilerplate for a specific
type of hero or, you know, just a guy who works in an office.
I want someone who is not a stereotype.
You know that we know that they like Twizzlers instead of Red
Vines and that they have a dog that has three legs.
(22:45):
And they named it Johnny becausethey had a dog when they were
six that was named Johnny. Or I, you know, whatever it is.
But I want to have very specificdetails.
And how do you push students to be able to do that, to come up
with that to make sure that the character is developed and their
specificity to your point where sometimes it may not show up,
(23:05):
but or you edited that out, but how do you push them that way?
You know, it's often about what are we reading?
What are we looking at? Like, what am I holding up as an
example of a really good story or a beautiful poem?
Or, you know, an essay that tells us something highly
specific about the writer's experience of maybe it's their
(23:29):
mother's illness or a plane tripto Alaska or, you know, I don't
know. But you know, it's often by
reading widely. But also, I think reading some
like a writer who you really admire reading all the things
they published. Like I read all of Dana
Spiotta's novels in 2024. She has five, I think.
(23:49):
And, you know, I read a couple and I just, it was like, this is
so good and these are great books and I just want to read
all her work. So I, I think writers,
especially, you know, newer writers, they really need to
sort of figure out like, what isit that attracts them, you know,
to what is it in someone else's writing that they just really
(24:12):
admire? What do they want to aspire to?
And it's just, you know, and a lot of it is sort of abstract
and you can't necessarily articulate why you like a writer
so much. But for me, it's almost always
about the fact that they use language in an interesting and
surprising way. And they just make the everyday
strange, the the element that John Gardner said we need.
(24:34):
We need strangeness and fiction for it to be good and life is
strange. I'm sure that I can't.
I think that's what he said in on Becoming a Novelist.
I'm pretty sure that's where I've read a few of his non
fiction books about writing. There's also The Art of Fiction
and I I think that nailed it, just that we need the strange
and good. If fiction is good, it's got
(24:55):
some element of strangeness because life is strange, you
know, as I said, like, and it's often like the fact that when
someone will write a bonker story and you're like, this is
just ridiculous. I'm like, oh, it actually
happened. And I'm like, well, fine, but it
also has to be persuasive. So that's the thing.
Like, how do you make good fiction strange and interesting?
(25:15):
But also there's a sort of internal logic that your reader
will go with that serves the story, so it has to be
convincing. Strange has to be organic.
It has to feel normal. So Christine, we're going to go
back to almost the beginning of our conversation and that the
Christine that was standing in Notre Dame and the light was
coming through the window. If you had to give that
(25:37):
Christine advice, knowing what you know today, what would you?
What would you tell her? This, I like this question.
I always think about, I mean, I think about this fair amount.
I mean, fortunately I haven't give it up, but that's probably
something that I would say to myself, just it's going to be
harder than you think. It'll be easy maybe for a little
while and then it's going to be hard and it might be easy again.
(25:58):
At some point you're just not going to know.
You just have to keep doing the writing and reading and, you
know, also not panicking If you,I, I tend to be someone who
tries to write every day and then I feel bad if I don't.
And there's just days when you can't do it.
So it whether you're just too tired or you sabotage yourself
because you end up doing all this other work that probably
(26:20):
could be put off for an hour or two, but you're like, oh, I have
to do it now. And then suddenly it's 6:00 at
night and you're just, there's nothing left.
You're just too tired so that I think that's the advice.
Don't worry so much and it will be hard.
What does it mean to be unapologetically creative?
I think it's just sort of not caring about what other people
(26:42):
say about how you choose to liveyour life.
I mean, obviously within reason,but I think you also just have
to learn to not care that much about like if you're not getting
the respect you think you deserve or if people are just
kind of like, yeah, whatever. So what, you're a writer.
I know a million writers that doesn't have any.
That shouldn't affect you. I mean, like, what does it
matter? But your opinions actually your
(27:05):
opinion of your work and your work ethic, those are those are
important opinions. So try not to worry about what
other people say. Easy to tell for me to say, but
it's I think that's really an important thing.
Like it's part of just sticking with it.
Don't let, don't let yourself bejudged.
Christine Sneed reminds us that good writing often comes with
(27:26):
adding more detail. Not less.
Her approach to storytelling is rooted in curiosity, honesty,
and the freedom to allow an ideawherever it leads.
Whether she's capturing the absurdity of office life or
imagining the pressures of growing up in the shadow of
fame, Christine shows us how humor and specificity can bring
(27:48):
characters to life. She's speaking openly. 3/2.
She speaks openly about the realities of of.
She speaks openly about the realities of the publishing
world, the value of reading widely, and the importance of
trusting your own voice. We hope her story inspires.
(28:09):
You to keep. Writing Keep observing and stay
true to what makes your creativevoice unique.
Let me do one more. How's this microphone?
I just literally got it. OK, good.
All right, here we go, 3/2. Christine Steed reminds us that
(28:33):
good writing often comes with adding more detail, not less.
Her approach to storytelling is rooted in curiosity, honesty,
and the freedom to follow an idea wherever it leads.
Whether she's capturing the absurdity of office life or
imagining the pressures of growing up in the shadow of
fame, Christine shows us how humor and specificity can bring
(28:58):
characters to life. She speaks openly about the
realities of the publishing world, the value of reading
widely, and the importance of trusting your own voice.
We hope her story inspires you to keep writing, keep observing,
and to stay true to what makes your creative voice unique.
(29:20):
Thanks for listening to Unapologetically Creative.
Be sure to follow the show and stay tuned for more insightful
conversations in the episodes ahead.
To learn more about the Vermont College of Fine Arts, visit
vcfa.edu.
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