Interview with Amanda Stern

INTERVIEW WITH AMANDA STERN

Introduction by Drew Peifer. Interview by Sonia Farmer.


So, what can you do with a writing degree? Just ask Amanda Stern.

So far, she's been an actress, a playwright, a casting director, a comedian, co-host of "This is Not a Test" celebrity talk show, a novelist, a painter, and a photographer. She can often be found hanging around the Happy Ending Lounge in Manhattan where she hosts the Happy Ending Music and Reading Series, an innovative blend of musicians and authors that's featured celebrities such as Rick Moody, Jonathan Ames, and James Salter.

In Amanda's newest novel, The Long Haul, a troubled relationship plays itself out against a backdrop of addiction and bad decisions as The Alcoholic and his nameless girlfriend travel the country, playing music and ruining each other’s lives. Book reviews and interviews highlighted the distance that Amanda creates between the reader and her characters, as well as between the characters themselves. As the title suggests, The Long Haul teaches us that sometimes it’s the stories that are hard to tell and even harder to listen to (no offense) that leave the deepest impression. Amanda’s deliberately belligerent protagonist almost seems like she doesn’t want to tell us her story, but the pages keep turning and it’s all laid out: the frustration of unrealized hopes, the guilty ritual of addiction, and the futility of making promises that have already been broken.

Fans of Amanda Stern are fans of her curiously inappropriate sense of humor as well as her drug-infested tales of prolonged unpleasantness, and not many authors would have thought to curate a reading series in a converted massage parlor, complete with its original “penis showers” still intact. Take a trip to amandastern.com and you’ll find both published and unpublished writings, as well as visual art, ugly teen photos, and a forum in which visitors can add to Amanda’s modest catalog of rejection letters by submitting their own. Amanda also chronicles a hectic four week journey across America to promote her book that begins with several valiant attempts at passing her driver's license exam, holding a contest to find a volunteer driver to go cross-country on tour with her, then getting into a car crash with the winner of the contest. Along the way, we learn that it is never a good idea to shower in an Amtrak bathroom, and communicating with your publisher is key when you decide to book a tour.


Ladies and gentlemen, Amanda Stern.



You read a compelling excerpt from your new book at Friday Forum. What’s the title, again? Can you describe what it’s about and what led you to work on it?

Ah, the dreaded question is the first question! The title of my novel-in-progress is The Gurthrie Test. I can’t really say what it’s about or what led me there because I’m not done writing. Stories are shape-shifting creatures – what the book is about presently will be an altogether different beast when completed. How’s that for elusive?


Where did you grow up and how do you think that shaped you as a writer?

I grew up on MacDougal Street between Bleecker and Houston in Greenwich Village. I had a fairly unique upbringing. I was the youngest of six kids at my mom’s house on MacDougal Street and the middle of five uptown at my father’s. Life downtown was crazy, chaotic, free-spirited and undisciplined while uptown life was much more uptight. In many ways I had two simultaneously upbringings. We even dressed differently when we went uptown. But while there were two different ways we were being raised, there was one thread that ran through everything: panic. I have suffered severely from panic attacks my entire life starting at a very early age. As a child, I was terrified of separation, it felt like a physical death to part with my mother. I didn’t understand on an intrapsychic level that I would return. Yet every other weekend I had no choice but to leave my mother and so I grew up living in a state of constant dread and grief. The panic shaped who I became as an adult and informed the topics I choose and the themes I gravitate toward. In other words, it wasn’t where I was raised that shaped me as a writer, but what was growing inside me.


You have a pretty impressive resume as far as job titles go. What job did you love the most, and what did you dislike?

I think my favorite job was working for Hal Hartley in my very early 20s. The specific Hal Hartley job I’m thinking of is when I ran the rehearsals for “Amateur.” Hal is just about the loveliest man on earth and his cast was amazing and everyone treated me so well although I had just graduated college. The worst job ironically was also on “Amateur.” A bunch of the production crew was from LA. So pre-production was all Nyers and it was the best experience, but when the LA crew came and we went into production, things went really sour. I did something called “running first team,” which means I was in charge of all the “name” actors. The Assistant Directors on that job treated me really badly, very abusively. They thought I got special treatment because I had a close bond with Hal and the actors, so they were determined to make me suffer. And they did. I just hated the hell out of them. There were two in particular. I remember both their names still. They were just awful to me. The film shoot ended with both of them getting seriously ill from Craft Services.


How do you prefer to write?

I can write whenever. My schedule is set so that now I write during the day, but I’ve written at frequently and throughout the night. I’m not a morning person, but I will say, the few times I got up very early and felt delirious, my writing was pretty cool. Not good, mind you, but cool.


What led to the formation of the Happy Ending Reading Series?

My friend Oliver owns the bar and when my first novel, The Long Haul, was coming out, I asked him if I could read there. I wanted to read in bars that no one was reading in. Instead of answering, he asked me if I wanted to run my own series. I thought about it and realized I did.


Favorite books?

Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson, Light Years by James Salter, Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion.


Share something really funny about your childhood.

Nothing was funny about my childhood. Although I did go through a very strange period where I wanted hearing aids, orthopedic shoes, crutches, an eye patch, and any other badge of the seriously injured.


Any guilty pleasures?

The Hills.


What’s one thing you just can’t get enough of?

Three things: my nieces.


What are your irrational fears?

All my fears are rational.


Who’s your favorite person in the whole world?

You.


Where would you like to travel and why?

There are a kajillion places I’d like to go, but for now I would like to go to Berlin. I have friends there. It seems vibrant and cool. New York is no longer New York.


What are some of your favorite places to visit?

To visit implies I’m a regular, but I have been to several places I think often of returning: Mjlet, an island off the coast of Croatia; Barcelona; Menorca, off the coast of Barcelona; and Portland, Oregon.


What’s the best piece of advice anyone gave you that you could share with us?

If I remembered the best piece of advice anyone gave me I probably would have a steady income.

But if you really want to know, it’s “trust your own experience.”