Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Andrew Martin is the author of the novel Early Work, a New York Times Notable book of 2018, and the story collection Cool for America, longlisted for the 2020 Story Prize. His essays and stories have appeared frequently in The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, and Harper's, as well as in The Yale Review, The Atlantic, and McSweeney's. He lives in New York City with his family.

Follow Andrew Martin here: instagram.com/andrewhmartin85
You can buy DOWN TIME wherever books are sold :)

0:00 - Intro
0:50 - genesis of down time
3:00 - structure and characters of down time
5:55 - craft lesson re structure
6:20 - maintaining narrative structure
11:46 - the coastal elite characters and boredom
14:21 - living a life of the mind
19:00 - the prep school novel and false starts
22:10 - the sad literary man
23:00 - why are these women w/ these guys?!?!
25:17 - the double in fiction
29:30 - writing humor
33:00 - depressing fiction
36:50 - early reader feedback
40:58 - a successful workshop
43:50 - structuring your life around writing
45:18 - the new writing regime
53:10 - generational fiction
56:10 - what are you reading now
58:30 - the next novel!!!!!!