Author Rachel Kushner and host/visual artist Chloe Aftel first met after the success of Rachel’s first novel and have worked collaboratively ever since. Now, the pair reunite for the latest episode of The Other Pod to discuss her new novel, Creation Lake, and dive into everything creative process and ideation. They discuss the way their artistic processes align and differ across mediums, the journey to capture shifting perspectives, and the kinetic, alive energy that comes with creating.

Highlights:

• Rachel reflects on the tricky balance and ultimate catharsis of writing first-person characters whose thoughts and judgments are antithetical to her own;
• How a writing exercise with her husband led to a crucial breakthrough in the story structure of Creation Lake;
• The lessons she’s learned in this career regarding ego, self-perception, dissociation, and staying monkish when it comes to praise;
• Rachel’s unique, instinctual connection to her characters and crafting story.

Rachel Kushner is an author long-listed for the Booker Prize, responsible for the widely loved novels Telex from Cuba, The Flamethrowers, and The Mars Room. Her latest novel, Creation Lake, releases September 4, 2024. You can keep up with Rachel on her website and find all her written work here.

Chloe Aftel has spent her career working in commercial photography, photojournalism, and film. She’s an established name in modern photography with work featured in The New York Times, Mother Jones, Playboy, Dazed & Confused, Vogue Germany, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue & more. Chloe has photographed victims of sexual violence, reported on Covid’s impact on the trans community, and gained access as the first reporter in the Covid wards of the West Coast’s hardest hit hospitals. She has covered underground abortion providers, the impact of gender pronouns on daily life, and clergy abuse. Her first book, “Outside and In Between,” is an award-winning anthology covering gender non-conforming people across America.

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