Selected Articles
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George Saunders
“Some problems are really stubborn, and they don’t just go away because you decide to face them,” George Saunders told Michelle in an interview for Willamette Week.
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Chronology of Water
Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, the adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, The Chronology of Water, is one of the best book-to-movie adaptations ever — and a prime example of why we need more female directors.
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Ottessa Moshfegh
“I hate not feeling safe,” Ottessa Moshfegh told Michelle in an interview for the San Francisco Chronicle. “But I always seem to go to a place that feels dangerous, because that’s where you start running. And I need to be running.”
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Robert Plant
Michelle photographed Robert Plant and Alison Kraus, alongside a two-part article about the iconic pair’s second album together — and a “controversial” review about their show.
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Andy Shauf
Shauf discusses narration and story editing on his latest album, “Norm.” Michelle also spoke with Shauf’s friend Nicholas Olson, a writer who provided editorial guidance on the lyrics.
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Rachel Kushner
Kushner only wants to write about cold-button issues, and told Michelle that “By pulling back and writing about niche subjects, I feel like I have more control over what I’m doing, and the things that I’m producing as nonfiction seem more like me.”
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Ling Ma
Ling Ma talked about her short short collection, Bliss Montage and told Michelle that reading Karen Russell was an ah-ha moment that inspired her to start writing speculative fiction.
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Sharon Van Etten
Sharon Van Etten talked with Michelle about her album We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong.
More Selected Work
✜ Review - for The San Francisco Chronicle: Ben Markovits’ ‘Rest of Our Lives’ dissects the perils of playing it safe.
✜ Review - Claire Jia’s Debut Novel Takes On Different Types of Desire and Possibility with Wanting.
✜ Interview - The San Francisco Chronicle: ‘90s San Francisco lives on with Berkeley author’s queer coming-of-age novel. For Shoshana von Blanckensee’s debut book, Girls, Girls, Girls.
✜ Essay - Debut Author Spotlight - Essay for The Master’s Review.
✜ Interview - for Portland Monthly: Johnny Franco Wants to Lick the City’s Wounds with His Guitar: A Brazilian immigrant campaigns for a vibrant city by way of free concerts.
✜ Interview - for Portland Monthly: Portland author Kimberly King Parsons speaks with Michelle about ‘Unlikable’ Narrators and the Impossible Expectations of Motherhood ahead of her hotly anticipated debut novel, We Were the Universe.
✜ Essay - Journaling while memoiring: One writer's example of how journaling helped her memoir writing (with Susan Ito, award-winning author of the memoir I Would Meet You Anywhere.)
✜ Interview - for Willamette Week: A Portland Translator Brought New Life to Bảo Ninh’s Short Story Collection “Hà Nôi at Midnight”.
✜ Review - How Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart made me think of Joan Didion.
✜ Review - for the SF Chronicle: Roxanna Asgarian's We Were Once a Family tells shocking Mendocino coast murder-suicide through the lens of the children who died.
✜ Interview - Right before The Rabbit Hutch won the National Book Award for fiction, Tess Gunty talked with Michelle about avoiding the trauma trope and how she created compassion for characters – even the ones with disturbing behaviors.
✜ Interview - “Some of the most important events were only discovered as I wrote them,” Diana Goetsch told Michelle for Writing Workshops, where they talked about memoir writing and structure. Diana’s memoir This Body I Wore is still a go-to in Michelle’s memoir classes.
✜ Interview - Marlon Williams talked with Michelle about the inspirations behind My Boy and his growing passion for acting and “over-the-top performances.”
✜ Interview - “The joy of watching these episodes is watching change,” filmmaker Jon Meyer shared in an interview for Willamette Week.
✜ Interview - Poet Kaveh Akbar discussed his recovery-minded virtual writing class, The Break.
✜ Interview - Sávila’s Brisa Gonzalez spoke with Michelle about their documentary and 2021’s album, Mayahuel.
✜ Interview - Chelsea Bieker gave some book recommendations, talked about her short story collection Heartbroke, and told Michelle, “I’ve felt that so much in my life and understand the nuance of what it’s like to have, say, parents who are alcoholics and really mired in their own addiction—and still really love them despite reason.”
✜ Essay - The places Aldous Harding takes her listeners, and how her 2022 album Warm Chris took the New Zealand musician to yet another level of fascinating.
✜ Review - The Chats’ boys on their 2022 album Get Fucked. Shed rock bangers!
✜ Interview - “I feel like I’m in the shell of a firework and it’s being lit,” Dehd’s Emily Kempf told Michelle.
✜ Interview - Guam activist and writer Julian Aguon talked about the uncategorizable nature of his work and why he wants to write pieces where there is no hiding.
✜ Interview - Andy Shauf talks story songs and The Neon Skyline for Earmilk.
✜ Interview - Director Adam Dubin spoke with Michelle about his documentary Murder in the Front Row for The Bay Bridged. They talked all about Metallica, nasty bar moments and the Bay Area’s thrash metal scene.
✜ Interview - Mastering engineer Piper Payne talks mastering and a whole lotta lacquer cutting.
✜ Interview - Thunderpussy, LAKE and Robert Auld talk about how to mic your livestream.
✜ Essay - In this “Writer’s Block” column for Into the Void, Michelle talks Joan Didion and the importance of jotting.
✜ Interview - Eileen Myles talks about how anything can work its way into a poem, even a fart. - Five80split (print only)
✜ Interview - Paul Harding talks winning the Pulitzer and why he never listens to music while writing. - Five80split (print only but… here is a live interview with Paul and Michelle for Banana Pitch!)
✜ Review - Glass Mountain Rodeo takes a random yet cohesive journey on 'Pond King' - for Earmilk.
