136: Male Loneliness and Space Mirrors – A Conversation with Josh Weil

In this episode, we speak with author Josh Weil about his daring choice to debut with a triptych of novellas, how crushes have shaped his life’s macro-trajectory, his year in the Soviet Union, and his approach to the structural challenge of writing plot-driven fiction about isolation. Hailed by Colum McCann as one of “the most gifted writers of his generation,” Josh is the author of four books: The New Valley: Novellas (Grove Press, 2009), The Great Glass Sea: A Novel (Grove Press, 2014), The Age of Perpetual Light: Stories (Grove Press, 2017), and What Came West: A Novel(Doubleday2026). His work has attracted literary accolades including the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the California Book Award, the GrubStreet National Book Prize, and the Pushcart Prize. He’s also the recipient of a MacDowell fellowship and two Fulbrights, among other honors. He holds an MFA from Columbia University and has taught there as well as at New York University, Brooklyn College, Sierra Nevada College, the New School, and elsewhere.