237: #Reporting from the Economic Trenches with Lauren Sandler

It’s a new #AmWriting episode!

There’s a style of creative nonfiction in which a gifted writer tells someone else’s story. The story of a house being built, or a life in the wilderness—or, in the case of Lauren Sandler, the story of a young single mother in search of housing during her first year of motherhood. Lauren’s subject—a smart, driven young woman caught up in the system because of her own history, and desperate for not just housing but an education, a career, and love and a life of her choosing—was unlikely to ever find a way to tell her own story without Lauren’s help. 

“She chose me as much as I chose her,” says Lauren. We talk to Lauren about how that relationship was formed and how, although the act of observing something changes it, Lauren tried to let Camilla’s story unfold as though she weren’t there, even while her own daughter was demanding to know why they didn’t just let Camilla sleep on the couch. If you’re interested in long-form journalism, or just in the process of embedding yourself into someone else’s life, you’ll love this episode.

Links from the Pod:

Lauren’s latest book This Is All I Got: A New Mother's Search for Home

Find Lauren on her website: www.laurenosandler.com

#AmReading

Lauren: The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

KJ: The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins

Jess: Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy

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