Amy Lee Lillard is the author of a new book of short stories, Dig Me Out, from Atelier26 Books. 

Her characters are “witchy, feral, ready to tear free,” Chanelle Benz writes. But where did Amy draw her inspiration? What drew her to the short story format? 

Amy’s fiction and nonfiction has been published in LitHub, Vox, Barrelhouse, Foglifter, Epiphany, Off Assignment, and Autostraddle (among others). She was shortlisted for the 2017 Berlin Writing Prize and named one of Epiphany’s Breakout 8 Writers in 2018. 

By day, Amy works as a copywriter and marketer (and has for over 20 years). Plus, she’s the co-creator and co-host of the funny and feminist podcast, Broads and Books. 

In this call, Amy walked us through her writing journey, from her experiences crafting unpublished novels to heading back to school for an MFA. She talked about the process of finding the right writing format, the right publisher, and how you, too, can make space for a little more fiction in your life.