Literary Hub

Nicolette Polek on How Lying Has Helped Her Be a Better Storyteller

Nicolette Polek is this week’s guest. Her story collection, Imaginary Museums, is out now from Soft Skull Press.

From the episode:

Nicolette Polek: I was bound to be a writer but I thought it was a decision made for me. I had this prophetic sense that I was going to be a writer. … I was always crafting stories because I was a big liar. As a kid, but I’ve grown out of it thankfully or at least awareness of it as an adult. I exaggerated a lot, and that had to do with having a different family than all the other families in my Ohio elementary school and unable to explain it. I defaulted to this bizarre stories. “They’re from the circus, and that’s why they’re different.” Kids could sniff out that stuff. They didn’t like it. It was always a problem that I couldn’t figure out when to cut it out.

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To listen to the rest of the episode, as well as the whole archive of Otherppl with Brad Listi, subscribe and listen on iTunes or wherever else you find your favorite podcasts.

Nicolette Polek is a writer from Cleveland, Ohio. She is a recipient of the 2019 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award.

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