This week’s episode goes behind the prose of Sharisse Tracey, a fellow New School Creative Writing Program alum. Sharisse recorded this show in the middle of one of her best writing weeks ever! If you’re not on the email newsletter - why not? - here’s a reminder of why that week in early October was so amazing. (And I do mean amazing. Listen to the show and you’ll get it.)

In an email, Sharisse wrote:

"Last week was the best week of my writing career. I published four pieces back to back starting with the Salon piece. Over the next three days Yahoo Parenting ran three pieces of mine for their #NoShameParenting series. Then, on Friday while I was happily fooling around on Twitter I see my own words. The New York Times had posted my piece from July, An Adult Stepson Moves Back In. And then I get a mention later that night that The NY Times editor has shared my Ebony.com piece from January, Don't Read The Comments talking about some of the racist comments I read while participating in a Cut.com video talking to kids about sex. So, yeah, last week was bananas!"

I enjoyed talking to Sharisse because her excitement about writing is infectious. I wanted some of her go-get-em pitch-a-palooza attitude to rub off on me.

I wish I’d dug deeper into why she said she loves pitching, but I’m sure she’ll be back on a future episode very soon, so I’ll promise I’ll ask her then.

Once you hear the interview, you’ll be convinced she’ll be back on the BTP faster than you can say accepted.

In this interview, you’ll also hear about:

Why she chose to get an MFA

Six Degrees of Susan Shapiro Strikes Again

How to write a cover letter to an editor

Using emotions to fuel your drafting process

The coolest rejection letter I ever got

-GET THE FULL SHOW PAGE ON BEHIND THE PROSE-