Martin Cloutier is an adjunct assistant professor at the College of Staten Island where he teaches writing to undergraduates. So, needless to say, we spend some unavoidable time in this episode talking about AI. But first we talk about Martin’s Lambda Literary Award-nominated novel, Waiting for Something Else, which was published by Heliotrope Books in 2025. Taking the description from one reviewer because it’s so pithy and perfect, it’s an “irreverent, unrequited sex comedy.” Martin talks about his bewilderment at the lack of funny literary novels as well as the lack of sex. So those two elements are deliberately at the forefront in this book. We had fun kvetching about the tyranny of likable characters and a general blandness and purity in contemporary fiction. Get ready for some strong opinions, or as we would describe it – hard truths. Zoomers, academics and book publishing professionals, you’ve been warned!
Thank you, once again, to the generous Emily Sohmer Tai and the CUNY Academy for the Humanities & Sciences for this collaboration.
Here are some of the books we mentioned (because they are empirically good):
- Steve Almond, William Stoner and the Battle for the Inner Life
- Jen Beagin, Big Swiss: A Novel
- Erica Jong, Fear of Flying
- Miranda July, All Fours
- Elizabeth McCracken, A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction
- Lorrie Moore, Like Life and Birds of America
- Philip Roth, Sabbath’s Theater
- Richard Russo, Nobody’s Fool
- Julie Schumacher, Dear Committee Members
- John Williams, Stoner
Listen to Episode 123 now! (Apple Podcasts) (Spotify) (JSTOR – includes transcript)
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